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Scott Kirby Explains How His Leadership Changed — And Why United’s Entire Strategy Looks Different Under Him Now
Alright, so Scott Kirby, the guy running United Airlines, is out here on the "Airlines Confidential" podcast, trying to sell us his grand narrative of personal and corporate evolution. This narrative, detailed in Scott Kirby Explains How His Leadership Changed — And Why United’s Entire Strategy Looks Different Under Him Now, is a story. A story that, if you listen close enough, sounds less like a genuine epiphany and more like a carefully crafted PR pivot. He wants us to believe he’s changed, that the old spreadsheet-obsessed bean counter is gone, replaced by a customer-loving visionary. My gut? It’s not buying it wholesale. Not even close.
The Numbers Guy Who Saw the Light (Or Did He?)
For years, this dude, Scott Kirby, was the poster child for corporate tunnel vision. I remember back in March 2012, when he was at US Airways, he explained why they were finally adding in-flight Wi-Fi. It wasn’t because customers were begging for it, or because it was the right thing to do. Nah, it was because the numbers, and only the numbers, showed they were losing revenue by not having it. He had to see the cold, hard data proving people were actively avoiding their tickets before he’d approve the cost. That’s a pure, unadulterated "spreadsheet guy" move, right there. He’d make these bold claims, like airfares would skyrocket because of GDP, and then just... keep repeating them, even when reality was doing its own thing. He even said American Airlines would be driven out of O’Hare! That’s the kind of confidence that makes you wonder if he’s just incredibly stubborn or living in a different dimension.
Now, he’s trying to tell us he’s "reinvented himself." He got rid of change fees (mostly, let’s be real), added seat-back entertainment, and United’s business class wine is apparently world-class now. He says there's a difference between being a President and a CEO, and now it's his vision. Okay, I’ll give him this: the Starlink internet thing? That’s genuinely a game-changer. United used to have the absolute worst Wi-Fi, especially on those Boeing 737s. I know, because I avoided them like the plague for years, just to avoid losing hours of productivity. Now they're leapfrogging the competition. That’s real. But it also took him, what, a quarter-century since JetBlue showed him live TV was a "thing" to finally get it? He even admits he thought JetBlue’s live TV was a "gimmick," a "waste of money," until he flew it himself. Then he tried to get it for America West, and JetBlue literally bought the company providing the tech just to block him. Talk about a brutal lesson in competitive product advantage. This whole thing feels like a corporation getting a much-needed, but long-overdue, software update. You know, the kind where you wonder why it took them so damn long to fix the bugs everyone complained about.
The Chameleon CEO: From Woke to... Whatever Works
Here’s where it gets really murky. Kirby talks about building "brand loyalty" as his grand trajectory from America West to US Airways to American. Sorry, but if you’re trying to build brand loyalty, you don’t try to charge for water or eliminate bonus miles for your elite frequent flyers, like US Airways did. That ain't loyalty building; that’s how you get people to actively despise your brand. It’s like trying to win friends by punching them in the face. And his narrative for United’s growth now? "An airline that customers love, employees are great, take care of the customers, and everyone can be proud of." Sounds great, right? Except, not so long ago, he was slashing Polaris soft product – cutting a flight attendant from business class, scaling back wine and amenities, even domestic meal times. So, which is it, Scott? Are you the guy who cuts corners and nickel-and-dimes, or the guy who makes everyone proud? It can’t be both.
And then there's the political shapeshifting. He says he thought politics would be his least favorite part of the CEO job, but it turns out to be a favorite because of "the amount of difference you can make." That’s a nice way of saying he’s a political chameleon, bouncing from "woke to MAGA" depending on who’s in office. Give me a break. You don’t make that kind of ideological leap without some serious… flexibility. Or maybe, just maybe, a complete lack of core conviction beyond what benefits the bottom line or his own career. It makes you wonder, if the political winds shift again, will he suddenly become a libertarian space cowboy? This isn't leadership; it's a weather vane.
I’m still trying to piece together who the real Scott Kirby is. He claims customers haven’t changed, he has. And yeah, United is better than it was, I’ll concede that. But what exactly triggered these shifts? Was it some genuine, come-to-Jesus moment, or just the cold, hard realization that being a pure numbers guy wasn't sustainable in the long run? Or that pandering to certain political factions was simply good for business?
The Feedback Loop That Changed Everything (Maybe)
The most telling nugget from his whole "evolution" spiel? It’s not some grand internal awakening. It’s that he learned more from watching his bosses make mistakes (especially Doug Parker, who he implies was a "very bad model") than from positive examples. And the only person in his entire career who gave him direct feedback was Oscar Munoz, his predecessor at United. Oscar apparently told him to stop being just a numbers guy, to speak out more about his vision, to be a leader. He said Kirby was the employees' best defender, but no one knew it.
So, here’s my take: Scott Kirby wasn’t some visionary who suddenly saw the light. He was a smart, data-driven operator who finally got some honest feedback from a boss he respected. He was told to take off the spreadsheet goggles and actually lead with a vision, instead of just reacting to numbers. He saw how Parker’s model failed, and Oscar told him how to succeed. It’s not a spiritual transformation; it’s a strategic adjustment based on external input. He's learned to play a different game, and he's gotten better at it. But to suggest it's some deep, philosophical shift in his "core beliefs"—especially given the political gymnastics—feels like a stretch, an offcourse attempt to rewrite history.