The sense that theres not enough of it is something that is wildly shared among many of us in washington, and the ambition for this series is to call on leaders from national and local politics and business leaders, folks from education, arts, advocates, to try to understand what are the circumstances and the characteristics that enable some people to overcome real differences and lead. Our imagination at the Bipartisan Policy Center is not that the it was passive cohesion. Democracy is not a gentle game, but weve always had people who have understood how to overcome those differences to kind of reflect on this question on what does enable us to overcome the inherent distinctions in any kind of free society, we are delighted today to be joined by oscar m oscar munoz. He was ceo of united airlines. He is a true american success story, and were going to talk about that a little bit, but growing up with eight siblings in california. First member of his family to go to college. He has had a number of rather remarkable leadership roles. Worked at at t, cocacola, pepsico prior to joining united as t. But i think really the focus of this discussion is going to be a lot about oscars focus on people as i prepared for this discussion, the consistency with which the descriptions of your leadership have been anchored in both your employees and your passengers as really kind of showing through, and i think im particularly interested in a field that is technologically complex. Logistically capricious, to say it pleasantly. Its scary flying. The fact that we dont get scared flying is remarkable, but we take everything that is right and wrong in American Society and jammed it in narrow aluminum tubes and hurled it around the world. Its a pretty remarkable thing we do. The fact that you have been able to at that moment to really change the culture of the company while achieving more than a 50 increase in stock price, is cool. Were going to explore that a little bit. I should close the introduction by acknowledging how pleased we are to be able to have this series and the honor of the Extraordinary Service of bob and elizabeth dole. Bob dole is one of our four founders. Again, bob and elizabeth are proud partisans. These are not folks who go lightly anywhere they travel, but they are people who in their careers understood how to overcome real adversity, and how to build the kind of trust that is necessary to move the country forward, and so this is the one year anniversary. We launched the series on bob doles 95th birthday, and its been a really great experience for us as an organization, and were dedicated. I think were going to have our 12th event this thursday, five freshman female members of congress are going to talk about their shared experiences. Lets jump right in. I think there is a cliche leadership about whether leaders are made or born. My conclusion is the answer is yes. But i guess my question is if we had your eighth grade teacher here and said heres oscar, ceo of united, would they say of course. Or who is oscar . Eighth grade. When did you start we were studying a famous quote, im the sum of all the parts i met . I think she might say that. I remember eighth grade particularly. Thats pretty impressive. She would be honored. When did you start to find yourself in leadership roles . If i could, thank you for having me. The concept of partisanship, bridging the gap, conversing, having different points of view and having meaningful debate and discourse is something that feels like weve lost, and in a world thats become increasingly divided, i always like to say we choose a world thats united. Sorry. Thats solid. Im done. But to your point on the fact that its even more of an honor, the fact that its the dole leadership series, all of us remember senator dole standing up with assistance at the funeral of mccain. One of the most poignant, touching moments. It really encapsulates the world that used to be in politics. Thats a meaningful thing. When this came up, i thought it was a great possibility. We think the members of congress are by and large very good people with bad incentives. Talking about leadership is hopefully part of a process. Look, reflecting on a life over a friendly conversation is not a fair challenge, but do you think have there been some moments in your life when you look back and think about your philosophy of leadership . Do you look back to any particular people or instances that you say would really kind of have affected your approach . I would go back to the fact that you are who you are as a product of your environment, the people that you have met along the way, the people you allowed to come into your life and influence. Certainly our parents, our loved ones. But increasingly, in my world, theres always and has always been a cross of people that just you hold up exemplary to light. I had a grandmother who i always get emotional when i talk about her. She lived to 96. She worked her entire life. She was a maid in a hotel for a long period of time and worked well into her 80s with debilitating sort of arthritis. And the one thing about her that i always remember, not a single ever a single bad word about anyone or anything. She went to work every day. And i came up with a concept that says proof, not promise. Its in her sort of giving sort of credence to her, because when she retired, she was, again, a maid at a hotel. So nothing meaningful. But the fact that not only her coworkers showed up but management and even Senior Management from a different city showed up at her retirement just for me kpemly if ied the fact the