Scott Kirby: “It's About Making Real Change”

In this 127th episode, an edited version of a live event recorded on March 2, Scott Kirby, CEO of United Airlines, joins Steve for a fireside chat. Scott Kirby has been a health security leader in the private sector, achieving a 99.7% employee vaccination rate in eight weeks. The Covid-19 pandemic forced a major change in internal culture “about leading, about doing the right thing, about a customer service culture that didn’t really exist before”, including abandoning some policies like flight-change fees. After getting news of the second Covid-19 related employee death, he decided to implement the mandate “just because its the right thing to do”. Despite pushback, he does not regret it: “Saving lives? There’s never a decision I’ll make in my career that is as important as that one, or one I’ll ever feel as good about”. This change in company culture extends to climate change too. United is going green by 2050 with sustainable aviation fuels for long flights and investing in electric and hydrogen solutions for short flights. They have also partnered with Occidental Petroleum Corp to invest in carbon capture sequestration, which will offset United’s annual emissions without traditional carbon offsets.  

Scott Kirby is the Chief Executive Officer of United Airlines Holdings, Inc.