United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby provides update on government shutdown

Kirby said, “Earlier today, the FAA and DOT directed every airline to reduce their schedules during the government shutdown, across 40 domestic airports. The FAA’s goal is to relieve pressure on the aviation system so that we can all continue to operate safely. That is the FAA’s highest priority, and ours as well. No matter what environment we’re operating in, we will not compromise on safety. These reductions will start on Friday, November 7, and we will continue to make rolling updates to our schedule as the government shutdown continues so we can give our customers several days’ advance notice and to minimize disruption for them and for all of you. United’s long-haul international flying and our hub-to-hub flying will not be impacted by this schedule reduction direction from the FAA. That’s important to maintain the integrity of our network, give impacted customers as many options as possible to resume their trip, and sustain our crew pairing systems. Instead, we will focus our schedule reductions on regional flying and domestic mainline flights that do not travel between our hubs. We’ll use our app, website and push notifications to communicate to customers directly if their flight changes, and to offer rebooking options. We want to provide them with as much information as we can and in a way that’s simple and easy to understand. And importantly, any customer traveling during this period is eligible for a refund if they do not wish to fly – even if their flight isn’t impacted. That includes non-refundable tickets and those customers with basic economy tickets. Even with these schedule reductions, United and its United Express partners will still offer about 4,000 flights per day to fly our customers to their destinations. And because of the early November timing, our flights have more seats available than before the summer, meaning we should be able to find seats for many customers even if their flight is canceled. Finally, thank you for going above and beyond during this government shutdown to take care of our customers and one another. Your professionalism and care will be more important than ever in the days ahead.”