kind of person she was and the meaningful impact she had on them. You aspire to be the same kind of person, and its those kind of things. I could tell you 20 other stories about people that have caught me along the way. My high school counselor, mrs. Duckworth who caught me in the hallway one day, not quite when class was out. I thought i was in trouble. And we had just taken the s. A. T. S, preliminary s. A. T. S. She stopped me to ask me where i was thinking of going to college. And, again, i grew up in a relatively low income household, but blue collar where the concept of college and further education wasnt part of the conversation. So my answer was at the time like, whats a college . And she helped me go through the process which got me to go to school, and again, in the environment and the that i grew up in with my latino roots, it wasnt yet a prominent thing. One of my guiding missions in life is i dont want to be the exception to everything. I want to be the expectation. Right . We should have people of all colors and race and sex and positions of authority. We shouldnt question or wonder hey, why are you in that position. Those are the kind of things that drive me. Its always been another human being around me somewhere that has influenced that conversation. I give credit to them. A lot of things i do personally in philanthropy and within our company is just try to instill to people that its important to care for others. Of course, i work in a world where caring for wonderful customers in this room is really meaningful to us. We are going to get there. You give a lot of preamble so i do too. Senators, we have seats up front. If you want to i know you got to run so youre hanging out by the bar . All right. Is that bill . Thats bill. Bill by the bar schuster, just a private guy. I could tell stories. He was wonderful in a time in our life at uniteds life that was dark. Thank you for that. Meaningful balance and support, but it was worthwhile. It was a wonderful experience. So before we go more into kind of the company and theres a lot i want to talk to you about. I mentioned earlier its a cliche, but this is the American Dream story. This is the story we all imagined this country is about. But the reality is that it really isnt so much. Right . If you look at some of the recent data, social mobility in this country is at a lower point now than its been in generations, i think. The chances of moving from the bottom fifth of your economic status to the top fifth is about 7. 5 . It doesnt happen a lot. Productivity increased, almost doubled since 1980. Real wages have stayed roughly flat. As a ceo generally, not even of united, you indicated, i got a good quote from your wonderful staff that you want united to be a company thats profitable and principled. Employees make a living and a great life for themselves and their families. How are you helping people move up that social ladder and is that an obligation of a ceo . Its an absolute and complete and total obligation. Its so easy in this day and age to give that responsibility to others. Not my job. My job is to make money for my investors, and all of it is true. But its an absolutely obligation. Social views. Philosophical concerns. We sit over in my world, over 100,000 people that are worldwide. Our vision in life is to connect people to the things that matter most and then the second part is unite the world. And that comes from our 90,000 people. Thats not a phrase i made up. And that gives me a lot of clarity and support and confidence about having an obligation to do all the right things. Weve taken very strong stances on sustainability, diversity. You cannot find a more diverse set of Board Members or leadership in this industry than united and more importantly, theyre high performing individuals all chosen on merits rather than just the aspect. Ive lived my entire live under the guise of you have to work harder because youre different than other people, and so i did. When i counsel folks and whether its the latino or any diverse space, i just say the fact of life is we do have to work harder. Plain and simple. And work harder we shall. But increasingly, more and more people are getting into positions that dont look like me, that look more like a standard, i guess if you call it ceo. Who are beginning to see the value of the diversity of thought and capabilities. And its really making a meaningful difference. The obligation is to continue to do not only use the words but more importantly, again, back to this proof, not promise. To put people in place and positions and in charge of things that are meaningful, and you watch them grow, and then we have the kind of you said 50 . I think were closer to 90 stock and appreciation. It makes a difference when you have success and again this concept of profitable but principled along the way is meaningful. Yeah. Theres a serious obligation. Lets talk about wall street a little more. When i had the pleasure of talking to a lot of ceos, the basic questions of shareholder versus stake holder is kind of the simplistic frame. Is the obligation milton friedman, every 90 days maximize profits or is it my community and the country and people basically say look, im with you. But, you know, wall street is an aggressive partner. Yeah. And when you took over the company, i think one of the first singles you were really thinking about it differently was executing labor agreements that had been openended for a while. Let me just talk about why that instin instinct, but you got a cringy response from wall street. The stake holder shareholder question. Im