United signals a new era for air travel?

The customer is always right but up until recently, it felt like that old adage didn’t apply to the airline industry. Customers were packed in like sardines in increasingly tighter rows of seats and battled with each other for precious overhead bin space amid rising baggage fees.
Slowly but surely, that’s starting to change.
United Airlines Holdings Inc announced a jumbo-sized jet order that features 200 Boeing Co 737 Max jets and 70 Airbus SE A321neo planes. But the more interesting headline was that the carrier will also invest in a revamp of its existing planes. All of United’s mainline, single-aisle jets will get seatback in-flight entertainment, better Wi-Fi connections and enough overhead bin space for each passenger to carry on a roller bag. It’s an acknowledgment that after massive bailouts for the airline industry during the pandemic and a coming wave of new competitors taking advantage of cheap aircraft prices, what the customer wants is going to matter.
The fleet renewal was needed. United has the oldest fleet among major peers, and its reliance on regional jets has put it at a financial disadvantage. United says replacing the regional jets with larger, more efficient models in its domestic markets will improve productivity and fuel efficiency while also allowing the airline to offer more premium (read, more profitable) seats per flight. With aerospace manufacturers still reeling from the pandemic, this is the ideal time to lock in deals for new jets.
United declined to specify the pricing on its plane orders, but it likely got the Max aircraft at a significant discount as Boeing tries to rebuild its market share in the wake of the plane’s two fatal crashes and almost two-year grounding.
My initial inclination was to frame this overhaul as a bet on the return of business travel, and it is to some degree. United CEO Scott Kirby has consistently argued that those predicting the permanent demise of corporate trips will be proved wrong. I tend to think he’s right; it’s hard to believe the pent-up demand that’s currently buoying leisure travel won’t also extend to the corporate world as companies reconnect with clients and train new workers. But the revamp is also “about giving customers the product that they want,” Kirby said.

—Bloomberg