United’s passengers were stuck, but its CEO flew on a private plane

United Airlines appeared to restore more normal operations on Friday after a weeklong struggle to recover from flight delays and cancellations ahead of the busy Fourth of July holiday. The airline’s disruptions began last weekend in the New York area. At the time, United blamed thunderstorms and federal air traffic control staffing shortages and inexperience. Other airlines suffered flight delays and cancellations at the time, too, but by Wednesday United’s problems stood out as they spread to its operations across the country. Adding to the bad publicity for the airline, the company’s chief executive, Scott Kirby, on Wednesday took a private jet to Denver, where the airline has a hub, from Teterboro Airport, which is close to Newark Liberty International Airport, one of United’s biggest hubs. The airline said it did not pay for the trip and, in a statement on Friday, Kirby said he regretted taking that flight. “Taking a private jet was the wrong decision because it was insensitive to our customers who were waiting to get home,” he said. “I sincerely apologize to our customers and our team members who have been working around the clock for several days — often through severe weather — to take care of our customers.” United's troubles began to improve in recent days. After canceling over a quarter of its flights on Tuesday and Wednesday, United scrubbed about 19% of its schedule on Thursday and about 8% by late afternoon on Friday, according to FlightAware, a flight tracking firm. Still, the number of flights the airline canceled on those two days eclipsed cancellations by other carriers. United expressed optimism about its recovery on Friday. In a statement, the airline said that storms could present a challenge along the East Coast and in Denver and Chicago, but that United was “ready” for the busy weekend. “Our reliability continues to improve, with far fewer cancellations today compared to previous days,” United said. Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, singled out the airline on Twitter on Thursday, sharing a chart that showed that other carriers had recovered from bad weather earlier in the week while United had not.<br/>