United Airlines wastes priceless opportunity to avoid PR debacle
THERE never seems to be a dull moment at United Airlines these days. Last month, the American carrier was in the news for barring two teenage girls from boarding a flight.
The reason was a baffling one: A gate agent, who claimed she was merely adhering to the airline's dress code, deemed the leggings that the girls were wearing to be inappropriate. The backlash that the incident predictably caused, however, was nothing compared to what the beleaguered company had to endure this week.
On Sunday, United forcibly removed a passenger from an overbooked flight that was about to depart Chicago for Louisville, Kentucky. The man, later identified as 69-year-old Vietnamese-American doctor David Dao, was hauled from his seat and dragged off the plane against his will. Predictably, scores of other passengers taped the ordeal on their smartphones, and the photos and videos went viral around the world …
KEYWORDS IN THIS ARTICLE
BT is now on Telegram!
For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes
Columns
An overstimulated US economy is asking for trouble
Too many property agents? Cap commissions on home sales
Time to study broadening of private market access
China’s better economic growth hides reasons to worry
In AI-copyright battle, an existential crisis emerges
Europe shows diversifying from China’s economy is hard to do