United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said the outages and staffing shortages at Newark Liberty International Airport caused a drop in bookings that hurt the carrier’s bottom line.
The New Jersey airport dominated headlines after its communications technology crashed three times – leaving air-traffic controllers’ radar systems dark – over a period of just two weeks.
“We took a big drop in bookings for a few weeks,” Kirby said during The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything event on Thursday.
That will have an impact on the airline’s profits, he said. United’s quarterly earnings are expected to land in the middle of its forecast range of $3.25 to $4.25 a share. If not for the Newark chaos, the airline likely would have landed near the top end, Kirby said.
He blamed it on a widespread “perception” issue, insisting it’s safe for passengers to fly through the airport.
“People should book with confidence. Now’s the time to buy,” Kirby said, adding, “you’re gonna get a better price than you normally will. I wish you weren’t, but you will.”
Fears around the airport’s safety pushed customers to choose nearby competitors, leading to empty seats on United flights through Newark and much lower ticket prices, according to the airline’s chief executive.
But Kirby assured customers that they can safely book flights through Newark, making the bold claim that it will have the least travel disruptions of the three airports in the tri-state area this summer.
That’s due to new regulations from the Federal Aviation Administration, which last week ordered airlines to cap their daily arrivals and departures to relieve congestion and reduce delays at the airport.
“I have been begging the FAA to do that for a decade, and they are finally doing that,” Kirby said.
Further action needs to be taken by the government to update air-traffic control systems and fix staffing shortages across the country, the CEO said.
“They need to run it like a business would run,” he argued.
Meanwhile, Kirby said consumer spending across the airline seems to be holding up despite President Trump’s hefty tariffs.
The US Court of International Trade on Wednesday blocked many of Trump’s steep taxes, which his administration quickly moved to appeal, threatening the following day to take the matter to the Supreme Court as soon as Friday.
Also on Thursday, United announced a partnership with JetBlue Airways to link their loyalty programs, allowing members to redeem points for flights operated by the other airline.
The partnership also means the return of United flights to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after the airline shuttered operations there in 2022.
