United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby apologized Friday for flying private while his airline canceled hundreds of flights.
On Wednesday, Kirby flew on a privately chartered flight from Teterboro, New Jersey, to Denver, Colorado. That same day, United canceled 751 flights, more than a quarter of its schedule that day.
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“Taking a private jet was the wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers who were waiting to get home,” Kirby said in a statement. “I sincerely apologize to our customers and our team members who have been working around-the-clock for several days — often through severe weather — to take care of our customers.”
New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport had more than 100 cancellations into its airport and more than 120 cancellations out of its airport on Wednesday alone. Over 90 flights into Denver International Airport were canceled that day, with more than 70 canceled flights out of the airport.
During the week, at least 7,000 flights within, into, or out of the United States were delayed each day between Tuesday and Wednesday, with at least 8,000 delays on Thursday, according to data compiled by FlightAware. At least 2,000 flights within, into, or out of the country were canceled Tuesday, and that number has been dropping since. United Airlines canceled 3,000 flights this week.
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“There has been meaningful improvement across our operation after a challenging week that started with bad weather on the East Coast that caused a major ripple effect throughout our system,” United Airlines wrote in a tweet. Even on Friday, the airline anticipated further delays and cancellations and pointed customers to its app for re-booking options.
An estimated 50.7 million people are expected to travel at least 50 miles from their homes, a 3.7% increase from the previous record of 49 million in 2019, according to the American Automobile Association.
