United to ULCCs: 'We Determine How Much Traffic We Spill'

Economic slowdown or not, United executives says it'll have no trouble filling its airplanes. It'll just grab customers from its weaker competitors, executives say.

Dear readers,

Earlier this week, Frontier CEO Barry Biffle shared with NBC News his typically upbeat assessment of the economic climate for ULCCs, arguing that in a weak economy, the company with the lowest costs always wins because consumers trade down to cheaper options.¹ But on Wednesday, for the second consecutive earnings call,² United executives not-so-obliquely called Biffle full of shit, and I enjoyed it.