Person
1 episodes · 26 quoted claims
Scott Kirby says every global long-haul airline except United permanently retired part of its wide-body fleet during COVID.
“literally every global long-haul airline in the world, except for United, permanently retired part of their wide-body fleets.”
Scott Kirby says United placed the biggest aircraft order in history during COVID.
“do the biggest aircraft order in history, which we did.”
Kirby says United's COVID-era order was 200 wide-body aircraft plus several hundred narrow-body aircraft.
“200 wide bodies and then we did another several hundred narrow bodies.”
United began a several-hundred-million-dollar project in 2020 to move off mainframes and modernize its tech stack.
“We started that in 2020 in an anticipatory and it's really paying off today.”
Kirby says United is the only airline that owns its own reservation system, while others use outsourced providers such as Sabre.
“We're the only airline in the world that owns our own reservation system.”
Kirby says United is taking over seatback entertainment and map software from Panasonic.
“So we're taking over the map software from Panasonic.”
In a United test of delay messages, Kirby says net promoter score was about negative 60 with standard weather texts and plus 60 with a radar map image.
“The people with one-hour delay, I think the numbers were negative 60 NPS on the normal way of sending it, plus 60 when we sent them a picture of the map.”
Kirby says AI-based simulation could cut 50% to 75% of weather-related delays at Denver in summer.
“We could probably reduce 50 % to 75 % of the weather-impacted delays in Denver in the summer by using this kind of technology.”
Kirby says airlines pay essentially all the fees that fund the FAA, and that the private jet lobby is the biggest obstacle to air traffic control reform.
“The real issue is there's several political groups that are opposed to it. The biggest being private jets, who today, airlines pay 100 % of the fees that, FAA is airline funded”
Kirby says 48% of United flights had Starlink at recording, rising to 50% within a week.
“And today we're at 48 % of our flights are on Starlink. In the next week, it's going to be up to 50.”
Kirby says Los Angeles will be United's first hub with 100% Starlink coverage, expected in the first half of the following year.
“our first hub, I'm not going to tell you the date yet, the first hub that's going to be 100 % Starlink is Los Angeles.”
Kirby says airline aircraft retrofit programs have traditionally taken about eight years.
“doing aircraft remodification takes eight years.”
Kirby says American Airlines is on track to lose about $1.5 billion in Chicago in the year of recording.
“America loses $1 billion, a billion and a half, probably gonna lose about a billion and a half in Chicago this year.”
Kirby says United's fuel costs rose by $8 billion in the year of recording, compared with its best-ever profit of $5 billion.
“even now with oil prices, oil prices for us are up $8 billion this year. Our best year in history, we made $5 billion.”
Kirby says United's transatlantic destinations grew from 23 ten years ago to a planned 53 by the following summer.
“we had 23 destinations 10 years ago when I got to United, we'll have 53 next summer.”
Kirby says New York airports charge about $52 per passenger, versus Spirit Airlines' average fare of $58.
“The New York airports are now $52 per passenger to fly at the New York airports.”
Kirby says large US airports' expenses have risen about 70% since before COVID.
“The airport authorities and the big airports in the country are up something like 70 % of the expenses since pre-COVID to today.”
Kirby says Ryanair is the one clearly successful low-cost carrier in the world because it flies to secondary airports.
“there's really one still low-cost carrier successful airline in the world. It's Ryanair.”
Kirby says that in his 30-year career he has closed three hubs and never opened a new one.
“In my 30-year career, I've closed three hubs and never opened a new one.”
Kirby says a new United hub in the Southeast would need about 600 daily flights to compete with American and Delta.
“We would need to have 600 flights a day to be competitive with American and Delta.”
Kirby says about 50,000 people a day fly free on United using credit card miles, a cost often overlooked in credit card revenue.
“We carry over 50 ,000 people a day. 50 ,000 people today will fly free on United Airlines by using their credit card miles.”
Kirby says United more than doubled its airport club space since before COVID and plans another 50% increase.
“We doubled down on club investments. So we've doubled our square footage of club space from pre-COVID today, more than doubled.”
Kirby says Lufthansa is United's second-largest partner, with ANA important across the Pacific.
“Lufthansa is second. Across the Pacific, A &A is big.”
Kirby says foreign airlines supply two-thirds of long-haul seats into the US though only 40% of customers come from overseas.
“It's two-thirds of the long-haul seats into the U .S. are from our competitors, even though only 40 % of the customers are coming from overseas.”
Kirby says he sleeps about eight and a half hours a night and limits meetings to two to three hours a day.
“I sleep eight and a half hours a night.”
Kirby says he was barred from playing blackjack at the Bellagio about 15 years earlier for card counting.
“It's like 15 years ago that I got barred at the Bellagio last time.”