Abstract

This case discusses Chicago based United Airlines, Inc., (United) and the change in policies announced by the company that was aimed at improving customer experience. The changes came in wake of the infamous passenger dragging issue on one of its flights that landed the company in PR fiasco.In April 2017, Dr. David Dao (Dao), a 69-year-old passenger, was forcibly removed from United flight 3411 by aviation police officials at Chicago’s O’Hare international airport. The flight, reportedly, was overbooked and the staff needed four passengers to volunteer to give up seats in exchange for compensation so that its crew members could be accommodated. Apparently, Dao’s name was one of those who were asked to give up their seat. Things turned bitter when Dao refused to give up his seat. The airport security officials yanked Dao out of his seat which causing grievous injuries to him. The entire episode which was recorded on the mobile phones of co-passengers went viral on social media attracting criticism from the public, lawmakers, and politicians. The callous responses and a boilerplate apology from the company and its CEO Oscar Munoz made the situation even worse. The case provides the details of the incident and the chaos that followed. The authorities jumped into action when a lawsuit was initiated by Dao against the company. Thereafter the company was forced to revisit its policies and make amendments to ensure such incidents do not occur in future.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Examine how a company should handle a public relations fiasco
• Understand the issues and challenges a company faces while communicating with its customers and investors during a crisis.
• Understand the need for organizations to have a crisis communication plan in place to handle crisis situations effectively.
• Examine the role of a person with a high degree of accountability (such as the CEO) in managing public relations and crisis management

Keywords

United Airlines, Inc; Flight 3411 Incident; The Chaos ; Aftermath; Action; Policy Changes; Overbooking; The Road to Change; Culture; Crisis Communication; Crisis leadership; Aviation; Ethics