interested in what you think. This is where people i think mistake the emotion and drive and purity around principles as being too touchy feely and soft. That well, oscar just wants to treat people well and thats all were going to do. We from almost day one have had a definitive structured Strategic Plan of attack about what we needed to accomplish in order to get where we are today. Youve got to have that plan. That takes care of all your constituents. Not only your community, employees, customers but of course wall street. And sometimes not everyone understands what youre doing because in this world theres no good deed that goes unpunished, certainly. And so having the plan that we all hear it in order to take care of your customers, youve got to take care of your people first. How many books have been written about that . Everybody says the words. Who does it . Well, our team at from the onset said theres the problem in our company. We have grown disengaged, and therefore, we need to regain the trust of our employees and one of the mechanical things was taking care of at one point in time a fivesixyearlong contract disputes with our flight attendants. Five, six years in we havent treated them like meaningful, valued part of the family. You have to fix those things and yes, theres a cost to it. Wall street wants know the return . You fast forward to today, heres the return. We have a better customer experience. We have better profitability. Were able to invest in things like sustainability, the community, talk about things like diversity with meaningful proof as to who has accomplished that. And so its not this feel good thing. You have to have a definitive plan. We laid out a plan last january about our growth strategy, and you talk about wall street going a little crazy. They went skra crazy, but we pu together a team. We vetted that plan for months on end. When we launched it, we had every expectation that it was going to do exactly what its been doing. Nobody else knew. And all the people but you have to have this conviction about everything that youre doing with a fairly strong laid out plan. Its not just about hoping its going to go well. We work very hard to get to those things. So talk to me a little bit about youve watched and youve been a ceo for many years and youve been in csuites of companies. It seems to me the role and expectations of ceos is changing quite gdramatically. The expectation youre a public figure, that you have views on policy issues. As you have been in these roles over the last decade, is that a fair assertion . Do you feel like the public expectations of your role is different now than it would have been a decade ago . Accountability, transparency, have all increased mightily, and i think rightly so for investors and businesses. A lot of us grew up in a different world. Being a ceo in the old days youd look back fondly on those times. It is different today, but thats just the times have evolved. I dont look at it i look at it as the new reality. And its an important one. And i think most of the folks that sit in our roles today i think embrace it as well. Its the right thing to do for where we have developed as a social community here in the u. S. So one of the places where i think we have seen a change is the expectation that companies are Public Policy agents. Youre not just about air travel. I guess peter druker said management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right things. You and delta took a strong position after the parkland shootings. Everything about that was controversial. But why . Youre an airline. What role did you have in that Public Policy issue . So the facts behind it all are very simple. One of our pilots lost his daughter in that shooting. I mean, that puts a whole different aspect on anything youre talking about. I actually flew down to miami to see them, you know, a few days after. We had our annual meeting the following week, and the stance we took is there was a big nra convention. We were offering discounts like we do to any large crew. We felt that was not the appropriate thing to do given the circumstances that it just happened. As an industry to a degree, we banded together. I was the first one on the podium, so to speak, to be asked the questions because the nra took a strong stance about that and accusing me of political bias. I dont have a political view. I lost a family member. Plain and simple. It did become personal. Of course, the media pick it up saying i said it was a personal decision to stop the nra, which wasnt the full context, but its those issues we have to do the right thing. We had parkland. We had the separation of children. My vision is unite the world. What part of unite the world allows the separation of children from their families regardless of the circumstances . So we took a strong stance and went a step further and flied people to actually reconnect people that had been separated. And so those are the kind of things that i think are important, and if you looked at the broad nature of our United Family, you ask them about at least decisions, theyre fully supportive. They gave me that clarity and that conviction and confidence when they came up a term that said we unite the world. Lets talk a little bit about the world and an issue youve been focussed on. The environment, and Climate Change. United has made a commitment to reduce emissions by i think 50 by 2050. Its a tough thing to do if youre fighting gravity. Right . And gravity being 4 . 