Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, is not giving false hope to air travelers who are suffering in the summer of long, winding lines at the airport, only to experience delayed or canceled flights.
On the other hand, speaking to CNBC after a positive quarterly earnings report, Kirby said “We are happy to return to profitability.” And while Kirby said the state of air travel will gradually change, he added that change won’t come quickly.
“We won’t be going back to normal operations and staffing practices until next summer,” Kirby said.
Making Adjustments On The Fly
“The biggest problem facing us – probably for the next 12 months – is all the infrastructure problems around the aircraft,” Kirby said. See the article : Air travel this summer is expensive, messy and growing. “It’s difficult for us at United right now because we’ve been able to go forward, and we’ve been hiring (to address the driver shortage).
However, Kirby went on to add, “But you look at the mess that’s going on in Heathrow or some of the other problems we’ve had with air traffic control, or other things around the system, and the system can’t support our flight.” In response, Kirby says “So what we’ve done is put our power back.”
If you are not familiar with the situation at Heathrow Airport in London, John Holland-Kaye, CEO of the airport, recently announced “we started to see times when the service drops to an unacceptable level: Long queue times, delays. for passengers who need help, bags not moving with passengers or for late arrivals, low punctuality, and last-minute cancellations.”
As a result, the airport announced that it will limit the number of daily departures to 100,000 from July 12-September 11. The move is intended to “do everything we can to protect the rest of passengers and our intervention is part of the measures of the industry. will help customers this summer. “
Since then, Heathrow has announced that the airport closure will continue until October 29, according to The Times.
However, to be fair, Heathrow is not the only European airport to impose a ban on daily flights. For example, Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport recently announced that it will apply to the German Ministry of Transport for permission to reduce the number of flights per hour from 96 to 88.
Also, London’s Gatwick Airport announced last month that it will start up to 825 flights a day in July and up to 850 a day in August so that passengers “will experience a more reliable and better level of service.” Those numbers are down from about 950 daily flights offered before the COVID-19 pandemic.
And in Amsterdam, Schiphol Airport is limiting the number of passenger departures in July and August to reduce congestion and long lines for airline passengers. That limit will vary daily and will increase to 67,500 in July and 72,500 in August.
There are, of course, problems at US airports as well, which is why Kirby said United has reduced capacity.
For example, Newark Liberty International Airport, located in New Jersey but also nine miles from Manhattan, has been experiencing the highest number of delays. United announced last month that it would cut flights to Newark by 12 percent — up to 50 flights a day — in an effort to reduce delays, according to the Associated Press. The airline also announced that it is reducing its number of flights this summer, including canceling flights from Flagstaff, Arizona, to Denver; and complete service from Houston to Texarkana, Arkansas; according to USA Today.
“All the costs are still there because we are ready to be a big airline – we have the people to be a big airline – but we will be a small airline ’til the system can support it,” Kirby. he said.
A Look To The Holidays
Finally, if you’re planning to go on vacation this December, Kirby has an idea.
“Unfortunately, there are still very few seats available in the entire area, because the buildings around the plane can’t support it,” said Kirby. “Perhaps you should hurry up and prepare for Christmas. To see also : Air travel is getting worse. Here are 6 tips to make it less of a headache.. We are already planning to fly a little to make sure we are reliable. “
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