Angry passengers prompting airline CEOs to learn to say sorry

Feeling the heat from customer complaints amplified by social media, airline executives meeting in Mexico this week said they need to apologise and explain more quickly when things go wrong. In the past few months, United Airlines has been criticised after authorities dragged a passenger from an overbooked flight, and BA came under fire after an IT meltdown left thousands stranded on a holiday weekend. In both instances, customers took to social media to attack the airlines, with a video of the United passenger being dragged from his seat going viral. Malaysia Airlines CEO Peter Bellew said during a panel session with other CEOs that they had "15 minutes or less to say sorry." Last week a Malaysia Airlines flight departing from Melbourne had to turn back after a passenger suffering mental health issues attempted to enter the cockpit. "We had the first statement out within 14 minutes from the minute I heard about it in the sky," Bellew said. He said that with passengers live streaming the events from their phones and the proliferation of fake news, it was crucial to react fast. United boss Oscar Munoz said he had not apologised quickly enough after 69-year-old passenger David Dao was dragged from a United flight. "The initial focus for me should have been to do what I did a few hours later and apologise," he said. However, he rejected Bellew's suggestion that 15 minutes was the cut-off point, saying there was more time than that and it was important to establish facts first.<br/>