Scott Kirby

Scott Kirby

CEO & Board Member at United Airlines
Company Tenure: 8 years
Education:
United States Air Force Academy (Undergraduate degree) George Washington University (M.S.)
Biography:

Scott Kirby serves as CEO & Board Member of United Airlines. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, Kirby has worked for United Airlines for 8 years. He serves CVS Health as a Board Member. Outside of his professional occupation, Kirby is also affiliated with the Business Roundtable Inc. His educational background includes a Bachelor’s degree from the United States Air Force Academy and an M.S. from The George Washington University. Additionally, he has engaged in political giving, donating $40,640 to Republican causes and $29,500 to Democrat causes.

Profile Details

Total Political Contributions More information

Republican Support
Democratic Support
$40,640 $29,500

Affiliated Companies

Key Statements

"But the other thing that I think sets United apart from companies is we've got a commitment to be 100% green. And that is different than the traditional net zero commitments that you hear from others. And what we mean by 100% green is we're not going to use traditional carbon offsets to get there."

"And to me, the perfect example of this was what happened with the war in Ukraine 13 months ago. Every Western government that has been big on climate change, 100% of them rushed, rushed to insulate their consumers from high prices. If you want to lower the volume of fossil fuels, raise the price. It works. 100% of them, whether it was releasing oil from the SPR, the cap on natural gas prices in Europe, like 100% of them did it."

"Our employees are proud of what we did, not just to get through the Pandemic, but even taking stands, whether it's sustainability, diversity, vaccines, whatever it is. But starting to lead the industry and not just be a leader in aviation, but a leader in corporate America creates a sense of pride that shows up in better customer service."

"And we want to change aviation. We want to change the world. And so we're going to try things like Boom. Vaccine requirements fit into that category. Our sustainability efforts fit into that category."

"We're expecting to train about 500 pilots a year at the aviation academy, and today only 81% of our pilots are white men. Only 19% of our pilots are people of color or women. And that's because of the historical barriers to entry. You either went to the military or you had to spend $150,000 a year to become a pilot. That barrier, that $150,000 expense, meant that women and people of color just didn't have the opportunity to get these jobs. Now we're kind of joking. We're going to be able to be more selective about people coming to the academy than any Ivy League school, given the number of applications we have."

"Because in the long term, that's what matters. In the long term. What that means, by the way, is if you've got to sequester the carbon, that's going to cost money. That means the airline tickets are going to be more expensive, but they should be, like if we're emitting carbon our passengers ought to pay that and that's ultimately what will happen."