United Airlines reportedly lost $609 million during the first quarter of 2014. According to the Associated Press, the airline I grew up on attributed the loss to the severe winter weather that reached historic proportions. But that flies in the face of the revenue success of its competitors.
One problem that has plagued United is the constant backlog of passengers due to overbooking and to flight cancellations. Prior to the United / Continental merger, the common UAL approach was to employ Boeing 747s on strategically placed routes, like Chicago to San Francisco, on Tuesdays. The impact of the use of the giant planes was to clear out passenger backlog and make customers happy.
But, today, United Airlines over-reliance on smaller 757s and 737s without the use of the occasional 747 has robbed it of its past ability to move passengers and reduce instances of dramatic overbooking so large that it’s driven customers to other carriers.
We have to get our customers back, ASAP. The only answer. The best answer is the reorganization of the use of the 747 fleet, and there are three routes where they’re needed the most: Chicago / San Francisco, Chicago / Los Angeles, and New York / San Francisco. Running 747s twice a week along those routes would provide a built in ability to efficiently move passengers in comfort, and clear the backlogs that have plagues United when bad weather hits.
Bring back the 747 to America!
Stay tuned.
Zennie Abraham | Zennie Abraham or “Zennie62” is the founder of Zennie62Media which consists of zennie62blog.com and a multimedia blog news aggregator and video network, and 78-blog network, with social media and content development services and consulting. Zennie is a pioneer video blogger, YouTube Partner, social media practitioner, game developer, and pundit. Note: news aggregator content does not reflect the personal views of Mr. Abraham.