United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby earlier this week took a shot at what he called the “crappy” budget airline model.
Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s “Future of Everything” event on Thursday, Kirby said the low-cost carrier model was “dead.”
“The model was screw the customer,” he said.
“It was like trick people, get them to buy, and get them to come, and then charge them a whole bunch of fees that they aren’t expecting … disclosures buried in legalese,” he continued. “Their problem is they got big enough that they needed repeat customers. They don’t get them.”
Kirby’s comments came the same day that United announced a new partnership with JetBlue, which many consider to be a budget carrier.
The partnership, known as Blue Sky, will allow United to access slots for up to seven daily round-trip flights out of JFK’s Terminal 6 as early as 2027.
The deal, which is subject to regulatory review, will also allow customers to earn and use frequent flyer miles across both airlines, among other things.
Kirby said on Thursday that JetBlue offered something different to traditional budget airlines.
“JetBlue was founded in trying to be a better airline for customers. Budget airlines were founded in trying to have the absolute bare bones lowest cost,” he said. “They may both be startups, but two polar-opposite business models.”
The exec was pressed on whether United had considered purchasing JetBlue.
Laughing, Kirby said he was asked that “a lot” and that he was “reluctant” to do a merger.
“Mergers are hard,” he said.
Going forward, he said United was focusing on its frequent flyers.
“What we’re really looking for is to have a bigger presence for our frequent flyers on both sides of the Hudson,” he said. “To be bigger in places like Boston.”
Despite outperforming most of its peers in 2024, United announced in April that it would cut about 4% of its domestic capacity starting in July because of softening demand.
Trump’s tariffs caused some Canadians and other international travelers to cancel their summer vacations in the United States, which could mean trouble for domestic airlines.
“The company’s outlook is dependent on the macro environment, which the company believes is impossible to predict this year with any degree of confidence,” the airline said.
