United is struggling to repair its badly bruised public image after the death of a puppy onboard one of its flights reignited public debate about the airline's customer service failures. United faces possible action by the US Congress, as well as federal and local authorities, along with criticism from passengers after the latest in a series of public relations blunders. The most recent incident involved the death of a French bulldog, Kokito, that died last week after a United flight attendant insisted that the puppy's carrying case be stored in the plane's overhead locker during a 3-1/2-hour flight. Federal and local authorities are trying to determine if there are grounds for legal action in the dog's death, and lawmakers have introduced a bill to Congress that would direct the FAA to prohibit storing live animals in overhead compartments and establish civil fines for violations. "You can't talk your way out of a situation you behaved your way into," said Anthony D'Angelo, national chair of the Public Relations Society of America. D'Angelo pointed to United's immediate but short public apology to Kokito's owners and other customer relations mishaps, including a mixup last week that led to a Kansas family's dog being shipped to Japan, as evidence of the type of bad headlines that can lead to a reputational "death by a thousand cuts." "Unless there is a concerted and proactive effort... customers could start asking what's going on. Stockholders could. Legislators could. The board could. At some point you could see some executive changes." <br/>
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Five weeks into his new job as CEO of United Airlines, Oscar Munoz had a heart attack. It was October 2015. Munoz, then 56, was rushed to the hospital. In January 2016, he had a heart transplant. Two months later, he was back at work. Munoz had inherited a company in disarray. His predecessor, Jeff Smisek, was ousted after the airline was caught in a federal corruption probe. United's 2010 merger with Continental had left the carrier an internal mess. Customer satisfaction and employee morale were low, and United's stock was on the decline. "[An airline has] three legs on a stool — its customers, its investors and its labor. And United had fallen behind on all three," said John Strong, a professor of business administration at the College of William and Mary. Over the next year, Munoz managed to stabilize the company. In March 2017, the magazine PRWeek named Munoz its US Communicator of the Year. Then, in April, Dr David Dao was violently dragged off a United plane from Chicago to Louisville, in order to make space for commuting crew members. The incident was captured by passengers on their phones, and quickly went viral. United's botched response made the situation into a national news story. Munoz was told he would not take over as chairman of United's board later that month. Now, United is back in the news. Earlier this week, a dog died after it was put in the overhead bin on a United flight. "This series of things over the past 18 months has been kind of outrageous," said Bryan Reber, a professor at the University of Georgia who studies crisis communication and management. In the midst of all this, Munoz has faced intense pressure from investors to ramp up profits. Story has more details.<br/>
Lufthansa has begun using biometric self-boarding gates at Los Angeles International Airport, the carrier said Monday. Lufthansa’s self-service gates—deploying facial recognition technology to automate the passenger identification and boarding pass verification process—was developed in collaboration with Amadeus, provider of Lufthansa’s Altéa passenger service and departure control system, US Customs and Border Protection, LAX and biometric facial recognition systems provider Vision-Box. During initial trials at LAX, Lufthansa said it could board approximately 350 passengers onto an Airbus A380 in about 20 minutes. Lufthansa flies a daily direct LAX-Frankfurt route out of LAX’s Tom Bradley International Terminal. The airline said it plans to expand the technology to additional US gateways and other passenger touchpoints, “[paving] the way for other airlines using Amadeus’ Altéa technology to rapidly deploy biometrics boarding for their own passengers.” “We anticipate that in near time, biometric boarding … will be widely utilized across the US and beyond,” Lufthansa senior director-product management ground & digital services Bjoern Becker said.<br/>
Another round of scams targeting Singapore Airlines customers has proliferated online, with the airline putting up an advisory warning customers. The new iterations of the scams ask for customers' personal data on the pretext that they have won air tickets or were selected for a lucky draw. In a Facebook post on Thursday, SIA said that it was aware of the scam, which was carried out via e-mails, messages and phone calls. "We advise customers to exercise discretion when revealing personal data to unverified sources," it wrote. "Recipients should verify such e-mails and phone calls if they have any doubts, as well as lodge a police report." SIA also advised customers to be wary of phishing websites that appear similar to its official website, and to exercise caution in sharing their personal information and credit card details online. This is the latest in a series of scams that has dogged the carrier.<br/>
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has given a blunt warning to Air NZ to stop shutting down its regional air links. The extraordinary censure from the NZ First MP came during last Friday's announcement that the Government was stumping up NZ$1.75m towards the $4.75m cost of building a new terminal at Bay of Islands Airport near Kerikeri. Striding towards Air NZ's regional affairs manager, Ian Collier, Jones said "terminal" was a fitting word for the warning he was about to deliver. "Don't keep closing down regional air links. And take that message to your supervisors." Later, Jones conceded he wasn't the shareholding minister for Air NZ but said he was speaking out as someone born and raised in the provinces. "They've just ditched Kapiti, Kaitaia is gone with the wind ... While Air New Zealand has become very skilled at moving people around our major metropolitan areas, I think it is quite irresponsible of them to continue to degrade their provincial connectivity." As a champion for the regions he was ''absolutely'' within his rights to challenge Air NZ, which was still Crown-owned to a significant degree, he said.<br/>