5 billion of jet fuel per year. Talk about your thinking. As an industry the airlines has not been a leading voice in the climate debate. I think rationally because it doesnt see a lot of options. Batteries are pretty heavy. Electric planes people unlikely for the near future. Why were you motivated to do that, and how do you think about the ability to achieve whats a pretty bold commit. Back to the issue of reality, you have to and i heard this this is not a Political Support or debate, but a former Vice President who was very involved in the area of sustainability, i heard him say these words. Dick cheney . Different environmental issues. But the concept was do you believe that Climate Change is real. Right . Ask yourself the questions. Theres much debate and facts. But do you believe, do you see the facts . And if you do, or dont, thats the first question. The second question is can you do something about it . And all of us can do something about it. Because the third question is the most important. Will you do something about it . And i think as we face that question inside our United Family, i think generally we felt that the facts are increasingly more obvious that Climate Change is affecting us in different parts of the world. Can you do something about it its like yeah, but oh, thats going to be expensive. Its going to be difficult and hard and take a long time. Were going to have to make all these thing changes. Then the question came will you do something . We said we will do something about it. We started easy with straws and to the concept of bio fuel. Weve taken the Largest Investments in waste energy manufacturers. Were exploring those capabilities and more importantly by us leading the industry from the planet perspective, we now have more traction. We have people i believe delta came out recently with a similar pledge. I was working with the International Association of the airlines and were working that. And as were beginning to do that, this concept of esg is all of a sudden beginning to rear its head, and its wonderful to be ahead of that with known focus, known sort of lines in the sand about this. Its an important topic for us. Again, we can only bury our heads so long, and, again, we have to be mindful of 4. 5 billion gallons of jet fuel we burn every year. We have to do something to move forward. And thats i think what weve been doing. You dont think the Green New Deal is going to be a giant boom for amtrak . No comment. I had to get that out. Theyre here later this week. Ask that question then. I turned to this question, kind of people. So you have 90,000 or so employees. 160 million passengers. And you made a strong point that you thought that kind of the ethos of the company and the airlines were a little out of whack. That the focus on safety and efficiency had led to a protocoldriven culture that took some of the humanity out of the process. You came up with these core four principles, the second of the four being caring. This is clearly a central thesis, but talk a little more about when you joined the company, what were you perceiving that had been lost and what have you tried to do to bring it back . I think its a big operation. You as customers if you think about your last flight or next flight, you think about one thing. Is it going to leave on time and get me where i want . That reliability is very important. We dont to your earlier point, im told recently, think a lot about safety because we expect that out of the training, out of the regimen, out of the great Regulatory Oversight that we have with regard to that. And so over time when you run a really big operation like we do, the concept of we cant have anarchy and chaos. You have to have order and process. You cant just jump up to a go to the airport and go to whatever line and just get on the airplane whenever you want. I think southwest tries to do that, but we dont have quite that luxury. So you need policies and procedures in order to ensure, again, your safety, and your security. Thats why we do that. But once weve taken care of the issues of your safety and security, then we have to learn to put the customer at the center of things that we do. How do you feel about flying us . How do we take into the account the things you want to do . I know you want to fly with that sixfoot peacock, but the answer is no. Someone did bring an emotional support peacock . They tried to. We stopped them well ahead of the gate. I was told someone brought an emotional support dog for their emotional support monkey . Yes. The only thing unclear is whether the monkey was for the dog or virce versa. You cant make this stuff up. Because as you think about all the logistical things that have to happen to get a flight in the air, we have a lot of rules. Right . And if you sit outside and watch a gate or a plane being boarded, youll hear many people come up with hey, can i sit next to my friend . Can i bring this . Can i bring this 30pound bag thats my third bag, and our answer is and has to be to a degree, no. Not because we dont want you to but because somebody is already sitting next to your friend. Theres all those practical things. But over the course of time with the volumes we have to, we lost that caring feeling. Where its like you know, how do we tell people no and explain to them in a meaningful sort of impactful personal way they can do that, but at the same time create an environment where we dont always have to say no. Were Building Digital tools, but at the heart of the matter, the heart of the matter, the interaction you have with us is with another human being. And how they treat you, how they react to your question, how they answer your question is a