The head of United met with the Chinese consulate in Chicago over the possible impact to bookings from a customer being dragged off a plane but it was too early to tell if business in China had been hit by the event, the company said. In the carrier's Q1 earnings call, United again apologised repeatedly for the incident in which Dr. David Dao was dragged from his seat on a United flight to make room for crew members. Dao accused officials of discriminating against him for being Chinese before he was hauled off the plane, according to a fellow passenger. Social media users across the United States, Vietnam and China called for a boycott of the airline over the incident. United has about 20% of total US-China traffic and a partnership with Air China, the country's third-largest airline. "It's really too early for us to tell anything about bookings, and in particular last week because it's the week before Easter. That's normally a very low booking period," United President Scott Kirby said. On the call, CEO Oscar Munoz said he would have "further conversations with customers and related governmental officials" in an upcoming trip to China that had been planned prior to the incident. United did not say when Munoz met with the Chinese consulate officials.<br/>
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A week after video of a passenger being dragged off a plane sent United Airlines stock plummeting, its CEO said none of his employees would lose their jobs over the controversial incident. On United’s earnings call discussing Q1 results Tuesday, Oscar Munoz expressed remorse once again for the airline’s decision to forcibly remove the passenger from an overbooked flight in Chicago, which caused uproar from the US to China. But despite calls for Munoz to resign, the CEO of United Continental Holdings ual said the company never even thought about forcing heads to roll due to the debacle. “The buck stops here, and I’m sure there was lots of conjecture about me personally,” Munoz said, saying he’d had “fulsome” conversations with United’s board of directors in the wake of the incident. “There was never a consideration for firing an employee or anyone around it.” Rather, Munoz blamed “a system failure across various areas” for contributing to the circumstances that led security officers to drag the passenger off United flight 3411 when he refused to give up his seat, leaving the man, a doctor, bloodied and injured. United had said it needed to bump passengers from the flight in order to make room for four of its own crew members who were required to be in Louisville, Ky. by the next day. In the future, United “will never ask security to take a passenger off a plane,” Munoz promised on the call. Plus, to avoid situations where crew members seek to board a full plane when all passengers have already been seated, United will require employees traveling on the company’s aircraft to book their spots at least an hour before the departure time, the CEO said. United may announce further changes to its policies around overbooking and customer service on April 30, after the airline completes an internal review of the factors that resulted in the public relations fiasco. Munoz, however, refused to say whether the company would end its practice of bumping passengers involuntarily altogether.<br/>