United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has nothing but praise for US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, singling him out twice during a Face The Nation interview.
United Airlines CEO Has More Kind Words For Transportation Secretary Duffy
Kirby appeared on Face The Nation on Sunday to address safety fears stemming from the congestion, delays, and brief system outages in and around Newark Liberty International Airport. His thesis was clear: safety is never compromised; there is not only broad, but unanimous agreement that safety comes first and that a laser-focus on safety is the reason for the delays and congestion, because no corners are cut and no chances are taken.
The conversation pivoted to upgrading the nation’s aging Air Traffic Control (ATC) system and Kirby was asked why this time would be different. After all, the nation has been talking about the “urgent need” to upgrade the ATC system for three decades. Kirby argued this would be different because money would be allocated up-front and because Duffy was in charge:
In the past, it’s always been a year at a time. And when you do things a year at a time, especially in government, like, it just stops and starts and stops and starts. You can’t do these big projects – like, no company would try to do big projects a year at a time. So, this time, they’re going to ask for all the money up front, which lets you plan the entire project and get the entire project done.
And the second thing is people. You know, we have a secretary who’s action-oriented, who’s committed to getting this done, and an FAA administrator that hopefully will get approved soon.
Kirby was then asked about DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) and how money could realistically be allocated to air traffic control upgrades when DOGE was trying to cut Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration funding. Once again, he praised Duffy, calling him a gold star:
I think Secretary Duffy probably is the – the leading, gold star for how to manage through the DOGE process, which is, they put – they called it caution tape, around all the safety, controller, all the critical functions.
And he praised DOGE:
And – and DOGE went and looked. And – and I think they took 400 – about 400 jobs out of over 100,000 jobs, back-office kinds of jobs. I think they’ve done a very effective job of protecting that core safety, operational workforce.
You can watch the full interview here:
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen repeated instances of Kirby courting the Trump administration with positive words and praise.
While the word “slot control” was not uttered during the 19-minute interview, Kirby’s goal is clear: if United has to downsize at Newark, it does not want anyone else adding flights. Both behind-the-scenes and overtly, United is pushing Duffy to reintroduce slot controls in Newark (restoring its status as a Level 3 Airport) in a bid it says is necessary to reduce delays and cancellations.
CONCLUSION
Kirby again labored to praise the Trump administration, singling out Duffy as someone who is uniquely well-qualified to finally fix the ATC system.
My sense is these words of praise are part of a continued effort to court the Trump administration to agree to restore slot controls (and maybe even allow a much closer partnership with JetBlue).
image: Face The Nation screengrab (fair use)
@ Matthew — This guy is pretty sickening. He learned it from his mentor, Doug Parker.
In his defense, he has about 3 more DUI’s to go before he hits Parker status!S
the sucking up is so obvious that even a 3rd grader can see it. Going from repeatedly saying that the FAA made a mistake in removing slot controls at EWR to now sucking up to the guy that will oversee the slash and burn of EWR flight schedules is a bit more turnaround than most people can accept.
UA doesn’t want the level of cuts the FAA is proposing for EWR. Period. – but Port Authority and DOT data shows that UA is operating about the same size operation at EWR in terms of number of flights as CO did 15 years ago when UA took it over. At the same time, DOT data shows that EWR lags LGA and JFK in on-time just as it did then.
The FAA seems determined to finally address the fact that CO/UA have overscheduled EWR and still do. and they aren’t adding slot controls that lock in UA’s dominance at UA’s current size at EWR.
I don’t think there is any doubt that anyone will be allowed to backfill what UA has to cut; the FAA is going to push for cuts from all airlines – they will just be proportional to the size of each airline. No airline in decades has operated more than 5% of EWR flights besides CO and UA. It will be up to UA to cut the majority of flights in order to make EWR a competitively on-time operation.
It’s the NE so no one expects ATL levels of on-time operations but EWR cannot continue to be the ugliest duckling in a group of NE hubs.
UA has to figure out how it is going to jettison scores of flights/day at EWR and still be competitive in the NYC market.
@ Tim — For once, we agree.
Gene,
it is incredibly hard to understand how someone can ascend to the CEO position of a corporation as large as United and not have people around him that can honestly tell him that his in-your-face strategies of trashing competitors and his own regulator will backfire.
Peter,
I am sure DL is quite anxious to see what happens at these sequestered meetings on Wednesday.
They may be grinning ear to ear but they could also have their jaws on the floor that their most direct competitor is run by someone that has absolutely no filters.
We could well be watching the most consequential strategic blunder in the US airline industry this decade if the FAA comes down hard on EWR capacity which could wipe billions of revenue off of UA’s books.
This isn’t a locker room or Kirby holding court over a bunch of guys in the back of the bar. Real money and real lives are at stake.
While it is never ideal to take pleasure in someone else’s misfortune, the folks at Delta must be grinning ear to ear. And the idea that a partnership with B6 will somehow convince NYC execs to fly with UA is laughable. I think the first airport people in NYC try to avoid is EWR – even with the new terminal A (which really isn’t all that great and has a terrible connection to a terrible Airtrain). The new LGA is, however, great (despite our genius politicians killing the plan to connect it to rail) but United does not have much of a presence there. And if I was to go anywhere at JFK, B6’s T5 is certainly not where I would choose to go – it’s kind of gross. I realize that all of this may change with the full opening of T6, but that at best is 3 years away (and if it is all actually completed by 2028, I’ll be shocked). Just gives Delta more opportunity to solidify its NYC position. It also gives AA a real opportunity right now to capture high value flyers – but they are going to have to do more than stop collecting headphones an hour before take off.
This guys a bigger cuck than “Points Mommy’s” husband when offered a free vacation to “review”. And just as scared as she claimed to be on a beach with Trump supporters.
But he’s doing what’s best for his shareholders, which is all you can ask from a CEO. Time will tell if it pays off, but it’s better than being antagonistic toward the administration.
Kirby grovelling before Duffy like a lickspittle toady.
The suckholing is enough to induce vomiting. Have some dignity, man!
My take on this is suck up, and groveling, as is now expected of all who deal with our emperor without clothing’s lack of ability “government. “
Funding a new air traffic system with DOGE in house is not compatible. They are in our agency. It is literally Elon with the chainsaw and a bulldozer. They have something to offer, but they are just looking for headlines, numbers, and skins to hang on their wall. They know nothing about the mission and how it operates. They’re not interested in finding out either, so sensible cuts can be made, in a sensible way. The same story is coming from other agencies too. These guys are far from what they are being portrayed as. This is from someone who voted for Trump if you’re wondering. But I didn’t vote for this!
Duffy has a a big enough job. He shouldn’t have to fight DOGE to get it done. I wish him well.
This just came out. I am no fan of the Post, but this is dead on. We’re living the same thing. Now image trying to modernize the air traffic system with this crap going on.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/05/11/trump-government-operations-halt-funding-cuts/
Integrity is in short supply with this guy
More brown nosing sycophantic nonsense. He’s so full of it it’s coming out from both ends.