Skift Take
Winston Churchill said when the tide began to turn in World War II, it wasn't the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning. United CEO Scott Kirby says the airline industry is at a similar inflection point. Is he right?
United Airlines says it is poised "to lead the recovery," despite reporting a staggering adjusted net loss of $2.4 billion on revenues that were down 78 percent for the quarter ending September 30. The airline's executives say it is taking a realistic approach to the recovery, even as United expects its core business travel to remain severely depressed for the next several years.
"Emotions like pessimism, hope, and fear have no place when you're making decisions that involve the lives of tens of thousands of employees and the future of a great airline," CEO Scott Kirby told analysts on Thursday during the company's third-quarter earnings call. "You just have to be objective and realistic."
The company's executives were, however, much more upbeat than they were in the last quarter, which Kirby called its most difficult in almost a century.
United began furloughing 13,000 employees on October 1, when federal payroll support for airlines expired, a day Kirby called "my toughest day as a CEO." Should travel demand rebound, Kirby said United will begin recalling those employees.
Business Travel Will be depressed until 2024
Before the
