As United Airlines prepares to ramp up its growth, CEO Scott Kirby has made a number of leadership changes he hopes will help the airline navigate through the next few years.
2022 Leadership Shakeup At United Airlines
Overall, United did better than its peers in managing the pandemic. It saw the warning signs early, acted swiftly to massively reduce costs, and now emerges strong. Employees are much happier than at American or Delta and United wisely chose not to retire aircraft during the pandemic, which has hurt the growth prospects of those who acted too prematurely in retiring entire aircraft types. Furthermore, United’s operational performance has been stable this summer.
United has laid out an ambitious growth plan, which it hopes to accomplish though 500 new aircraft and a retrofit of the entire narrowbody fleet to include screens behind each seat, larger overhead bins, and other customer-friendly features.
Growth alone is not enough, though. United must improve its operational performance, regardless of its stronger performance relative to peers. Its employees must provide excellent customer service all day, every day. The soft product quality must not be neglected.
To promote these goals, Kirby has announced the following leadership changes:
- Toby Enqvist – Chief Operations Officer
- Jon Roitman is retiring, but will remain on the Board and perform ad hoc assignments
- Linda Jojo – Chief Customer Officer
- Greg Hart – Tech Ops + United Next
- Andrew Nocella – Chief Commercial Officer
- Nocella will retain his CCO title, but take over not just the hard product (seat, IFE, overhead bins) but the soft product (meals, bedding, amenity kits, United Club menus)
- Ankit Gupta – Senior Vice President and Chief Air Operations Officer
- Patrick Quayle – Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances
- Quayle currently manages United’s international route network but will take over the domestic portfolio from Gupta, managing both
- Jason Birnbaum – Chief Information Officer
- Birbnaum takes over for Jojo, the new COO
Of note, Nocella and Quayle now hold immense power in shaping the United experience for customers. Nocella will have direct influence over the totality of the onboard product and airport experience while Quayle, who has shown artful nimbleness in managing United’s international route network, will now be responsible for the entire network.
Kirby posted the letter on LinkedIn. Here it is in full:
Team:
As you know, United managed the pandemic better than our competitors and we all worked together as a team not only in helping our airline survive, but also putting us in a position to thrive on the other side. But now, we are entering a new phase of growth at United – United Next – that requires a new focus on building the infrastructure to support what will be the largest growth by far that any airline has ever attempted in the history of aviation.
Over the last two years, I’m particularly proud of the cultural changes we made to focus on the customer. Yes, I receive and read emails each morning about operational issues. But, even in these challenging times, I also receive daily notes about a smiling flight attendant who helped someone in need, a pilot who left the flight deck to thank customers for flying United, or a gate agent that went above-and-beyond to help a customer in distress.
It’s wonderful to see and we couldn’t have made that cultural pivot without the efforts of our COO, Jon Roitman. He’s a deeply caring ‘people person’ and that applies to both customers and employees.
But as we exit the COVID crisis and move to a new phase of growth with United Next, we need to continue that wonderful customer focus but also build the infrastructure to support our massive growth. And so, we are announcing some important management changes that will strengthen our operation, take our customer focus to new heights, and accelerate our journey towards becoming the biggest and best airline in the history of aviation.
Brett and I have asked Toby Enqvist to take on the role of Chief Operations Officer, reporting to Brett. Most recently, he has led the charge in changing the way people feel about flying United as our Chief Customer Officer. Over the last two decades, he has worked all across our operation in a variety of leadership roles and has earned a reputation as a tireless advocate for our customers. The combination of his world-class talent and commitment to excellence make him exactly the right leader for this job at this critical moment for United – he feels more deeply, genuinely, and passionately for the customer than any airline executive I’ve ever known in my entire career.
I have also asked Linda Jojo to become our new Chief Customer Officer – she will continue reporting to me. In her previous role, Linda built and led the technology team responsible for enabling so many of the customer innovations we have pioneered in the last several years. The enthusiasm she brings to this work makes her a natural for this role. Linda has been with United long enough to know all the challenges and the ins and outs of running our complex operation – but not so long that she can’t look at things, and say, “I think there’s a better way to do this.” To me, that’s an exciting combination of skills and ones that will be critical to build industry-leading tools that make customer travel – and each of your jobs – easier. Linda will retain the technology team and add oversight of our contact centers and our customer solutions and innovation team to her new role.
