Well add this to the 8k info and SK will have a serious credibility problem on Wall St. if a) he doesn't get a deal done with the pilots and b) his precious culture falls to pieces because of a contentious labor battle. (EDIT: he also says earlier in the transcript that hiring pilots is still an issue and will continue to be such meaning if we fall way behind Delta that would only get harder so add that to the list of tiny pieces of evidence in support of a deal coming soon).
I'm doubling down on my bet and agree with Swakid - deal before the end of April.
SK at today's conference:
I described the culture that I want to have at United as our employees are proud of the airline because if they're proud, they take care of everything else. This is the difference in customer service. We say we're about connecting people in United in the world. It's people and you get on a United airplane now, and I hear it all the time from customers all the time, both on fly my airline and flying on other airlines as a contrast.
And you got 2 flight attendants that are excited, smiling, happy to be there that love the company, feel good about the company. You have a captain that often comes out of the cockpit and gets on the PA and talks to people like those may seem like little things, but they make the experience so much different. And that has been the key to our success. We're coming out of COVID, I think, leading in the industry. And certainly, our relative positioning has improved the most, and that's why because we built the culture.
I mean I -- when I did my write-up for the Board last year, like the truth is the decision, certainly as a CEO, the kind of things you're doing are not about this quarter, they're about next year in the next 3 or 4 years beyond that. It is all about the culture if you get the culture right, look, you're going to have some ups and downs along the way, something will happen. But if you get the culture right, everything else is going to take care of itself. I 100% think that, that is the job of the CEO at every company. And the more consumer-facing you are, which we are, obviously, the more important that is in the service industry.