really important part. And that comes from the core. It has to be. And so giving our folks this core four principles of youre always safe first. And then the other two are dependable and efficient. What you would expect a big company to say. Right . But the second most important thing is caring. And so when you see a mother of three running down the terminal to make a connection and its the last flight of the day but your policy, our rules, my procedure says you know what . It is 5 30 and the gate gets closed in. Shes close by but im going to get in trouble if i dont close at 5 30. Thats when care comes in. Im going to wait a little bit. And allowing that in a culture thats been so fixated on following rules and procedures, thats when we put it into place. Its a constant affirmation and education and explanation of what it is. We have become so entrenched in policies and procedures that people wanted to know well, in that example, oscar, how many minutes can i care for . Is it two minutes . Is it six minutes . But again, that brought another thing called connections matter. We actually built technology, big data ai kind of things. We know where the aircraft are going. We know wind patterns. We know how long a plane can delay and still make the further connections. In a plane of 130, 150, 160 people, most of them are on board. That family of three is the small number compared to the rest. Our policy is always lets let the masses get to the point in time. But if we have room, we know it, lets wait for the plane. Now, that hurts us because our on time metrics will decline. And you will read from the press, well, yunited Airlines Service degrades. Weve saved 25,000 connections. Now, that may not be a lot in the world of 160 million people, but you know what . If youre one of the 25,000 people, you care a lot about what that is because it made you feel good about hey, somebody is waiting for me, and we still our average delay is 4. 5 minutes and were always getting there on time. Because we know our mechanics, our big data knows what we have fly, and it helps you as a customer. And thats the right thing to do. But again, the metrics, well have to educate all of the world that the metric alone doesnt tell the whole story because connections do matter. To anecdotes, i have a seared memory of seeing the doors close with two kids and two strollers. It was not united. We have not flown them since. And as i share with your staff, i actually just was on a flight last week from denver to d. C. With my 13yearold sitting next to my 11yearold. She generously shared her ear pads with him so he could listen to the same video, and he managed to drop it in that invisible depth between the seats. We dont make money by the things we find. Thats one accusation. It was about to create a generational fissure between my children and one of our flight attendants saw this happening, and got she took the seat. She literally took way that my daughter was very humiliated it was a remarkable thing and my children still love each other. And he had told me this story earlier and ill reiterate what i said then. That flight attendants decision to assist in that manner did not come from a digital tool, an investment, any class that we sent them to or anything. That came from a pure, unadulterated, personal desire to care for someone else. Allowing people to be that, to care for others is the meaningful part so the words, it doesnt matter. Just give people the freedom to give a crap about someone else so its a really meaningful thing and its exciting to see that. Were excited to hear those stories. You would be amazed at how many heroic stories my friends from we hear this all the time. Were always trying to sort of publicize how important the industry is but more importantly how much good we do for so many people and that story times a thousand, every day it happens, but of course, we dont hear about any of those things, right . You hear about the ants or whatever it is that happened. I clicked the four stars after that. Thank you. So, were going to open up to questions in a minute but i wanted to ask one other question and this is kind of the questions of leadership in crisis and i know you get asked this a lot. But you had a heart attack shortly after becoming the ceo and as the story goes, found out that you had to have a heart transplant and at the meeting with your staff said, im going to be out for a few hours at which point you went and had a heart transplant and obviously i dont mean to make light of this incredible experience but im interested in it, again, as it relates back to your imagination of leadership because you know, one of the notions of leadership is this presumption of invincibility. A lot of politicians, ceos like to create this aura of just, you know, being above it all. Your mortality was put right in front of you in a very dramatic way. Has that affected your leadership . Has it affected your approach to your job . You know, i think in my case, clearly theres an effect. There has to be, right . When you go through Something Like that. But not i am pretty much the same person i was before. Again, this sum of all parts that we talked about at the opening continues to drive me. But it has it has helped me understand not just mortality but the importance of, as an example, that not invincibility but whats a good word for it . That we all as individuals, we are all going to face obstacles, were all going to face issues, some seem so deathdefying and disastrous that our life goes topsyturvy but what with the right level of support from family and loved ones, the