United CEO should quit over video, experts say
The chief executive of United Airlines should be fired or resign if the company expects to recover any time soon from two massive public relations disasters in two weeks, marketing experts say.
Shares in United Airlines’ parent company fell as much as four per cent on Tuesday after a disturbing video surfaced of a security officer dragging a man out of his seat, bloodying his face, to make way for United employees on an overbooked flight at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Horrified passengers can be seen in the background recording the incident on their phones.
A letter to United’s employees from CEO Oscar Munoz was later leaked to media. The passenger — a doctor who had said he needed to stay on the flight to make his shift at a hospital — was one of four randomly selected to be escorted off the flight after no passengers volunteered to give up their seats. In the letter, which voiced support for his employees, Munoz said he became “disruptive and belligerent” and refused to leave when staff asked him.
“They say brand is culture and culture is brand, and what is happening at United is a very serious cultural problem,” said Andris Pone, president of the Toronto-based marketing firm Coin Branding. “This is brand rot starting at the top. You could crash an airplane with a drunk pilot and not get this much negative press, and it is totally well deserved.”
Munoz’s statement to the media on Monday was an apology that took no responsibility for the incident: a classic nonapology.
“I apologize for having to reaccommodate these customers,” Munoz said.
In the case of the bloodied passenger, the airport security officer has been placed on leave pending a review by Chicago’s Department of Aviation, but United will bear the brunt of his rough behaviour because the company supported the passenger’s removal in the first place.