United Chief Dismisses Budget Airline Model as 'Dead' and 'Crappy'

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has harsh words for budget carriers, calling their business model 'dead.'

'It's dead. Look, it's a crappy model. Sorry,' he said when asked about the budget airline approach. Kirby argued that budget carriers like Southwest, Spirit, and Frontier built their operations around what he characterized as customer-hostile practices, saying 'The model was, screw the customer... Trick people, get them to buy, get them to come, and then charge them a whole bunch of fees that they aren't expecting.'

He said he believes that these airlines struggle to retain customers once they reach sufficient scale to require repeat business.

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