Originally Posted by
Sailvi767
United’s operations control center is in Denver. If I were the CEO and the airline is melting down that is the place I would want to be. I have not been in UAL’s OCC but have spent time in another running an airline of similar size. The amount of information available in the OCC can’t be duplicated remotely. United was very close to needing to perform a complete shut down and reset. That’s a CEO call and requires every bit of info available.
Exactly - this is much ado about nothing.
I don't know where the CEO flew into Denver from, but when he found out things were going into meltdown, he wanted to get there ASAP. Both to see what needed to be done to straighten things out, and how to insure it doesn't happen again. Hands on management (not micro-management) is always preferable (especially when the proverbial stuff is hitting the fan).
So he had two choices - wait hours for the next available United flight to Denver (which, due to the meltdown, could well be delayed or cancelled), probably bump a paying customer in the process. Or fly private and get the as soon as physically possible.
Optics might say the former, but doing his job means the latter.