As hundreds of flights to and from the East Coast were canceled this week due to severe weather, the CEO of United has an axe to grind. In a leaked email, Scott Kirby, the airline’s head honcho, blamed the Federal Aviation Administration for the cancellations.
The email from Kirby to staff was leaked on Twitter on Tuesday. In the communication, Kirby validates his team with a classic CEO’s “I’m proud of you” while promptly passing the buck to the FAA—and he did not mince words. Kirby says the FAA “failed us” and that cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) just outside New York City was something the administration should have been able to navigate.
“I’m also frustrated that the FAA frankly failed us this weekend,” Kirby wrote in the email. “As you know, the weather we saw in EWR is something that the FAA has historically been able to manage without a severe impact on our operation and customers.”
Kirby elaborates that arrival and departure rates into EWR were suppressed by 40% and 75%, respectively, indicating to him a staffing or experience issue with the FAA. According to him, 150,000 United customers were affected by the cancellations and delays, though he does say that it’s not the fault of current FAA leadership.
“To be fair, it’s not the fault of the current FAA leadership that they are in this seriously understaffed position—it’s been building up for a long time before they were in charge,” Kirby wrote. “It’s not their fault, but they are responsible for solving the problem they inherited.”
Flight cancellations this weekend came to a head as severe thunderstorms pounded the northeast through Tuesday. NBC News reports that 1,100 flights in and out of the U.S. were canceled by Tuesday afternoon, with nearly 300 of those arriving and departing from Newark—LaGuardia and JFK in New York City also faced over 230 and 90 cancellations, respectively. On Monday, EWR tweeted that “weather conditions have caused EWR Airport flight disruptions.” CNN Business says that 26% of United Airlines schedules this week, which amounts to about 774 flights, were canceled while another 41%, or 1,226 flights, were delayed.
A spokesperson for the FAA told Gizmodo via email: “We will always collaborate with anyone seriously willing to join us to solve a problem.”
United Airlines, however, is deftly aware of its track record for late arrivals and flight issues—so much so that it released an app to help customers navigate flight problems. A recent report from FlightAware says that United has canceled at least 5,400 flights this year while 100,000 of the airlines’ flights have arrived a minimum of 15 minutes late.