Sting of social media forces United’s hand
CEO apologizes, promises review; company’s stock price takes a dive
After two days of conflicting explanations, falling stock prices and worldwide outrage, United Airlines entered full mea culpa mode Tuesday, with its chief executive apologizing for the “horrific event” in which a passenger was dragged from a plane screaming after refusing a last-minute request to give up his seat to make room for a crew member.
“It is never too late to do the right thing,” United CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement. “I have committed to our customers and our employees that we are going to fix what’s broken so this never happens again.”
Munoz ordered a review of the airline’s policies on giving seats to employees and overbooking and promised a report by April 30.
“I continue to be disturbed by what happened,” Munoz said. “I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way.”
Munoz’s statement was the culmination of two days of attempts by the airline to contain what exploded
“I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way. I want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it right.” — Oscar Munoz, United CEO
into a public-relations crisis. Since videos of the incident first surfaced Sunday on Twitter, the airline’s stock price has plummeted and there have been worldwide calls to boycott the carrier.
Reputation is key in managing fallout from events like this. “We now live in this era of instant videos taken on cellphones and what you saw with the United incident was a snippet of what was certainly a long incident, but a snippet that was clearly the worst part of it,” said David Satterfield, executive vice president and co-founder of G.F.BUNTING+CO, a San Francisco-based firm which works closely with CEOs, boards of directors, startups and others on media relations and reputation management.
“There are a couple of issues United needs to deal with right now: One is overbooking, because it’s a common practice among airlines and they need to talk about their procedures and whether, in this case, they followed those procedures and if they followed them wisely. Transparency is also huge in this case: United needs to tell the world ‘Here’s what we do’ and whether they followed their own guidelines. And they need to do it quickly, because the only thing the world is seeing right now is this guy being dragged forcibly off of an airplane. And if you avoid or evade the truth, the truth will come back to bite you,” Satterfield explained.
At least one person — a security officer caught on video as he and others removed the man from the flight — has been placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is under review.
Man still hospitalized
Meanwhile, attorneys for the passenger, David Dao, said Tuesday that he remains hospitalized in Chicago, undergoing treatment for his injuries.
“The family of Dr. Dao wants the world to know that they are very appreciative of the outpouring of prayers, concern and support they have received,” Chicago attorney Stephen Golan said in a statement.
Golan and Chicago aviation attorney Thomas Demetrio are representing the family. The attorneys said the family is focused on Dao’s treatment and recovery and would not be making any further statements.
While there have been several high-profile incidents involving in-flight disputes recently, this one resonated with travelers increasingly frustrated with the flying experience.
Despite reports that say more flights are on time and that airlines are losing fewer bags, the incident fueled the perception that flying has become a nightmare and that air travel has become something travelers endure rather than enjoy.
“The seats are getting smaller, what used to come standard with a ticket — that’s all being segmented now,” said Michelle Brignone, a legal analyst with FlyersRights.org, a nonprofit passenger advocacy group. “Personal space is shrinking at a time when Americans are getting bigger.”
And airline mergers mean that consumers have fewer choices when it comes to flying.
“In a market economy, you’re supposed to be able to vote with your wallet. But because three or four airlines control most of the seats, you can’t,” Brignone said.
United’s PR missteps also fueled the perception that airlines simply don’t care about their passengers, experts said.
“I think this is one of the most shocking missteps I’ve ever seen,” said George Hobica, president of airfarewatchdog.com. “I usually give the airlines a lot of leeway. It’s not an easy business, but this was just stupid.”
For Ghary Gappelberg, a physician in Massachusetts, Sunday’s incident brought back memories of the time United kicked his fiancee off a plane so a pilot could take her seat.
With Gappelberg’s 11year-old son in tow, the couple boarded at San Francisco International Airport in 2012 — transferring planes on their way to a vacation they’d been planning for months.
The couple resisted for over an hour, Gappelberg said, until security finally arrived and “threatened to arrest her” — at which point his fiancee relented and left the plane, catching up with her family the next day.
While Munoz has promised an investigation into Sunday’s incident, others have called for government action.
Sens. John Thune, RS.D., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., have sent letters to Munoz, as well as Chicago Department of Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans, about the incident.
Call for hearings
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D, has requested hearings on the matter, and Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., said United Airlines and the Chicago Department of Aviation should be “ashamed and embarrassed.”
The incident also has made headlines in China, where tens of millions of people have read or shared reports that the passenger claimed he was targeted because he was Chinese. By late afternoon on Tuesday, the topic had attracted 160 million readers on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, and 97,000 comments. Petitions to boycott United Airlines were also going viral on WeChat, a popular messaging service.
On Tuesday, United spokesman Charles Hobart sought to clarify earlier reports saying that the flight was not overbooked but that the airline made the decision late into the boarding process that it needed four seats to accommodate crew members from Republic Airlines. Such an instance is rare, he added.
Times are good for airlines. Profits are up, complaints are down and record numbers of people are flying, according to federal data. The Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported last month that 929 million people flew in 2016, an increase of 3.5 percent over the previous recordsetting year, 2015.
BTS statistics also show that the United States’ largest airlines — including United — have improved on several measures of quality. In 2016, the number of passengers bumped from their flights hit its lowest annual rate since 1995. According to BTS, the bumping rate was 0.62 per 10,000 passengers.