United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has acknowledged the latest service issues skilled by airways and said that extra assist should be in place to stop related points sooner or later.

In an interview with CNN, Kirby mentioned it is unimaginable to “run an airline prefer it’s 2019, and the reason being as a result of the system is simply burdened to the max.” Kirby mentioned stress is obvious “in all places, whether or not it is in safety or FAA staffing or techniques.”

“Throughout the board, there are strains within the system,” Kirby instructed CNN’s Christine Romans. “Plane producers delivering, having sufficient pilots and all of these stresses and strains implies that the system is tighter.” Moreover, exterior components like extreme winter climate resulted in tons of of flights being cancelled — an issue that considerably impacted Southwest Airlines.

To fight these points, Kirby mentioned his firm had boosted the variety of backup planes and employees by 10% for each block hour in comparison with pre-pandemic ranges. He indicated United additionally has “25% extra spare airplanes, and actually throughout the board, we’re simply having extra buffer and extra sources that offers us the power to firewall when one thing occurs.”

United Airways has additionally taken extra steps to treatment staffing points like a pilot scarcity by establishing Aviate, the primary pilot coaching academy launched by an airline based mostly in the USA.

Fares, nonetheless, are nonetheless greater than earlier than the pandemic. Kirby indicated he believes customers can nonetheless discover bargains, although, telling CNN that vacationers “may nonetheless typically pay much less for…airfare than the Uber to get you to the airport prices.”