right mindset about these things, i mean, during that whole health crisis, i never, ever, ever once thought that anything bad was going to happen to me. And thats not an aura of ceo invincibility. That comes from a lot of peoples hearts and minds and all the United Family was amazing, the quick story is i was only on the job for 37 days before i got stricken with a pretty massive heart attack that would have killed most people, and the level of support from the United Family was immense. Again, 37 days, but the amount of mail and gifts and flowers and things that came in from that from that community for so long, my children opened the bags of mail and read them in the morning to me and so thats for me, like, coming back from that event was never a conversation or a question, but it does help me help other people. I go to a hellot of hospitals a speak to a lot of patients and its important for them to see someone, you know, running around, doing what i do or anything that, you know, your life doesnt have to be narrowed down to something just because you have a transplant. Its an amazing process and technology and i would tell you all that the psa that i always give to folks, its really simple. There are so many, many, many symptoms of heart attacks and the difference between men and women that are immense, but the advice i got from someone that i by the way, i used to run marathons and triathlons and i was a vegan when i got mine so your lifestyle i probably dont recommend any of those things for anyone. But one of my mates that we run, who happens to be a cardiologist, would always say some of the youngest and fittest people that die on my operating table have heart attacks and symptoms that they never, ever sort of managed. And so he said if you ever feel anything weird, or strange, and we know what that is, you know, immediately call for help or assistance. And he said that, which makes it obvious, right . But he said something that was always stuck with me, was the fact that he said, and when you call 911, immediately tell them where you are, okay, makes sense, because you may not make it past the phone call. And that was a dramatic thing and i remember exactly where we were when he said that. This was probably two years before my event and so one morning, in chicago, by myself in my apartment on the 50th floor, i had just worked out and i felt something weird. My legs gave out of all things and his words came rushing back to me, get to the phone, call 911 and tell them where you are because 50th floor of a highrise in a big city. Thats a lot of doors to knock on. Most of the deaths occur when people just say, you know, im just going to jump in the shower, ill feel better, im going to lay down and ive told this story so many times and i constantly tell it only because we have received so i mean, literally thousands of notes back from people that have heard this story and have responded that, i told that to my dad or to my brother or to someone, ive had people stop me at airports in tears just telling me how meaningful that was because just like it helped me make the decision to call 911, i tell it all to you so you can tell otherwise. It must give you some perspective when the crisis is whether or not you bring back tomato juice. Time for a few questions. Im looking over to the cheap seats because i think, you know, schuster, i know youve thought about airlines a little bit so theres a put over there if you want to. Leaking over here. But secretary glickman. First of all let us know who you are, please. Dane glickman and compliment and a question. Theres no question that your service has materially improved in the last couple years and thats not just because i want my Global Services renewed. Its because in truth, there is a remarkable difference in how people are treated on an airplane. So, all the carriers, but united i fly united more than anything else. Id like you to comment on the kind of the elephant in the room, the 737 max 8. And how you, as an airline, responded to that when you were so reliant on getting these new airplanes and that they were certified by the faa and how youve dealt with that particular crisis because i think its probably been the most serious crisis affecting the Airline Industry in many years. Yeah, this is where things like this core four and the general industry trend toward safety first, Flight Safety in particular. There really is absolutely no disagreement on how important that is. Any airline, any place you see, certainly in the united states, anything that could affect Flight Safety is immediately dealt with. I mean, once we had i think the decision process was, do we have facts and data that support a grounding . And thats important because to return an aircraft to flight, you have to use the same facts and data. There was a lot of emotional sort of issues around the world that said, hey, so and so did it so you should do it as well. I think the faa did the right thing as weve always done. We have the best Safety Record in the world here with the faa and what they were doing is doing their data and their analysis and once through all that analysis, once we learned the right facts and data to do this thing, we have had that plane grounded and literally in five minutes the decision was made and ready to go. So, thats how we dealt with it. How we deal with it going forward, its like this aircraft will return to flight at the right time with all the right level of support from not just the u. S. , not just all the u. S. Airlines but around the world so that everybody feels comfortable. Its important