There are a few additional moves I also wanted to share that are associated with Toby and Linda taking on these new responsibilities:
- I have asked Greg Hart to manage our Tech Ops organization – in addition to his United Next responsibilities – with a focus on improving our maintenance performance. The team will eventually transition to Toby in his new role. Tech Ops is perhaps the most difficult and technical discipline at an airline and Greg has a lot of experience running it and running it well.
- Andrew Nocella is the best Chief Commercial Officer of any airline anywhere in the world. He has literally been designing and thinking about airline route maps since he was 12 years old, but he also is obsessive about the hard product we offer our customers (you can thank him and his team for the great United Next interiors). He continues to be an excellent steward of the overall look and feel of our airline and as a result, I am adding inflight and club menu and product design to his portfolio as we move all the hard and soft product design elements into a single area under Andrew’s leadership.
- Rebuilding our airline in the post-COVID world has highlighted the need for our network and operational leaders to be nimble and completely integrated. So, to support Toby, I’ve asked Ankit Gupta to move into the operation and take on the role of Senior Vice President and Chief Air Operations Officer. He will take oversight of our Flight Ops, Inflight and NOC teams as well as and the responsibility of coordinating with our commercial team to better align our operation with network planning. Ankit has taken on roles of increasing responsibility in his time at United and has handled each transition seamlessly – I look forward to him taking on this next challenge and adding value right away.
- Patrick Quayle, another key leader on our United team, will now serve as Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances, and add oversight of our domestic network to his portfolio. Patrick has elevated our network strategy and I am confident will continue to take our airline to new and unexpected places – literally and figuratively. He will continue to report to Andrew.
- Jason Birnbaum will now become our Chief Information Officer and will continue to report to Linda. Jason has driven a culture of innovation and was instrumental in changing the way technology is deployed across our airline. He will now take on more day-to-day leadership of our digital technology team.
Finally, I want to thank Jon Roitman for his 25 years of service to the airline. He is one of the best and most genuine people leaders I’ve ever known – a character trait that became more important than ever in these challenging times. Our customer-focused pivot is Jon’s legacy and will be with us forever.
Jon has agreed to remain on board as an advisor to Brett and me on a range of issues, including addressing the congestion issues at EWR.
In the past few years, we have built a culture at United based on leadership and doing the right thing – an airline where good leads the way. I am confident that these changes will provide our frontline teams with the support and direction they need to succeed in this unprecedented operational environment and as we execute on our United Next strategy in the months and years ahead.
Best,
Scott
For the avoidance of doubt, Roitman steps down on good terms.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines is sticking with its core leadership team, but shuffling responsibilities as Roitman steps away. Kirby sees the next few months as highly instrumental in pivoting from a restoration of pre-pandemic capacity to a whole new level of growth. The success of that growth will hinge on operational excellent, which Kirby hopes his reconstructed team will be effective in promoting.
image: United Airlines
Very interesting. I am happy to see Patrick Quayle get control of the domestic network, he has crushed the international network so well deserved on getting the whole network.
Hope we actually start to see improvements with the onboard soft product and catering. And hopefully they speed up some other things. Like when is the first narrow body going to get retrofitted with the new interior? And speed up the painting, the EvoBlue was revealed years ago and still isn’t even on half the planes.
the holdup on interior retrofits are caused by a root cause beyond United’s control. According to PaxExAero, the root cause is the chip shortage
So when are they planning on starting them? Is completed by 2025 still the goal?
They start as soon as Panasonic can get their hands on semiconductors
United needs to clean out the “woke” HR Department in Chicago. Get rid of the identity politics it projects on its social media platforms.
Identity politics is not how customers choose an airline.
They want SERVICE, SAFETY, and on time Schedules!
I disagree , it’s the number one reason we choose United!
Agree!!!!!
