Well, I told Scott this backstage, but I feel like he's my landlord because I am on United planes most of my life. I am a proud United flyer and a Global Services flyer. So if you want to get there, you just have to be on airplanes more than your body, mind, and soul can handle. It's a good aspiration for everyone in the room. So that is where we start the conversation. I'm a huge aviation geek, so it's a real pleasure to be here with Scott, who started his career, or spent a good chunk of your career, at US Airways and then when it merged with American, as at running American. So let's get into talking about United. You've called it the best airline in aviation history. I want to ask you, what is one achievement from the last year that you think backs that?
I think the way our employees feel about United. And airlines, do you care how I feel? I care about that's why I care about our employees feel for that reason. I like to say that I have the easiest job of anyone at United Airlines because I really only have one responsibility, which is to create an airline that our people are proud of. Because if they're proud, they want you to feel the same way and they take care of everything else. And we are in the people business. You know, the life flight seats are great, the inflight entertainment, all the stuff we're doing, the Wi-Fi that's coming with Starlink is going to be great. But walking onto an airplane and there's two flight attendants standing there in the galley that are positive, that are happy, that you can tell are genuine, that care, that are happy. There's nothing we can do that matters as much as that.
Delta is predicting a banner 2025. American is trying to get corporate clients. How is United trying to stay ahead of the pack? And talk about some of the long-term planning that you're engaged in for, for lack of a better term, the next generation United.
Well, that's the way we think about it, and I've thought about it that way the whole time I've been at United. It's about winning brand loyal customers. And what I want to do exactly is people that just want to fly United, that they look at United, they trust United, they believe in United. And I think to do that, we have to be the best and we have to continuously get better. I mean, how our employees interact with you is table stakes for that. But also continue, like the inflight entertainment, we're going to have the best inflight entertainment on our fleet. We're investing in it. Starlink is going to be the best Wi-Fi in the sky. We have the best technology, the best app. But the app is just the tip of the iceberg. All the technology that makes the app the best in the world goes behind it. And what I've told our team, we use the word innovation. I think it gets used too much. I don't really love the word. I love the word, but I hate that it gets overused. I've said to our team, we have to do things new and exciting every year to wow people. We have to wow you. We have to win you. You're a Global Services customer. Our obligation is to win you every year. You can take for granted all the other stuff that we did. We do new cool things that make you think, wow, this is a great airline. And so winning brand loyal customers is our focus, and that's a long-term focus. You don't do it overnight. You just keep getting better and better and better. You win more and more, and that fuels the growth of the business.
Let's talk about policy. Aviation is a heavily regulated industry, to say the least. You spent a lot of time in DC. The people that oversee you include Department of Transportation, the FAA, Homeland Security. You worked at the Pentagon at some point earlier in your career. You're a graduate of the Air Force Academy. So you know a lot about a lot of things. Loyalty programs are something that have come under increased scrutiny in recent years. How are you ensuring that they stay a win for both United and its customers?
Well, our loyal flyers, everything I've said to this point, our loyal flyers, the brand loyal customers, are our bread and butter. They are our strategy. They are what everything that we're trying to do for the long term. And the loyalty program is the center of that hub. When you're in the loyalty program, you know you get the credit card, you get more miles, you aspire to, I want to take the family to Cape Town this year, I want to go to Tahiti. And you aspire to those. What we're giving you in the loyalty programs are dreams, actually. I think there's only four loyalty programs in the world, the big airlines, and I think MX has one too. The rest of them are rewards programs. You go to Starbucks and you spend enough, and I'm not complaining about Starbucks program, but you spend enough you get a free coffee or something. It's just a rewards program. The loyalty programs are something sexy, cool that you aspire and dream about doing and taking those trips, and they are unique. And so having the value, we'd cut our own throat if we did not have a great loyalty program that people loved.
Let's talk about President Trump has taken, for his own reason, aim at Boeing, which has been a fight that's gone on for a long time. But Boeing also has delivery delays on the commercial side that are dragging in, I think you said, till 2030 in some respects. How is United adapting to some of those delays?
Well, first I'd say about the president, he knows a lot about airplanes. First time I talked to him, we talked about engines and the 757 and 747. I know he thinks it's the greatest airplane ever built, and I have a hard time disagreeing with you for commercial airplanes. The SR-71 is the greatest airplane ever built, but for commercial aircraft, probably is a 757. But I think Boeing has turned the corner under Kelly Ortberg, the new CEO. I think he's going to get it fixed. They're on the right path. It's a big ship, wrong analogy, but a big ship, so it takes time to turn. But they have. But I think when I've said there's going to be supply chain challenges through the end of the decade, even once Boeing gets back there, the problems and the challenges at both Boeing and Airbus are masking there is massive strain in the engines and the rest of the supply chain underneath Boeing. The rest of the supply chain, Boeing and Airbus are never getting back to the production rates that they want to get to, at least not this decade, because the supply chain can't support it.
You've sounded somewhat optimistic about President Trump's term, how it's going so far. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but that's my assessment. What is one aviation policy, I'm sure you have lots of thoughts about the state of federal aviation policy, but what is one policy you hope he tackles first?
Well, for aviation, the biggest thing is to finally fix the FAA. I mean, we've been talking about it for decades.
So tell me what needs to be fixed.
There's three things that the FAA needs to fix. One, we need to get to full staffing for air traffic controllers. That's by far the biggest thing. They're supposed to have 15,000, they only have 10,000. They currently train them all at Oklahoma City at a facility that can induct a maximum of 1,800 students a year. They last year they inducted the maximum 1,800, they were proud of that, but they netted 36 controllers at the end of the year between washouts and mandatory retirement at age 56. 36 would take us a century to catch up to the current staffing shortage. So they have to do something different there. Technology is the second one. The technology is antiquated, written in a language that nobody who studies goes to school today has ever even heard of. And then the third is their facilities and equipment. Their facilities, things like radars, transmitters, they are decades old. They actually spend 92% of their facilities budget on maintenance and repair. I asked our team and I've asked other companies, at a company it's the inverse, it's closer to 8% of your budget on maintenance and repair. It's the exact inverse. And so that's partly funding. But I think doing those three things will fix the FAA. And the United States deserves the best system in the world. This is not a safety issue, this is a delay issue. But last year on blue sky days at United, 68% of our delays were because of air traffic control. When there's no weather, 68% of the delays were because of air traffic control restrictions for these delays. And so fixing that is great for everyone that flies. It's a more efficient use of resources, we burn less fuel, we put less carbon. It is a win across the board for everyone to fix the FAA. And I think Secretary Duffy and this administration are committed to doing that, want to do that, are going to do that. And by the way, there's bipartisan support up on the hill, so it's not really a partisan issue. I think we're going to finally fix the FAA.
Okay, so let's zoom in on one thing you talked about, air traffic controllers. The president, Elon Musk, JD Vance have all spent a lot of time talking about air traffic control. DOGE has, depending on who you ask, either eliminated some or not eliminated some, depending on what.
