Yesterday, Jon Ostrower from Flightblogger sent out a tweet asking how one would fix United. Even though I tweeted some responses, I figged I’d list my three main suggestions here. I haven’t looked carefully at United’s financial statements, so my best advice in that area would be to not hedge above $100/barrel again. 
Get rid of Glenn Tilton, or make him take a pay cut. I’m not going to discuss Tilton’s successes and failures here. But, clearly, the unions have latched on to him as a symbol of what’s wrong with United. So, get rid of him and get someone new in, or make him take a massive pay cut. Swelblog reported last week that he is paid 142 times higher than the average United employee and 68 times the average United pilot – that’s the highest in the industry. High CEO compensation is something to discuss for another day, but in this case a significant pay cut should make the unions slightly…er…less angry.
Change the marketing plan or follow the current one. For years, United’s advertisements and marketing materials make the airline look like a premium carrier. That’s great, except it’s not in many cases. United has been adding fees just like all the other airlines, and Cranky has discussed why this move didn’t make sense. Heck, they even tried to eliminate free international meals in coach. United’s current strategy set customer expectations above what they should be. Setting new levels of expectations and constantly meeting them will improve customer satisfaction, or United can make sure it makes its service more consistent with current goals. At least Ted is being killed, though.
Develop a fleet plan for the future. Want to guess how many aircraft United has on order? Zero. Zip. Nada. While United’s current plans to ground the 737 fleet might work when the economy is in a recession – what’s going to happen when the recovery comes? Is United just going to grow with regional partners, and pursue further relationships like the Aer Lingus arrangement? Does United just want to grow through the Continental partnership? Eventually, the 767s and 747s will need replacing. Maybe United can get a deal on some new aircraft in today’s environment.
I should also mention, though, that I think United has made some good decisions of late. The new bonus that rewards on-time performance should help improve the airline operationally. Meanwhile the new premium products should help as well.
Good post. Regarding the fleet planning, it seems obvious that they’re more interested in knee-jerk reactions than future planning. That being said, if their main goal is a merger, what would a large aircraft order do for those prospects?