Another startling fact is how much money Smisek was rewarded after his resignation. Being a CEO is an incredibly difficult task especially at one of the biggest airline companies in the world. After the merger with Continental Airlines, United’s performance was subpar. There were plenty of delays and major breakdowns of the computer systems. Passengers were constantly dissatisfied at the service that was provided for them (Zernike & Mouawad). Also, their ability to keep up with technology was average. Smisek was motivated to decrease the fees that Newark was receiving because they were the highest out of most airports. However, he tried to do it with illegal trades and it backfired. Overall, his performance as CEO was about average because of the extreme decisions he had to…show more content… The flight went from Newark to Columbus on Thursday and returned Monday morning. There was rarely anyone who took this direct flight because it was unpopular. The demand for it was steadily low compared to the average flight. As a result, United was losing money in the decision to create the flight mostly for Samson. Also, it affected the availability of creating different flights that could have been more profitable for United Airlines. Instead of losing money from a flight that no one took it could of tried out a different route that could have been more advantageous for United. According to Smisek, the opportunity cost of creating the flight for Samson was more useful than losing money every week flying this jet to Columbus. Another harmful effect was the cost of possibly losing flyers to other airlines. The two individuals knew what they were scheming and had to realize that they would eventually get caught. Therefore, it would frustrate the customers because they are not being seen as the number one priority. Smisek was more interested in pleasing a couple of people rather than the array of customers United