Everything you’ve said here is correct: I’ve been flying United almost exclusively since the pandemic eased. Haven’t had any delayed flights as yet; no cancellations nor issues with baggage. Every flight I’ve had was just fine. The crews have ranged from competent to excellent. UA gets a lot of criticism, mainly from people who may not have flown them in a few years. But they’re generally quite good. No, you don’t get a particularly wonderful experience but you do get what you need and pay for. My couple of recent flights with AA, DL and even KLM have made UA look like one of the ME3. Honestly.
Do you work for united? Flew on Thursday. Incoming flight delayed, switched airports, that flight delayed, connecting flight delayed and lost luggage despite having 1 hour plus ground time. Oh and the food on board when they even bother to cater it, is gross.
Food is bad, that’s for sure. Thankfully, I’ve escaped most delays and cancellations this year.
You are absolutely correct, I recently went to GRU, the food was horrible, it looks like they did the catering on the wrong plane switching from Delhi to GRU.
Get the premium meals upgraded and it’s a great operation
They just lost a first class fare from me yesterday due to the spartan meals
I think there’s a typo in your comment about Nocella:
“Nocella will retain his COO title,”
That’s CCO, isn’t it?
Correct.
UA loses a lot of my business because of no imbedded IFE. Just the way it is. They refit those planes (and DL keeps posting delays on my flights) and this UAMM is back.
Who is the executive responsible for Mileage Plus?
Luc Bondor technically has the title, but really the customer and commercial teams.
Correct, it’s Luc.
Nothing negative here AFAIC. It would be great if Kirby was Defenestrated but that seems unlikely. UA seems to be doing better than AA and DL and MP is still superior.
I had to look up “Defenestrated”. Very cool word!
I am curious. On what do you base the statement that United employees are happier than those at American and Delta? I am sure the 5500 FAs who were sold out by their union and furloughed from UA would disagree. In comparison, Delta furloughed NO ONE…a fact that has made the Delta family proud and unified.
Delta laid off employees (not FAs) before payroll protection took effect.
I will not defend UA closing FRA and NRT based.
Not true……….. Delta laid off no one. Delta offered leaves to all of their employees and enough leaves were taken by the employees that Delta was able to lay off no one and allow employees to come back to work after their leaves. There is a difference between lay off and leaves. Everyone who took a leave had a choice to leave or stay and to come back to work or not.
I flew United recently domestically and it was flawless.
It’s encouraging to hear a CEO using language that values “people persons,” being “customer centered,” and positive customer experiences, especially in an internal document. But it’s important to remember that even when a company uses terms like that (and believes in them) it still must be profit-motivated; and that affects everything from the price we pay, the quality of the product, the attitude and training of staff, and the likelihood of staff layoffs and facility closures.
I purchased three first class nonstop tickets from Denver to Maui for September 30. I was the first one to book on that United flight. We have been bumped off that flight and given connecting flights through San Francisco. The original flight is still going. I have gotten no response from Customer Service. Not impressed. In fact very disappointed!
Sources told me Kirby has been threatening for the past few month a reorg and leadership change if the operation did not improve and get its act together. It has finally become a reality what he said and there is now a major reorg coming at United. This is just the start.
“employees are much happier than at American or Delta”. As an employed big 3 carrier asssociate, I don’t see or hear this from my friends at United. In fact the opposite is true. I don’t find anyone happy with their respective employers these days. In the industry.
Surprised no mention of them starting SFO to New Zealand service. Or did I miss it?
It’s in the queue. I have a press release about it somewhere.
Disagree with UA employees being happier than AA or DL. That is just the Kirby narrative, but just saying something over and over doesn’t make it so.
https://twitter.com/xjonnyc/status/1548110337580228615?s=21&t=XrlBwEgxLNfC_IsSZ1ZvMA
https://unitedafa.org/news/2022/7/15/managements-reaction-to-our-solidarity
Are you a United FA? I fly UA quite often and have been pleased overall with the service this year. It has been excellent. A high point, considering the food is so bad.
I don’t know about the OP, but I’m a United FA and I’m quite pleased. We have the most international flying of any US airline, and I love my job and am happy to work for United. I certainly wouldn’t want to work for American.
