United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has sent a note to frequent flyers emphasizing the carrier will “learn the right lessons” from a string of recent aircraft maintenance incidents and vowing that a culture of safety is paramount at United Airlines.
United Airlines CEO Kirby: “Safety Is Our Highest Priority”
The letter is going in tranches to United’s MileagePlus members this morning. Here’s the letter in full:
Dear Matthew,
Of all the things that make me proud of our team at United Airlines, I’m most proud of the culture we’ve built around the safety of our employees and our customers.
Safety is our highest priority and is at the center of everything we do.
Unfortunately, in the past few weeks, our airline has experienced a number of incidents that are reminders of the importance of safety. While they are all unrelated, I want you to know that these incidents have our attention and have sharpened our focus.
Our team is reviewing the details of each case to understand what happened and using those insights to inform our safety training and procedures across all employee groups. This is in addition to some changes that were already planned, including an extra day of in-person training for all pilots starting in May and a centralized training curriculum for our new-hire maintenance technicians. We’re also dedicating more resources to supplier network management.
We empower our team to speak up and raise their hand if they see something wrong. You can be confident that every time a United plane pulls away from the gate, everyone on our team is working together to keep you safe on your trip.
In the past few years, we’ve done a lot at United to build a new culture, improve our business and earn your trust. I’m confident that we’ll learn the right lessons from these recent incidents and continue to run an operation that puts safety first and makes our employees and customers proud.
Thank you for flying United, and I hope to see you onboard soon.
Sincerely,
Scott Kirby
CEO
United Airlines
Last week, I called on Kirby to make exactly this sort of statement…and I think it is timely and it appropriate. Others may disagree: I was chatting with another very frequent United flyer this morning and he thought this note brought unnecessary attention to what is in reality a minor issue.
That may well be the case…but the media has piled on United over the last week after a string of incidents (none extraordinary alone, but concerning in the aggregate) and I think Kirby’s style of addressing these issues head-on is strong leadership on display. It’s not like he was responding to baseless innuendo: he is responding to days of news headlines about real incidents that have appeared around the world.
And I have to wonder if softer bookings due to these issues over the last week may have also prompted this letter.
Even with the delivery of so many new aircraft, United does have an older fleet (757, 767, 777, A319, A320) and these older aircraft are more prone to issues, just like anything over time. It’s not for me to say (because I have no idea) if this is a systemic issue in United’s maintenance department or just a string of misfortune, but I will be traveling on United this week and have no qualms (in the least) about doing so.
CONCLUSION
The United CEO has sought to reassure its frequent flyers that United is laser-focused on safety and taking concerns about the recent string of incidents seriously. I found the note well-timed and well-argued. During a period in which every maintenance issue will be magnified, it is appropriate to always be candid about the priority of safety and voice that there is room for improvement.
For avgeeks like us we know that incidents happen and the media hypes it up
But the general public doesn’t know this. It’s important for ceo Scott Kirby to address this and he did so appropriately.
@A220 … The letter is full of jargon and little of substance , likely written by PR Dept .
Why is it difficult to say “PREVENTION of problems is the watchword” ?
Why is it difficult to say : “Double-check everything” ?
Why is it difficult to say : “All work must be tracible to the employee doing the work” ?
Agreed with this email. It’s all about making sure that the customers feel safe and continue to trust in the company despite these recent issues. As @A220HubandSpoke mentions, because airplane accidents happen so rarely that it does become a big event when in reality, travel via air is statistically one of the safest modes of transport.
Easy for him to say. He flies on a private jet, lol.
It’s clear they are seeing some effect of this in bookings. I doubt he ever would have addressed it otherwise in a letter like this.
Personally, I would rather him send a letter stating that they are now going to bring back coursing of meals in Polaris.
Coursing meals is overrated, give me all the food in one big tray so I can go to sleep earlier!
Agree on an east coast to Europe flight. But not on a 9 hour day flight.
This 1K disagrees with your assessment of the same email I got this morning. Kirby’s statement was weak at best. He starts with corporate speak where safety is a priority, but then he makes no real acknowledgement as to what processes that conributed to the recent maintenance lapses. No mention as to what corrections they are immediately making. All he does is say that they are going to do more pilot training. Really, the pilots now have to cover maintenance’s screw-ups? I cancelled my UA flights this week for another carrier that appears to have their maintenance act together.
@DA …+1 .
To those that accuse him of covering for Boeing, I don’t think that an airline which toured Airbus’s factory would make statements just to cover for Boeing
UA doesnt get very basic stuff right. Makes you wonder how do they get the more complicated things possibly right.