The CEO of United Airlines says no one will be fired over the dragging of a man off a plane – including himself.
The CEO, Oscar Munoz, said on Tuesday that he took full responsibility “for making this right” and promised more details later this month after United finishes a review of its policies on overbooked flights.
Company executives said it was too soon to know if the incident was hurting ticket sales.
United has been pummeled on social media – #BoycottUnited – and late-night television. Through Tuesday, its shares have fallen 4.4% since the incident, wiping out nearly $1bn in market value, although some other airline stocks also declined in the same period.
On a conference call to discuss first-quarter results, Munoz started by apologizing again for the 9 April scene aboard a United Express plane, flight 3411, at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. David Dao, a 69-year-old Kentucky physician, was bloodied and dragged off the plane by Chicago airport officers who had been summoned by United employees when Dao wouldn’t give up his seat. The three officers have all been suspended.
Munoz and other executives vowed to treat customers with dignity and said that what happened to Dao will never happen again.
Munoz’s early statements on the incident were widely criticized. He initially supported employees and blamed Dao, calling him “disruptive and belligerent”. On Tuesday, he was asked if the company ever considered firing anyone, including management.
“I’m sure there was lots of conjecture about me personally,” Munoz said. He noted that the board of United Continental Holdings has supported him.
“It was a system failure across various areas,” Munoz continued. “There was never a consideration for firing an employee.”
Dao’s lawyers have taken steps that foreshadow a lawsuit against the airline and the city of Chicago, which operates O’Hare.
United announced two rules changes last week, including saying that it would no longer call police to remove passengers from overbooked planes. It is not clear whether United oversold flight 3411, but the flight became overbooked when four Republic Airline employees showed up after passengers had boarded and demanded seats so they could commute to their next assignment.
Some politicians and consumer advocates have called for a ban on overselling flights. Munoz declined to address that or other possible changes until the airline finishes a review by 30 April.
Even in normal times, airlines closely – even daily – scrutinize numbers such as advance sales and occupancy levels on planes. Yet United officials said they couldn’t measure whether the dragging has affected their business.
“It’s really too early for us to tell anything about bookings and in particular last week because it was the week before Easter, that’s normally a very low booking period,” said the president of United, Scott Kirby. He said that United’s forecast for the April-through-June quarter has not changed.
Limited competition at many major airports could blunt any nascent boycott of United.
Munoz said he has received “a lot of support” from United’s high-end customers, although “obviously a lot of people have ideas and thoughts about how we can make things better”.
