Two days after a video of United Airlines went viral, the CEO of the company has finally come out with a public apology on Tuesday. Oscar Munoz, president and CEO of United Airlines on Twitter emphasised on one main point: “I’m sorry. We will fix this”.
In a public statement on Monday, Munoz had issued an apology “for having to re-accommodate the customers”. There was no apology for the brazen action — where an Asian passenger was dragged out of his seat — that took place on Flight 3411. This outraged a lot of people, including clients and celebrities who threatened to stop using the airlines. After the public shaming, in another tweet that came out on Wednesday, Munoz apologised to David Dao, the veteran doctor who had been dragged off the flight.
“It’s never too late to do the right thing”, remarked Munoz. But it may be too late. Because by Tuesday, the video that went viral, had already caused a 4.4 per cent drop in the shares of the airlines. By closing time, the stock had recovered, to end at a 1.13 per cent loss, which led the to airlines losing $255 billion. United also lost many of their loyal clients, as Twitter raged with #BoycottUnited trending for the third day.
On Wednesday, lawyers of Dao, who is a Vietnamese-American doctor, asked a court in Illinois to preserve all the important documentation related to the case. This would involve surveillance footage and voice recordings from the cockpit, among other things. United has announced the refund of tickets of all passengers on Flight 3411.
Munzo, in a statement, remarked “That is not who our family at United is. This will never happen again on a United flight. That’s my promise.”
The Airlines has also announced that it would not be asking the police to remove passengers from full flights after this. One of the daughters of Dr Dao is to hold a press conference in Chicago Thursday.
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