United Halts Pilot Hiring Due to Boeing Delivery Delays

On this episode about Boeing's woes and air safety, clockwise from top left: Aviation reporters Robert Silk of Travel Weekly and David Slotnick of The Points Guy, and Folo host Rebecca Tobin.

The start of 2024 has brought a barrage of concerning headlines about commercial air travel.

In recent weeks, United Airlines aircraft have experienced at least 10 maintenance and flight diversion issues, some more dramatic than others. While United CEO Scott Kirby issued a statement this week saying the issues were “all unrelated” and “have our attention and have sharpened our focus,” nervous fliers may be wondering if this “focus” is enough.

United announced Thursday it will allow friends and family to create joint accounts to pool frequent flier miles through its loyalty program. 

The Department of Transportation is reviewing how the 10 largest U.S. airlines handle, use and collect passengers’ personal information. 

The airline industry barely survived its last black swan event, the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, U.S. passenger numbers dropped by almost 95%. By June of that year, some 16,000 planes had been taken out of service.

After a spate of high-profile airline industry incidents, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has issued a memo addressing safety concerns.In the memo Kirby said safety is the airline’s top priority, according to a report from The Points Guy.The airline CEO also discussed United’s own safety incidents, including acknowledging the airline has had “a number” of such incidents."While they are all unrelated, I want you to know that these incidents have our attention and have sharpened our focus," Kirby wrote, per The Points Guy. "Our team is reviewing the details of each case to understand what happened and using those insights to inform our safety training and procedures across all employee groups.”The memo from the CEO also indicates that United is working on rolling out a variety of new safety measures. Though Kirby also explained that the new safety upgrades were in the works before United’s recent spate of safety episodes. Some of the new measures the airline will be implementing include an extra day of training for pilots and new curriculum for maintenance technicians."I'm confident that we'll learn the right lessons from these recent incidents and continue to run an operation that puts safety first and makes our employees and customers proud," Kirby added.Kirby’s memo comes on the heels of a rocky few months for the airline industry as a whole. The most significant of which was the January 5 incident involving a Alaska Airlines’ Boeing 737 Max flight during which a door plug blew off after take-off and the plane was required to make an emergency landing.A handful of passengers who were on that Alaska Airlines flight have since filed a $1 billion lawsuit against Boeing, alleging negligence on the part of the plane manufacturer.As for United Airlines, one of its flights involving a 737 Max rolled off the runway at George W. Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston recently. Part of the plane’s landing gear collapsed as a result. That United incident followed a tire falling from a Boeing 777-200 plane (also flown by United) one day earlier.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby sought to reassure travelers that safety is the carrier’s highest priority following a series of mishaps with its Boeing jets.

United Airlines’ CEO is assuring customers flying with the carrier is safe following a series of mid-air and on-the-ground incidents.

2023 was the safest year ever for commercial air travel, but after several high-profile aviation incidents in 2024, the general public is paying closer attention to airline safety.

A United Airlines flight that took off on Friday morning from San Francisco International Airport landed in Oregon in the afternoon missing an external panel, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Delta Air Lines is returning to Israel – but not quite as quickly as expected.