for people to feel comfortable back in flying so its going to yes, we take a hit, theres all sorts of issues but again, remember, profitable but principled has to be and theres no bigger principle than you would have us have other than your personal safety. So, thats the way well follow it. Yes, sir . Im with capital intel. This is sort of a bipartisan issue which started with obama and still goes on with President Trump now regarding Gulf Airlines flying into u. S. I just flew from to jfk on emirates, Qatar Airlines had controlling stake of air italy. How big of a problem is that for you and also the second part of the question is, do you think we should get rid of our Foreign Ownership barriers from europeanu. S. Airlines, allow cross border mergers like luthansa, united, British Airways and american. All my peeps are like, oh, dont go there. I think the ongoing debate with the qatar and the emirates, i think, has been chronicled well. Our point is that we dont mind a competitive playing field. We just live in a competitive world. When its so uneven with subsidies, thats the thing that weve been working with. Its like, we can, you know, i think the number was 50 billion over a decade that those airlines have been subsidized and everyone disagrees with the number and i say, all right, cut it in half, its still a hell of a lot of sub sidization. Theres a reason why no u. S. Airline flies to the gulf carriers, we cant. Its impossible from a financial perspective. It is fiscal and real in our minds and we continue to debate that and so well continue to have those conversations. Them trying to take stakes in airlines like in italy and flying them, in essence surrogates, we have a bit of an issue. We think thats cheating and again weve been very prominent in those debates and conversations and well continue to do that and that conversation will happen again. Qatari government was all here last night, did not get an invite to that dinner, but nevertheless, well continue the debate. With regards to the broader issue of ownership, thats an issue for governments to deal with. We have our views, certainly, but you know, fair and balanced competition and access to everyone is something that we all actually sort of support. What else . Hello, my name is maria, i come from spain. Sorry for my accent. Thank you [ speaking Foreign Language ] no, you dont. First of all, i would like to thank you for this amazing conversation and i would like to ask you as you come from a company that i love, i am working at the Cocacola Company for 23 years in spain, and you work now in a company that i also love because it brings me to my country directly, which anyone doesnt. I have to do it i have to jump when i want to go to spain but now i can go next week with united to spain. The question is, what did you learn from cocacola to bring it to the airlines . Yeah, and i think one of the thank you. Thats a great sort of attention. One of the things i missed after i left coke and did a couple of other jobs is that the direct consumer branding capability. What i envision for our united and its a difficult and more difficult issue, is the same emotion. If you could see her smile, when you think of cocacola, we just get all warm and gushy about it, right . We all remember the old ads and coke and a smile and all those different things. And you know, thats the kind of feeling we want to bring to your flying experience with united, so those are the things i learned, how important our consumer is, how our brand is. We didnt become the friendly skies overnight. Weve earned that moniker over the last couple of decades and to live up to it, thats the standard, thats the drive that were working for to regain. So thank you. One or two more questions. Im going to ask one on behalf of congressman crowley and schuster who are leading one of our infrastructure efforts, and its on this question of next gen and that technology and the partnership between the government and the private sector. You know, i know its probably apock ri fall but the assertion that theres more technology on my iphone than on some airplanes. How can we not figure this one out . What is it going to take to bring modern navigational capacity to our air Traffic Control system . You know, everyone faces this dilemma in this city about how we move things forward that are meaningful improvement and meaningful advancement to our way of life. Air Traffic Control in our world is so outdated and so obsolete in some degrees. It is still safe but we have to slow everything down. So we talk about sustainability, you know, the big manufacturers are building these aircrafts that are, you know, the kwift f equivalent of ferraris but with air Traffic Control here its the equivalent of making those ferraris run around on gravel roads. You take away all the joy. Fuel savings and fuel efficiency in those big aircraft when you have to slow them down all the time you burn all that fuel so thats one possibility but i think what happened before, and this is partly the solution, and bill and others know this, this became politicized. We started using the word, privatization so next gen is the next generation of air Traffic Control that aligns itself with 65 other countries that use it. Were behind 65 other countries, just to put it in perspective. And so this word became privatization and that became the operative word and we tried so hard to fight, to say that shouldnt be the word. The objective should be modernization. Thats what were trying to accomplish. How best do we accomplish that as a nation with support of both sides of the