United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has done a phenomenal job running the airline over the past several years, and I have a lot of respect for him. He has improved the passenger experience, the route network has kept growing under his leadership, and United is also making progress when it comes to improved profitability. It really feels like the airline has a strategy that its executing on.
Are they gonna teach flight attendants that the call button isn't there "just for emergencies"? That would make them as superior compared to other US airlines as Emirates is compared to United.
Well, there's plenty of oil being extracted in the USA and many people think authoritarianism there is on the rise, so I suppose that a state-subsidised airline could be a logical next step.
As one prominent communist used to say 'it doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice'.
If any CEO has lost respect in the speed they have for me, Kirby definitely is it. He is a prolific and brilliant CEO, that’s for sure and nobody can take that away from him but the manner he has been handling the public relations side of himself, so awful. You can be a profit minded CEO and still come off as approachable and respected, Jamie Dimon is one. The guy is methodical and is apolitical publicly, even though he is known to be a Democrat privately
moment you get into politics and start speaking outlandish statements and claims that sounds unrealistic (like musk), that is how you alienate people
Well said, Jaime is a class act. No matter the politicians that are popular at the time, he stays level headed and his business is best in class.
Kirby will bend to who ever is in charge of the country. Remember he bragged at the White House about his covid vaccine strategy with Biden and now he will flip flop and suck up to the convicted felon in the White House.
One wonders if the first non-stop service to Slovenia in what, four decades or so, is based in economic reality or if it just happens to be a destination where the First Lady hails from.
Likewise they say that Nuuk is doing well, but have they released actual numbers? Didn't it do a 51% load in 2025?
I suppose United is going to have to try to further appease by changing the color scheme from JFK blue with the continental world globe to the red/dark blue/gold AF1 colors so that it can directly or indirectly imply that United is really just talking about the United States not a United world.
Sigh.
Hey now... Lake Bled is lovely this time of year! Also, I really don't care, do u? Be best!
'Emirates of the US'... So, Kirby wants 2-3-2 outdated business class, lounges stuck in 2010, and a lack of any real competition or worker/consumer protections, all enforced by an oil-backed theocratic monarchy? Yikes. That's a big 'nope for me, dawg.' (And, yet, I can see it happening.)
This guy is a nauseating, MAGA coded symbol of American arrogance, provincialism, is downright obnoxious. At the first sign of an economic downturn (and one is more than likely on the horizon) all this idiotic hubris will subside as the CEOs of the US3 go begging for more bailouts.
Mhm. And when they all do inevitably come for those taxpayer bailouts, please, pretty please, let's include an EU261-equivalent in the US as a stipulation (duty of care, compensation, Rule 240, etc.) If we're going to bail them out anyway, at least get something for us in exchange.
As for Scott, it may be even worse than you suggest. You may have seen that Gary (from VFTW) has a theory that Mr. Kirby is more like Captain Renault in the film Casablanca: "I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy." Scott will appease whoever is in power because he has no real principles. Should we pity him? He is, after all, only "…a poor corrupt official."
United is growing the fastest of any carrier long haul in the United States. They are becoming the defacto flag carrier. They shouldn’t need to purchase another airline to get there. No one has better hubs located to capture premium business traffic than United in the United States. United has hubs in 6 of the top 7 GDP cities in the US (all but Dallas).
SFO & EWR are their key coastal gateways with LAX serving as a strategic hub.
Denver is their mountain west domestic hub and Chicago is their Midwest connector (yes I know it is flawed due to congestion and high airport fees). Houston is the southern hub.
United still has a lot of growth potential at IAD.
Any acquisition will be a complete distraction and should definitely be disallowed by regulators.
"United still has a lot of growth potential at IAD."
They're proving this by aligning themselves with the fat orange Nazi administration in destroying the main terminal at Dulles, and turning it into a gilded shopping mall with a rooftop food court (or something).
Kirby cites Emirates, but he’s just rewarming the “chosen instrument” argument Pan Am used to make. I think his real audience for that sound bite is Trump, for whatever reason.
Without sterile transit, no US airline can ever be the Emirates of the US.
"Kirby is a very bright and deliberate guy..."
Lemmie fix that for you.
Kirby is a very bright and deliberate and megalomaniacal guy with delusions of grandeur..."
Glad to be of service.
A US airline by nature will never be able to contend on the level of a gulf carrier. The customer base is very different. Most people flying on UA (and any other domestic US carrier) are Mr and Mrs Middle Class and maybe a couple of kids going on vacation or maybe to see the grandparents. They aren't going into the premium swanky lounges or sitting in a first class seat. They are back split up between row 29 and 32. Sitting at the gate wondering why their flight hasn't begun to board.
Sure, we in the US could go back to the PanAm Clipper days but you'd a collapse in demand that would bankrupt every airline.
To be sure, gulf carriers carry ordinary middle class people but not at the volume US domestic carriers do.
Oh, George... Kirby isn't dreaming about serving 'Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class' caviar...he's dreaming about having no competitors so he can charge them $1,200 for a middle seat in row 31.
There's no shortage of middle class people from the UK and Northern Europe going into the EK premium lounges for their big annual holiday to Thailand etc or even to visit their kids in Oceania. They're a core part of the EK business model as the wealthy don't tend to have much interest in a 3am connection in the Middle East, though some of them might squeeze in a short stopover for a bit of shopping and time by the pool.
United or any US carrier will never be on the scale of Emirates even if all regulations were to disappear overnight.
Emirates operates in one hub city in a country that is much smaller than the US compared to the US’ multi-hub operations over a greater area.
Not to mention, United is already nearly four times larger than Emirates by fleet size and passenger count. The idea that geography or 'regulation' is what's holding United back from 'market dominance' is a farce.
I would have no problem if United and American merged and Southwest became the primary competition. It would change nothing whatsoever about my travel patterns. UnAmerican to get me where I want to go and Southwest for the occasions when it's more convenient for me to go to Love Field, Hobby, or BWI. Other airlines can cease to exist and I wouldn't even notice.
Hey Scott, if you want to be the Emirates or premium carrier of the US, maybe don’t sub a 737 MAX with recliner seats on an SF-Newark flight. You are flying hub to hub, you should NEVER have a non premium plane on a premium route. Oh, and Tim, if you need records of United flying a non-premium plane and marketing Polaris, take UA 1149 today.
United will never become another Pan Am, the ‘unofficial’ carrier of America, if that is what he wants. Without massive infusions of Asian or Middle Eastern cash it just cannot happen. Qatar owns about 26% of IAG, so he may courting those mega Middle Eastern carriers to buy into something similar for United.
People are not giving credit Kirby deserves.
This isn't the old days where you can trust the antitrust to break apart Standard Oil or AT&T.
This is the crony generation of monopoly.
Meta Microsoft Alphabet Apple Amazon Nvidia Walmart and even Boeing.
Being the new Pan-Am is the way to go at the expense of taxpayers and customers.
Cronies and Nepos, this is the way.
Honestly United is far more like the TK of America than Emirates per its route network being its greatest strength
In my mind the biggest difference between US and other carriers is most have one, maybe two hubs max. So there is already a healthy amount of competition to those hubs from other international carriers. Obviously the national carriers still have hub pricing power but that is no different than diversified hubs in the US
Within the US that wouldn’t be the case at all. US hub airports have way less competition because so many flights are domestic.