Many members of Congress were unsatisfied with the statements made by United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz and other top airline executives in response to the forced removal of a passenger from a United flight in April and other chronic customer service issues.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held an oversight hearing on Tuesday morning to look into recent incidents of customer abuse by some U.S. air carriers, most notably the forced removal of Dr. David Dao, a passenger on an overbooked United flight who was physically dragged from his seat by law enforcement.
At the outset of the hearing, Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Penn.) warned the witnesses representing major airlines that “this wont be a pleasant hearing,” and that if the companies fail to produce “meaningful results” in improving the treatment of passengers, “you won’t like the outcome.”
Despite the threats that came from both Republicans and Democrats, United CEO Munoz told Sinclair Broadcast Group midway through the hearing that he “absolutely” believed he was receiving fair treatment from members of the committee.
As a result of the high profile incident, the Trump administration will be looking into overbooking on airlines, Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao told Sinclair Broadcast Group last week.
The administration has “an investigation going on” currenntly she said, regarding overbooking. “[We] hope to get the results of that investigation very soon.”
Otherwise, the Trump administration is focused on making sure passengers “know what their rights are,” while also encouraging the airlines to provide a “good experience.”
At the outset of the hearing, Munoz listed off a series of new policies United implemented at the end of April in order to avoid a repeat of the violent removal of Dao from an overbooked flight. Those steps include not calling on police to remove a passenger, not requiring a passenger already seated on the aircraft to give up their seat involuntarily, and allowing employees to offer customers up to $10,000 to give up their seats.
“It was a mistake of epic proportions,” Munoz said. “Clearly our policies broke down in that regard.”
Since the April 9 incident, Dao settled a lawsuit with United for an undisclosed sum. According to his attorney, Dao suffered a concussion, a broken nose requiring reconstructive surgery and lost two front teeth.
In a shocking back and forth with Tennessee Republican John Duncan, Munoz admitted that “there have been a good amount of occasions” this year when United asked law enforcement to remove a passenger due to overbooking. Munoz explained that the previous removals “happened without incident” and law enforcement was asked to assist for “safety and security reasons.” None of the other airline executives described similar scenarios.
Executives from other major airlines including American Airlines, Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines joined United in the hearing. American Airlines has come under increased scrutiny after an incident last month involving an altercation over a baby stroller between two passengers and a flight attendant, who has since been fired. Video of the incident shows a mother pleading with a flight attendant who was taking away her baby stroller. Another passenger intervened in the conflict which nearly erupted in violence.
Southwest Airlines got through the hearing relatively unscathed and used the public forum to announce that after the incidents at United and American, their airline would no longer overbook flights.
“While we have been looking at this issue for many years, the recent events related to overbooking did cause us to stop and pause and take a look at this again,” Jordan said. As a result of the change, Southwest anticipates incidents of denied boardings will decrease 80 percent from the current rate.
Throughout the hearing, congressmen were unimpressed with the airlines’ responses to chronic customer service issues.
Ranking member of the committee, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) told Sinclair Broadcast Group that he was not at all satisfied with the airlines’ answers to his questions and not at all satisfied with their performance.
“They’re not treating people properly,” he argued. “We can do things for passenger rights and regulation. It’s up to this committee and up to the chairman. I think we need to take some steps to put brakes on this.”
DeFazio is currently sponsoring a piece of legislation, the Know Before You Fly Act, that would protect consumers from policies that airlines often hide in contracts that are tens of thousands of words long. United used its contract of carriage, which passengers sign but rarely read, to justify the disastrous forced deboarding last month.
The bill would also address the hidden costs and fees airlines that often come as a surprise to customers booking flights. Last year, United Airlines alone netted $800 million in fees from passengers who changed or cancelled their tickets. The industry overall collected approximately $3 billion in 2015 for ticket cancellations and changes. None of the airline executives were willing to answer Rep. DeFazio’s question when pressed on the actual cost of the change.
“So then it’s about being very profitable,” DeFazio concluded.
Congressman Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) saw the admission by United’s CEO as a good “first step,” but only a first step in addressing longstanding issues facing the industry.
Like Chairman Shuster, Davis argued that the airline providers must now “step up” and address the customer service issues that the American people have been witnessing in the latest, most egregious instances, and the inconveniences they experience on a day to day basis.
“What I told the airlines today, is that you now have a chance to address many of these issues that we’ve all witnessed,” Davis told Sinclair Broadcast Group. “It’s your job to do it, or government will step in.”
Like many other members of the Transportation Committee, Davis does not want to see the government involved in re-regulating the industry, but he warned that Congress will be forced to act if the airlines do not. “I think the airlines will leave here today knowing that that’s going to be be the next step,” he said of possible government intervention.
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) used his opening line of questions to somewhat jokingly ask each of the airlines executives, “Why do you hate the American people?” He followed up with the question, “How much do you hate the American people?”
Hunter took on what he sees as a lack of competition in the American airline industry, an issue that has led carriers to take advantage of a customer base that needs the service but, depending on the part of the country, may be limited to only one or two options.
Each of the airline executives insisted that the declining price of tickets and increased number of overlapping routes proved that there was competition among top airlines, but never discussed whether customers had a choice to fly a different carrier out of any given airport.
“They don’t talk about options at all. It’s all about their fare [going down],” Hunter said during a break in the hearing. “If you have a monopoly basically you can dictate fare.”
Since 2001, the U.S. airline industry has become increasingly consolidated from ten major carriers down to just four: American, Delta, United and Southwest. The consolidation was fueled by bankruptcies and mergers in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 2008 financial crisis and massive spike in fuel costs in recent years. To date, the big four now control more than 70 percent of domestic flights.
Asked what could be done to force the airlines to be more responsive to their customers, Hunter was at a loss. “What would make these guys compete, what would make them care about the customers? Because they don’t. Period. They care about money.”
Members of Congress have seized on the cause of domestic airline passengers in the aftermath of the United incident. In addition to the Know Before You Fly Act, a handful of other bills have been introduced in the House and Senate in recent weeks to ensure that airlines can no longer forcibly remove a ticketed passenger against his or her will.
