It’s been a rough month being the CEO of United Airlines. I mean, even on a good day, running a business with as many moving parts as an airline is a challenge. There are so many things out of your control like weather or sick pilots or crowded airports. Add to that the stress of maintaining the safety and comfort of thousands of passengers every day, and any number of things can go wrong to make the job even harder.
But, things have been especially rough for United’s CEO, Scott Kirby. First, earlier this month, a wheel came off one a United Plane as it took off from San Francisco International Airport. The next day, a plane went off the runway at Houston’s George Bush International Airport, causing its landing gear to collapse. In another example, a flight from Houston to Fort Meyers had to return to the airport after an engine caught fire. Then, just last Friday, a crew discovered that a plane had landed with an external panel missing.
Fortunately, no one was injured in any of those incidents, but you can imagine that if you’re thinking of taking a trip, the fact that all of these incidents occurred in such a short time span–and, at the same airline–might make you worry. Especially after a door plug flew off of an Alaska Airlines flight in an unrelated incident, forcing an emergency landing in January.
On Monday, in an email to customers, United’s CEO attempted to reassure them that everything is fine:
“Unfortunately, in the past few weeks, our airline has experienced a number of incidents that are reminders of the importance of safety,” Kirby said. “While they are all unrelated, I want you to know that these incidents have our attention and have sharpened our focus. Our team is reviewing the details of each case to understand what happened and using those insights to inform our safety training and procedures across all employee groups,”
Here’s the thing: That’s a poor choice of words for describing what happened. These weren’t a series of unfortunate events. They’re also not unrelated. They all happened to planes flown by United, which means that, even if the cause isn’t directly the same, they are certainly related as far as customers are concerned. Using the word “unfortunately,” just makes it seem like you’re trying to avoid responsibility for something you are most definitely responsible for.
Sure, it isn’t Kirby’s fault that a tire fell off an airplane and smashed cars parked near the airport. Everyone understands that the CEO isn’t the person who maintains the planes or conducts the safety checklist. That isn’t the point. Just because you’re not the person who is directly responsible doesn’t mean that you aren’t ultimately accountable for the people who are.
This leads us to a pretty important lesson, which is that even if something isn’t your fault, it’s still your problem.
Look, if your business is about convincing people that it’s perfectly safe to climb on board your metal tube with wings and trust that you’ll get them to wherever they are headed without any problems, this doesn’t look good. You have a credibility problem, which is the very worst kind of problem for an airline.
By the way, the other problem with Kirby’s email is that it doesn’t explain where the failure point is that caused so many maintenance or equipment issues in such a short period of time. I’m sure a lawyer said, “Hey, don’t get into specifics; nothing good can come from that–we might get sued if we admit any liability.” That might all be true, but when you stop doing the right thing for your customers because a lawyer told you that you might get sued, you’re doing it wrong.
It also doesn’t help that Kirby’s credibility with customers and the general public isn’t great after a series of delays and cancellations last year during a summer storm that left thousands of people stranded while Kirby flew on a private jet.
If you want to make people feel better about safety on your airline, talking about a series of incidents, as though it was something that happened to you (as opposed to something that you’re accountable for) is a big mistake. A better way of handling this is to give people a clearer understanding of how it’s possible that all of these “unfortunate” events happened so closely together. This is exactly the kind of situation where giving people more information is better because a lack of information creates doubt, and doubt is the fastest way to ground an airline.
Then, tell people why they should trust you with not just their money, but their lives. In a situation like this, that’s not only the least you can do–it’s the thing you absolutely must do.