Airline CEO Admits Ticket Scam Permitted By Buttigieg
In unusually candid comments to company investors, United CEO Scott Kirby said ongoing cancellations among competitors are happening because the airlines are advertising schedules they can’t actually fly.
“There are a number of airlines who cannot fly their schedules,” he said. “The customers are paying the price. They’re canceling a lot of flights. But they simply can’t fly the schedules today.”
Referencing the December travel meltdown, he added: “What happened last year, is what I think is going to happen next year,” adding that his own company's service was far more reliable, thanks to investments in staffing and technology.
Complaints against the major U.S. airlines, including United, more than tripled in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, as companies routinely sold tickets for flights they could not adequately staff, canceled the flights at the last minute, and slow-walked or withheld refunds while collecting billions in taxpayer bailout dollars.
The behavior prompted 34 attorneys general to write to Buttigieg on December 16th asking his agency to “require airlines to advertise and sell only flights that they have adequate personnel to fly and support, and perform regular audits of airlines to ensure compliance and impose fines on airlines that do not comply.”