By Dickson Omobola
Chief Executive Officer of United Airlines, Scott Kirby, has assured that United States government shutdown will not affect the airline’s flights between the US and Lagos.
This is coming after the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, and the Department of Transportation, DOT, directed every airline in the US to reduce their schedules amid staffing shortages caused by the shutdown’s impact on air traffic controllers.
Kirby, in a statement shared with Vanguard, said although the reductions would commence on Friday, November 7, United would continue to make rolling updates on its schedule and minimise disruption.
He said: “United’s long-haul international flying and our hub-to-hub flying will not be impacted by this schedule reduction direction from the FAA. That’s important to maintain the integrity of our network, give impacted customers as many options as possible to resume their trip, and sustain our crew pairing systems.
“Instead, we will focus our schedule reductions on regional flying and domestic mainline flights that do not travel between our hubs.
“We will use our app, website and push notifications to communicate to customers directly if their flight changes, and to offer rebooking options. We want to provide them with as much information as we can and in a way that’s simple and easy to understand.
“And importantly, any customer travelling during this period is eligible for a refund if they do not wish to fly – even if their flight isn’t impacted. That includes non-refundable tickets and those customers with basic economy tickets.
“Even with these schedule reductions, United and its United Express partners will still offer about 4,000 flights per day to fly our customers to their destinations. And because of the early November timing, our flights have more seats available than before the summer, meaning we should be able to find seats for many customers even if their flight is cancelled.”
On October 1, Republicans and Democrats could not agree to pass a bill funding government services past when the previous federal budget expired.
Democrats want the bill to include an extension of expiring tax credits that make health insurance cheaper for millions of Americans and a reversal of Trump’s cuts to Medicaid, a government healthcare programme used by millions of elderly, disabled and low-income people.
While a stopgap bill designed to avoid the shutdown was passed in the House, or lower chamber, it did not clear the Senate, leading to government shutdown for the first time in nearly seven years.
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