For a while the big airline news this past month centered on the April 5 storms that caused about 4,000 flight cancelations for Delta Air Lines at its Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport hub and elsewhere, and then several days of back-logged flights and unhappy customers as the airline tried to reposition crews and planes.
The fallout: the carrier’s most recent quarterly earnings report pegged the storm cost the airline $125 million in revenue.
A storm of a different kind hit United Airlines this month.
First it was a social media-fueled dress code debate about wearing leggings on airplanes.
The young women were flying on the free passes airline employees and their family members get to use, and those passes come with a dress code that prohibits users from flying in pajamas, swimwear, torn clothing or revealing attire — such as those leggings. Although, leggings are fine for revenue passengers to fly in.
United’s public relations team tried to explain its policies, but not before tweets, Facebook posts and Instagram comments about the ‘incident’ went viral.
Then, a response from United also fueled the social media furor that erupted over video of a man being dragged off a fully booked United Express flight in Chicago (ORD) after refusing to give up his seat to for a crew member.
The airline is scrambling to repair what some experts say is now a permanently tarnished image and is already making changes to try to make good on United CEO Oscar Munoz’s promise to “make it right” and “fix what’s broken so this never happens again.”
The Chicago-based carrier promises a full review and report on “crew movement, policies for incentivizing volunteers in these situations, how we handle oversold situations and an examination of how we partner with airport authorities and local law enforcement,” by April 30.
Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and others are making changes in response to the United incident as well.
Agents for Delta Air Lines are now authorized to substantially up the compensation — to as high as $9,950 if necessary — for passengers who voluntarily give up a seat. American Airlines updated its Conditions of Carriage to say the airline “will not involuntarily remove a revenue passenger who has already boarded in order to give a seat to another passenger.”
In other airline news, Alaska Airlines announced that (no real surprise) it would be retiring the Virgin America name sometime in 2019, but adopting the mood lighting, music and enhanced in-flight entertainment features that made Virgin America a passenger favorite.
And an indefinite ban remains barring electronic devices larger than smartphones from the cabins of commercial aircraft flying to both the United States and the United Kingdom from certain countries although airlines, the International Air Transport Association and others have called for alternative solutions to these measures.
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