United CEO Oscar Munoz and other airline executives testified to the House of Representatives Transportation Committee on Tuesday amid the ongoing fallout about the violent removal of a doctor who refused to be “involuntarily rebooked” from a flight. Viral video shows a bloodied Dr. David Dao being dragged semi-conscious down the aisle of a United jet by airline security officers. Dr. Dao reportedly suffered a concussion, a broken nose and lost teeth during the violent removal. Despite expressing outrage over the incident, lawmakers did not say they would move to impose more regulation on the industry, which was deregulated in the late 1970s, leading to massive mergers and near monopolies by the four major airline carriers. Instead, lawmakers called on the industry to self-regulate. This is Arkansas Republican Congressmember Rick Crawford.
Rep. Rick Crawford: “I don’t want to jump into a competitive model and apply re-regulation. But that means that the industry has to do some self-regulation to demonstrate that you don’t need interference from Congress.”
Oscar Munoz: “I couldn’t agree more.”
And that’s United CEO Oscar Munoz, saying he couldn’t agree more that the airline industry should regulate itself.