Scott Kirby Has Thoughts on CEOs Who Don't Raise Prices
United's CEO believes the current fuel situation is temporary, but when fuel prices eventually fall, industry fares must remain high.
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Dear readers,
As I followed United’s second quarter earnings call last week, I think I heard Scott Kirby obliquely share a warning with fellow CEOs: keep prices up, even when fuel prices fall, or you may lose your job — just like Ted Christie, who “stepped down” from Spirit in April 2025 between the airline’s first and second bankruptcies.
Kirby wasn’t that direct, of course. He’s too smart to utter such an inflammatory remark in a public forum. And since only he knows what he meant, I need to be careful as I analyze his words.
But I am a noted Kirby-watcher, and I think I can make the case that Kirby intended to remind competitors what can happen to CEOs who fail to correctly read industry inflection points.
I’ll share what Kirby said, verbatim, and then I’ll discuss what I think it means.