Many customers on social media and in the press have called on Chief Executive Oscar

Munoz to resign.
The incident has also turned into an indictment of the overall treatment airlines provide their
increasingly dissatisfied customers. The U.S. industry, which has consolidated into a virtual
oligopoly where the four largest carriers control more than 80% of domestic seats, has taken
away perks like free checked luggage, crammed more seats into economy-class cabins and
made frequent-flier programs less rewarding, all to improve the bottom line.
United has lagged behind its rivals for years in financial and operating performance. The
messy merger in 2010 with Continental Airlines further hurt its focus on customer service
because the new company was busy aligning its information technology systems, working to
win federal safety regulators approval for new procedures and manuals to cover the
combined entity and producing new labor contracts to cover its mostly unionized workforce.

Last Sunday evening, Republic Airways Holdings Inc., the regional airline operating the
flight for United, asked an hour before departure for four of its crew members to take the
place of passengers, according to a person familiar with the matter. The crew was needed the
next day at the flights destination in Louisville, Ky., the person said. They had been delayed
by a mechanical problem earlier. United agreed, according to two people with knowledge of
the matter.

But the two pilots and two flight attendants didnt arrive at the gate until a few minutes
before departure, according to Uniteds pilots union. All the passengers were already seated