I recently flew first class from Newark to Las Vegas. My return flight was changed to a one stop in Denver which left me 15 minutes to make a connecting flight No way that was going to happen. Outbound flight was delayed twice and the return flight twice. Food in first class was worse than hospital food. Flight attendants were very friendly and professional. That was the best part of the entire experience. Get real and get some good food. My choices were plant based meatballs or spicy chicken. Both looked gross.
I agree. We are not happy. They are out of touch with front line employees.
Nocella has his work cut out for him. The hard product has improved, as has reliability (which used to be poor – evidence things can change). But the soft product is awful, and I’ve booked 4 RT international business class trips for 2022 on other airlines because of it.
At this point, I’ll believe the soft product will improve when I see it. It can be done – BA is proof of that. If it were me, the first thing I would do is get a new caterer, like BA did.
It’s not the catering company’s fault and changing that won’t fix anything by itself. The menu design and budget are set by UA. The only reason to change the catering company is to deflect blame from airline management.
In theory. Not sure there is evidence Gate or Sky Chefs is up to the task.
To compare Yourself better than the bottom still leaves You in the bottom. Kirby’s stance on not giving it’s employee’s the option of time off until the pandemic ends was highly irresponsible and shows His egotism they if You disagree You get fired. I know because I was one of the one’s that disagreed and got fired. You may say I am a disgruntled employee but telling Your employees ” it’s my way or the highway” shows His inability to be a good or great Leader. If United wants to be the best it is time to change things, people, at the top. Beginning with Mr. Kirby. I have to admit He, Kirby, has done some good things,but when You don’t have compassion for the people that work for You it shows You really don’t care about anyone but Yourself. Yes sometimes change is good and the time to change captains is NOW so that United CAN become what all it’s employee’s want and strive to be, THE BEST!
Kirby is doing a great job
“we are entering a new phase of growth at United – United Next – that requires a new focus on building the infrastructure to support what will be the largest growth by far that any airline has ever attempted in the history of aviation.”
I love United and what Kirby is doing, but does this statement hold up to scrutiny? Vs. Emirates? That airline has to hold the record for the overall fastest ASM growth in history. Vs. Qatar or Turkish? Or some of the Chinese airlines in the last decade or two?
I recently flew a mixed cabin flight with first class and premium plus seats. When we departed US, our checked in baggage allowance were 2 bags each up to 70 lbs each baggage. My itinerary stated that our round trip baggage allowance are 2 checked in up to 70 lbs per passenger. On our way back to US, our baggage allowance was reduced to 50 lbs each baggage. We purchased a lot of merchandise expecting the 70 lbs allowance. Good thing I checked prior to our return flight. Otherwise, we would have paid an extra fee of $200 each baggage in excess of 50 lbs. We ended up getting rid of a lot of the merchandise that we purchased. That was a huge waste of money for us. There was no notice about the baggage allowance change and the ticketing staff could not explain to me about the change. I printed my original itinerary that showed our baggage allowance as 70 lbs each. But I was not accomodated the original allowance. Also, the food in first class seat was so-so. There were no menu or multiple selections. A couple of times, the flight ran out of one option so I was stuck (2x leaving US and returning) with the other option of the same food that I did not like. I chose United over the other airlines because of the baggage allowance and food only to be disappointed.
How much did they want to charge you for the excess weight?
I have used United for all of my flying. Mark
I looked at using some of my United FF miles. Boston to Florida…NO FLIGHT availability in any class thru September, as of last week. Nice miles to have if you can use them..
EWR is the prime example of united and the newark board of directors, ATC upper management, giving no Fs about customer service, or on time departures.
Promises, promises. We’ve seen all of this numerous times before. UAL mgt pumps itself up with “Customer Care”-based grandiose plans until the first financial headwinds hit and suddenly fares sky-rocket, frequent flyer benefits vanish, service on flights, at airports, and in the rest of the Company falls back to the usual mess. We’ll see what happens after the Summer “I gotta go somewhere” Season ends and the economic recession, spurred by high interest rates and unabated Corporate-based inflation really sets in. One sure thing, after that glowing, cloying introduction to Kirby’s letter, we know Matthew will have UAL’s TOP Frequent Flyer status for life!
