United points to changes made since ugly incident
United Airline’s image took a beating in April because of an ugly incident caught on video involving a passenger who was dragged from his seat.
Since an initial defensive response, the carrier has been working overtime to rebound from the scandal.
The Chicago-based carrier this week reported that the number of passengers involuntarily denied seats has fallen sharply following the fracas involving Dr. David Dao, who was yanked from his seat by airport police and dragged down the aisle of the plane preparing to head from Chicago to Lexington, Ky.
United said 260 travelers were involuntarily denied seats in May and June, down 85% from 1,700 in the same two months in 2016.
Chief Executive Oscar Munoz said the airline has adopted most of the 10 changes it promised in response to the Dao incident.
The promised changes include increasing the incentive payment offered passenger to voluntarily give up a seat on an overbooked flight to $10,000 and assembling a team to find creative ways to get travelers to their destinations when flights are overbooked.
The airline also cut back on the paperwork required to reimburse passengers for lost luggage.
“These changes amount to a lot more than just a policy shift,” Munoz told analysts. “Clearly it’s more of a ... paradigm shift [for] our culture and mind-set of our employees and our management.”
The company’s finances haven’t suffered from the public relations nightmare caused by the Dao incident. United this week reported a profit of $818 million for the three-month period that ended in June, up 39% from the same period last year.
In a previous report, United said it served 71.3 million passengers in the first six months of the year, a 4.2% increase from the same period in 2016.
Free Wi-Fi at LAX has gotten faster
If you have been stuck waiting for a f light at Los Angeles International Airport lately, you may have noticed that the speed of the free WiFi in the facility has improved in the last year.
Still, LAX’s free Wi-Fi speed ranks 11th among North America’s busiest airports, Seattle technology company Ookla has found.
LAX now has average download speeds of 18 megabits per second, a 60% improvement compared with the 11 Mbps speeds recorded between October and December of last year, according to Ookla.
“We’re proud that our work to improve speed and reliability has been noticed, and we are committed to continuing to work to make our guest experience — including our Wi-Fi service — first class,” said Trevor Daley, deputy director for external affairs at Los Angeles World Airports.
The fastest airport Wi-Fi speeds in North America were recorded at Denver International Airport (78 Mbps), Vancouver International Airport (55 Mbps), Philadelphia International Airport (48 Mbps) and San Francisco International Airport (45 Mbps), Ookla said.
LAX’s improvement is the result of the airport’s WiFi provider, Boingo Wireless, adding more access points throughout the terminals to increase connection speed.
“This has resulted in a better experience for the connected traveler at LAX,” said David Hagan, Boingo Wireless’ chief executive.
LAX’s Wi-Fi is free for increments of 45 minutes and costs $7.95 for faster speeds in increments of 24 hours.
Qatar Airways CEO issues an apology
The chief executive of Qatar Airways has never minced words when talking about his U.S.-based rivals.
But Akbar Al Baker admits that he went too far this month when he compared the crews on his airline with those of U.S. carriers.
“By the way, the average age of my cabin crew is only 26 years,” he said in Dublin during a celebration of the launch of a new international route. “So there is no need for you to travel on these crap American carriers .... You know you’re always being served by grandmothers on American carriers.”
The comment sparked outrage by labor unions representing U.S.-based pilot and flight attendants.
Al Baker issued an apology through his airline’s U.S.based public relations firm last week, saying: “I should like to apologize unreservedly to those offended by my recent remarks which compared Qatar Airways cabin crew with cabin crew on U.S. carriers.”
Al Baker’s comments only intensified a longstanding feud between U.S.based carriers and Persian Gulf-based carriers Qatar, Etihad and Emirates airlines. Delta, United and American airlines complain that the Middle Eastern carriers are subsidized by their oil-rich governments and therefore have an unfair advantage when competing for routes to the U.S.
The Middle Eastern carriers reject the accusations.
Despite the apology, Sara Nelson, international president of the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA released a statement, saying: “Your offensive comments and the subsidies your airline receives perhaps indicate a belief that you can operate outside of rules and norms.”