Blame Game for United Airlines

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby apologized for blaming regulators for contributing to the airline’s flight delays. In a memo to employees, COO Jonathan Roitman, who has been removed from his role, indicated that FAA actions caused half of the delays:

“We estimate that over 50% of our delay minutes and 75% of our cancels in the past four months were because of FAA traffic management initiatives—those have been particularly acute in Newark and Florida. These ATC challenges can not only disrupt the schedule, but they also cause us to burn crew time throughout the month.”

The FAA responded by blaming the airline for mismanaging operations during weather conditions. After that, on an earnings call, Kirby said, “I apologized to [Transportation Secretary Pete] Buttigieg because that is not what we intended.”

All this comes after Buttigieg criticized the airlines for cancelling flights and not offering refunds. This is a complicated issue, likely caused by several factors, including staffing issues on both sides. Although Kirby didn’t take full responsibility, he demonstrated some humility and vulnerability in admitting that attacking regulators is not a useful argument, particularly when an internal memo goes public, which is always to be expected.