Andrew Nocella – Chief Commercial Officer
Nocella will retain his CCO title, but take over not just the hard product (seat, IFE, overhead bins) but the soft product (meals, bedding, amenity kits, United Club menus)
Ankit Gupta – Senior Vice President and Chief Air Operations Officer
Patrick Quayle – Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances
Quayle currently manages United’s international route network but will take over the domestic portfolio from Gupta, managing both
Jason Birnbaum – Chief Information Officer
Birbnaum takes over for Jojo, the new COO
Of note, Nocella and Quayle now hold immense power in shaping the United experience for customers. Nocella will have direct influence over the totality of the onboard product and airport experience while Quayle, who has shown artful nimbleness in managing United’s international route network, will now be responsible for the entire network.
Kirby posted the letter on LinkedIn. Here it is in full:
Team:
Brett and I have asked Toby Enqvist to take on the role of Chief Operations Officer, reporting to Brett. Most recently, he has led the charge in changing the way people feel about flying United as our Chief Customer Officer. Over the last two decades, he has worked all across our operation in a variety of leadership roles and has earned a reputation as a tireless advocate for our customers. The combination of his world-class talent and commitment to excellence make him exactly the right leader for this job at this critical moment for United – he feels more deeply, genuinely, and passionately for the customer than any airline executive I’ve ever known in my entire career.
I have also asked Linda Jojo to become our new Chief Customer Officer – she will continue reporting to me. In her previous role, Linda built and led the technology team responsible for enabling so many of the customer innovations we have pioneered in the last several years. The enthusiasm she brings to this work makes her a natural for this role. Linda has been with United long enough to know all the challenges and the ins and outs of running our complex operation – but not so long that she can’t look at things, and say, “I think there’s a better way to do this.” To me, that’s an exciting combination of skills and ones that will be critical to build industry-leading tools that make customer travel – and each of your jobs – easier. Linda will retain the technology team and add oversight of our contact centers and our customer solutions and innovation team to her new role.
There are a few additional moves I also wanted to share that are associated with Toby and Linda taking on these new responsibilities:
I have asked Greg Hart to manage our Tech Ops organization – in addition to his United Next responsibilities – with a focus on improving our maintenance performance. The team will eventually transition to Toby in his new role. Tech Ops is perhaps the most difficult and technical discipline at an airline and Greg has a lot of experience running it and running it well.
Andrew Nocella is the best Chief Commercial Officer of any airline anywhere in the world. He has literally been designing and thinking about airline route maps since he was 12 years old, but he also is obsessive about the hard product we offer our customers (you can thank him and his team for the great United Next interiors). He continues to be an excellent steward of the overall look and feel of our airline and as a result, I am adding inflight and club menu and product design to his portfolio as we move all the hard and soft product design elements into a single area under Andrew’s leadership.
Rebuilding our airline in the post-COVID world has highlighted the need for our network and operational leaders to be nimble and completely integrated. So, to support Toby, I’ve asked Ankit Gupta to move into the operation and take on the role of Senior Vice President and Chief Air Operations Officer. He will take oversight of our Flight Ops, Inflight and NOC teams as well as and the responsibility of coordinating with our commercial team to better align our operation with network planning. Ankit has taken on roles of increasing responsibility in his time at United and has handled each transition seamlessly – I look forward to him taking on this next challenge and adding value right away.
Patrick Quayle, another key leader on our United team, will now serve as Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances, and add oversight of our domestic network to his portfolio. Patrick has elevated our network strategy and I am confident will continue to take our airline to new and unexpected places – literally and figuratively. He will continue to report to Andrew.
Jason Birnbaum will now become our Chief Information Officer and will continue to report to Linda. Jason has driven a culture of innovation and was instrumental in changing the way technology is deployed across our airline. He will now take on more day-to-day leadership of our digital technology team.
Finally, I want to thank Jon Roitman for his 25 years of service to the airline. He is one of the best and most genuine people leaders I’ve ever known – a character trait that became more important than ever in these challenging times. Our customer-focused pivot is Jon’s legacy and will be with us forever.
Jon has agreed to remain on board as an advisor to Brett and me on a range of issues, including addressing the congest
United Airlines has been my airline of preference for over thirty years.