Yahoo – AFP,
Nova SAFO, With Luc Olinga in New York and Roland Jackson in London, April 11,
2017
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| Oscar Munoz, President and CEO of United Airlines says the company will conduct a "thorough review" of its procedures, including "how we handle oversold situations" and how the airline partners with airport authorities and law enforcement (AFP Photo/SAUL LOEB) |
Chicago
(AFP) - The chief executive of embattled United Airlines unequivocally
apologized Tuesday for an incident in which a passenger was dragged off a
plane, and promised a thorough review of the airline's practices.
The apology
came after a torrent of criticism of the carrier's action on a flight Sunday
and its initial explanation of it. In images now seen around the world, a
passenger was forcefully removed and bloodied in the process -- the entire
event captured on video by passengers and posted on social media.
The
69-year-old passenger had refused to be "bumped" off the overbooked
flight -- an airline practice that has come under increased scrutiny since the
incident.
"I
continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologize
to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard," CEO
Oscar Munoz said.
"I
want you to know that we take full responsibility and we will work to make it
right."
The
comments were in stark contrast to the company's initial response, in which it
seemed to at least partially blame the passenger, inflaming worldwide outrage.
US media
published an email Munoz sent earlier to employees, in which he said the
passenger "defied" authorities and "compounded" the
incident.
"Our
employees followed established procedures for dealing with situations like
this," the CEO wrote.
'No
compassion or concern'
Andy
Holdsworth, a crisis management specialist at the British PR firm Bell
Pottinger, said United's initial response focused on the wrong thing.
"Whilst
the passenger's behavior was not good, United have shown no compassion or
concern for the man," he said.
Munoz said
Tuesday that the company will conduct a "thorough review" of its
procedures, including "how we handle oversold situations" and how the
airline partners with airport authorities and law enforcement.
He promised
to release the results of the review by April 30.
But the
public relations damage was done, with calls for boycotts, the US Department of
Transportation promising a review of the airline's actions, and even the White
House weighing in.
"Clearly,
when you watch the video, it is troubling to see how that was handled,"
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said.
The furor
battered United's stock Tuesday, sending it down 2.9 percent in afternoon
trading and closing down 1.1 percent.
It was the
second time in about two weeks the airline found itself in the middle of a
firestorm.
In late
March, two teenage girls were prevented from boarding a flight in Denver
because they wore leggings. The airline defended its action at the time by
saying the girls were flying on passes that required them to abide by a dress
code in return for free or discounted travel.
"They
will need to be careful that these small incidents all start to add up and only
remind us of the last incident as well as the current one," Holdsworth
said.
'You
don't really have any rights'
The
passenger on the overbooked Sunday flight from Chicago to Louisville, Kentucky
was one of four involuntarily bumped off in order to make room for United crew
that needed to be repositioned.
The
incident shined a new light on the practice of overbooking and bumping
passengers off flights, which airlines increasingly rely upon to avoid losing
money on empty seats when some passengers do not show up for scheduled flights.
If they
were to stop overbooking, "the only way of trying to compensate for that
over the long term would be to raise fares on everyone else," said
industry analyst Robert Mann.
Instead,
airlines sell more tickets than there are seats on a plane, and are generally
able to properly forecast demand to avoid major disruptions in getting
passengers to their destinations, Mann said.
But,
sometimes, they miscalculate and there are more passengers than a flight can
handle.
In those
instances, airlines offer travel vouchers and cash compensation to entice
passengers to voluntarily give up their seats for later flights.
When
enticing does not work, airlines have wide latitude under the law.
"If
you're still in the terminal waiting to board, you can be told you can't board,
even if you have a reservation," Mann said.
"And
once you're on board, you are subject to being deplaned based on the order of
the crew. So you don't really have any rights."
Last year,
434,000 passengers volunteered to be bumped off flights, while another 40,000
were bumped involuntarily and compensated.
Image takes a beating: Protesters rally against United Airlines’ forcible removal of a passenger from a plane at O'Hare Airport in Chicago pic.twitter.com/PZ2mLnHf8z— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 12, 2017
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