United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby took a shot on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in an e-mail to airline employees yesterday. Kirby said, “…the FA quite frankly failed us this weekend,” referring to the FAA’s decision to cancel quite a few flights within the Northeastern United States over the weekend.
Calling out the FAA
Because the weekend, airspace within the Northeast has been chaotic and riddled with delays and cancelations. Yesterday, greater than 8,000 flights were delayed within the US, on top of greater than 2,000 cancelations. Sunday was worse as greater than 11,000 flights were delayed and canceled. United Airlines was significantly affected between yesterday and Sunday, with greater than 40% of its flights suffering delays.
Yesterday, Kirby sent an e-mail to a select group of employees with the topic line . Within the e-mail, he blasted the FAA for its decision to cancel many flights within the Latest York area, specifically at Newark Liberty International Airport. Kirby commended the staff for his or her efforts in keeping things running and told them he was proud.
Historically, the FAA has been capable of manage inclement weather without causing a big impact on operations in Newark. This was not the case over the weekend, because the FAA reduced arrivals by 40% and departures by 75% on Saturday. Bad weather didn’t roll into the realm until Sunday; airline crews and aircraft were displaced by then, and United couldn’t operate effectively. The Chicago-based carrier estimates that over 150,000 customers were impacted.
Within the e-mail, Kirby adds that current FAA leadership is just not accountable for the issues but that it’s a buildup over time. He expressed that although they are usually not accountable, they’re accountable for ‘solving the issue they inherited.’ This week, Kirby expects to fulfill with FAA and Department of Transportation (DOT) officials to debate easy methods to prevent this from happening again and offer help.
Before closing his e-mail, Kirby says,
“While I’m frustrated the FAA is letting us and our customers down, I’m encouraged at every part all of you might be doing to administer the most effective we will. At United, our team will proceed to do great things to maintain customers regardless of what happens outside of our control. We’ll also remain overstaffed and over resourced for so long as it takes to attenuate impact on our people and customers.”
Passenger experience
A fast seek for ‘United Airlines’ on Twitter brings up countless posts from passengers affected by the disruptions. Several complained of rolling delays until flights were ultimately canceled in the course of the night. Others mention the shortage of places to sit down and sleep in terminals.
Several passengers reported extremely long wait times to talk to United customer support over the phone. Last week, United announced that passengers with interrupted travel could rebook directly through the app, nevertheless it appears the brand new feature was not functioning properly over the previous couple of days.
As of 15:30 ET, greater than 5,000 flights have been delayed and canceled within the US today. Only time will tell how long these impacts will proceed.