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United Airlines which emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year, plans to schedule more flights with fewer aircraft in a move to lift United Airlines "out of the ditch," according to a top executive.
Chief Operating Officer Peter McDonald said in a speech Tuesday evening at Northwestern University that the company has hired NASCAR pit crews to train ramp workers in order to reduce turnaround time at airports.McDonald said improving aircraft turns, refueling, cleaning and loading and unloading planes on layover will add 125 flights to United's schedule without putting more planes in the air.
Increasing efficiency is part of the company's plan to return to profitability after being forced into bankruptcy by a surge of low-cost carriers, high labor costs, and ever-rising fuel prices. The key to its strategy, McDonald said, is United's "most important asset"--its people.
"Our competition tends to think of their service as a commodity, that people purchase on price alone," he said. "We don't."
McDonald said the airline's employees were central in the company's emergence from bankruptcy, making "immense personal sacrifices" and ultimately improving operations and service and setting records for arrivals and departures.
McDonald said the airline has cut costs--shaving nearly $7 billion a year--and increased productivity since filing Chapter 11 in 2002, but that the sink-or-swim airline environment, in which two major carriers are operating under bankruptcy protection, continues today.
"Exit was a major step for us, but nobody gave us a get-out-of-bankruptcy-free card."
McDonald also said that the airline's strategy of segmenting the market, with its economy division Ted and its new premium service titled p.s., will aid in its recovery
Ray Neidl, an aviation analyst with Calyon Securities (USA) Inc., said United's move is a step in the right direction, given criticism that the airline had not adjusted its unit-cost structure.
"It's good that they are doing these things," Neidl said. "The unit-cost structure has to come down a little bit if they want to be competitive."
CBS 2 Chicago
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