aisle, with both sides of a public and private sector, and thats where we sort of failed, i think it became too politicized and then it became divided and it became a point of debacle and went across party lines and we lost that battle so well go back after it and as i said to certain leaders on one side of the aisle, like, all right, great, you won. Now what . We still have the problem. So, who really won here . And so we have to just keep at this. This ones on our to do list here at the Bipartisan Policy Center as well so look forward to working with you on that one. Thank you. Thanks. Go ahead. Thank you. Its your show, i forgot. I am this is a ceo trait, unfortunately. I am michelle, do you have a last question . Well, i run the Infrastructure Project here and thank you for your comments about publicprivate partnerships. Weve been waging that battle for a couple of years now. But more specific to the d. C. Area, we are finally getting a metro out to the Dulles Airport and i understand you all are doing a lot to enhance the participate and potentially make it a northeast hub or i guess not northeast but midatlantic hub so can you expound a little bit about what you are doing out at dulles . Tel aviv. That was a great way of just explaining the things that were doing, our connecting traffic that we flow into here for a lot of the local community to come into that hub and fly internationally. This is a hub that when i first joined the company, speaking of wall street, its one of the places we should shut down. It is proving to a point where its one of our most profitable hubs, weve grown it significantly, 7 or 8 over the last couple years so we are doing at that airport what you need us to do, what you want us to do, give me places to go on aircraft that i want to fly. Our business is simple in that. Unfortunately the aircraft are very expensive, you want to fly to many, many places immediately, so weve worked it so weve introduced a lot of different flying and youll see more of that and tel aviv is a perfect example of a flight that really matters to a lot of people in this community and the infrastructure at these airports is i wont use the term i want. It is not up to par. Its mature. Its mature, certainly. Or its nonexistent or things have, you know, all of us know what dulles is about and weve got a train that goes nowhere. We still have the same rental facilities that were generated 20, 30 years ago that are still there. Weve never connected it to anything. So all of thats got to be done. Unfortunately that requires a lot of money. And a lot of money thats local, a lot of money thats so, infrastructure is a whole thing for our country and then we have the debate, the broader debate about infrastructure for our country, right . Theres our roads and bridges and such, so i dont purport to be thats the thing that we have to fix, airports, i think we have to fix all of infrastructure and how that comes into play. Comes back to publicprivate partnerships, part of partisan sort of Work Together to accomplish the concept of modernization or, you know, gosh, when was the last time we fixed the highway system, the 50s or 60s. This is a great nation with great prowess and great capabilities but somehow, again, weve become divided and ill end where i started. We choose a world thats united so its a continued effort. I want to acknowledge that we had to close out because oscar has a flight to catch and in the true demonstration of servant leadership, they will not keep the door open for him. No. But i really want to thank you for sharing your thoughts and i think they not only resonate with all of our experience having the kind of contact with your company that we do but also it says a lot about the way we want to make this country work better so i appreciate it. Thank you very much. Our live coverage will continue this afternoon when the House Oversight subcommittee on civil rights and Human Services holds a hearing on the treatment of children at the u. S. Southern border. It starts at 2 30 eastern here on cspan3. And tomorrow, the Senate Armed Services committee will question general mark milley, the current u. S. Army chief and hes been nominated to be the next chair of the joint chiefs of staff. Watch live coverage thursday morning at 9 30 eastern here on cspan3 and both hearings will be online at c span. Org or you can listen with the free cspan radio app. There has been discussion about an experience before congress. Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. It contains our findings and analysis and the reasons for the decisions we made. We chose those words carefully and the work speaks for itself. And the report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. Former special Counsel Robert Mueller is set to appear before two committees of congress on wednesday, july 17th, at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, he gives testimony to the House Judiciary Committee and later in the day, hell take questions from the house intelligence committee, both open sessions. Our coverage of Robert Muellers congressional testimony will be live on cspan3, online at espn. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker nancy pelosi, along with several democratic lawmakers, gathered on the steps of the senate to defend the Affordable Care act on the same day a Circuit Court was hearing a challenge to the law. A threejudge panel of the fifth Circuit Court was hearing oral argument in texas v. United states and would determine whether to affirm or reverse a District Court decision that declared the entire aca invalid