Airline confessions

 

In a blue jacket, open-collar shirt and no tie, United Airlines’ new chief executive officer, Oscar Munoz, cuts a dashing figure in a video he made that invites customers and employees to air their grievances and share their ideas on how to restore the carrier’s tainted brand.

 

“Let’s be honest,” Munoz says, looking like a young Gene Hackman in the video. “The implementation of the United and Continental merger has been rocky for customers and employees, and while it’s been improving recently, we still haven’t lived up to our promise or our potential. That’s going to change.”

 

Munoz, former president and chief operating officer of rail and logistics giant CSX Corp., has adopted an honesty-is-the-best-policy approach in his first few weeks in the top management job at a troubled time for Newark Liberty International Airport’s dominant airline and one of New Jersey’s largest private employers, providing about 14,000 jobs.

 

Since taking the position, Munoz has been flying around the country, apologizing for the airline’s customer service shortfalls and meeting with customers and employees to hear their concerns.

 

It was a month ago that the Chicago-based carrier announced the unexpected shake-up, with Chairman and CEO Jeff Smisek and two government affairs executives stepping down. The airline cited ongoing federal and internal probes into the company’s dealings with the scandal-plagued Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, operator of the Newark airport, as the reason for the changes.

 

But the investigations are not United’s only problems.

 

In recent customer satisfaction surveys, United ranked at the bottom among the largest U.S. carriers. Five years after the merger, flight attendants and mechanics from the separate airlines still do not have joint contracts. The airline has one of the worst on-time arrival and baggage handling records among the major U.S. carriers, according to government data. United’s on-time rate for July was 73.5 percent, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, worse than all but two airlines.

 

The integration of United and Continental was marred particularly by costly technological glitches that resulted in widespread cancellations and delays over the past three years.

 

Instead of bolstering its position as the leading airline for business travelers in the all-important New York City region, United has lost market share over the past five years, mainly to Delta Air Lines, whose merger with Northwest Airlines went far smoother than United’s tie-up with Continental Airlines.

 

Janine Iannarelli, a Ridgewood native now living in Texas, said the merger was a change for the worse for frequent fliers like her.

 

“As a Houstonian, we mourn the merger of Continental into United,” said Iannarelli. She said she’s noticed more apathy and arrogance in the former Continental Airlines cabin crews in recent years since the airlines combined. With the merger, United absorbed Continental’s dominant position at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, the same as it did at Newark. “The A-quality airline with a dedicated, mostly happy crew has all but disappeared,” she said. “Everybody I know who used to fly Continental hates flying on United.”

 

Corporate lawyer Holly Schepisi of River Vale, a frequent flier out of Newark, said she also prefers the old Continental Airlines over the new United, which, post-merger, went with the United Airlines brand while preserving Continental’s gold-globe-on-blue-field logo.

 

“They became exceptionally more expensive, and the number of flights decreased,” said Schepisi, who has been flying for decades between Newark and the Caribbean. Schepisi also is a Republican assemblywoman in Bergen County’s 39th District.

 

Munoz was not available to be interviewed for this article because of a heavy meeting and travel schedule, Johnson said.

 

Henry Meyer, United Continental’s newly appointed non-executive chairman of the board, said in a statement that Munoz’s track record at CSX and other companies demonstrates that he has “the right blend of strategic vision and strong leadership to continue United’s upward trajectory.”

 

During Munoz’s 12 years at Jacksonville, Fla.-based CSX, where he was considered to be the likely successor to CEO Michael J. Ward, the railroad and logistics firm was named one of Institutional Investor’s most honored companies for a decade of excellent financial performance, and achieved a six-fold increase in operating income.

 

Too many apologies?

 

Mike Boyd, an aviation consultant in Colorado and a frequent United flier out of Denver, says, as a matter of style, Munoz is overdoing the poor-service confessions. Customer service problems at United have been exaggerated, and Munoz is only amplifying a misperception, he said.

 

“They had a merger that wasn’t done as smoothly as it should have been,” Boyd said. “They should put their nose to the grindstone and fix it, not cop a plea to something they didn’t do.”

 

Seth Kaplan, managing partner for the trade publication Airline Weekly, said former CEO Smisek had recently made progress in improving United’s operations and finances, and that should make Munoz’s task less daunting.

 

Under Smisek, United also expanded onboard Wi-Fi service and replaced many of its older planes with new ones and seems to have done a better job lately of getting planes and crews in position to fly on time.

 

Source: NorthJersey