Suddenly United Airlines is banning customer-facing employees from wearing any pin other than an American flag pin. They are currently allowed a choice of 18 approved pins on their uniform.

United Airlines appears to be on the precipice of a partnership with JetBlue which will require regulatory approval.

They may want some of JetBlue’s slots at New York JFK and to eventually buy the struggling carrier. Even if not, United has a lot of business before the federal government.

Airlines are one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country. Much of the passenger experience is directly carried out by government.

Governments do security screening, rather than just regulating it like in much of the world. Governments own most of the airports.

And from the moment planes push back to the time they reach their destination gate, government employees tell those planes exactly where to go and at what speed.

So United Airlines CEO has been going to extreme lengths to placate the Trump administration, from donating $1 million to the President’s inauguration to speaking out positively about its efforts to impose tariffs which are destructive to the economy broadly and airline industry in particular.

It’s a complete 180, as United had been all-in on President Biden’s agenda. CEO Scott Kirby got out in front of vaccine mandates within days of President Biden’s inauguration when that was a priority of the Biden administration, and long before they attempted to make those mandatory.

He was supportive of environmental causes and the airline campaigned for affirmative action. I’d described United as the most ‘woke’ of U.S. airlines.

Just a year ago, Kirby was being roasted by the MAGA Right for dressing in drag in a 2011 airline Halloween event (he did it again, by the way, in 2014 performing as Kesha).

But then Donald Trump himself kissed Rudy Giuliani while Guiliani was dressed in drag so narratives are complicated.

Now another about face.

• While Delta and JetBlue had changed their policies to forbid Palestinian flag pins, United Airlines defended cabin crew wearing Palestinian flag pins last summer as ‘designating language skills’ even though ‘Palestinian’ isn’t a language, it’s not clear that those wearing the pins necessarily speak Arabic, and it’s not a standard designator for those who do.
• However, starting next month “flight attendants and other customer-facing employees at United Airlines will only be able to wear a US flag pin: all other country flag pins will be banned” reports Live and Let’s Fly. The airline’s approved pins list now says,

  Note: starting May 28, only US flag pins will be allowed

You may like United’s turn to anti-woke, and crackdown on Palestine flag pins. I’d submit that while the phenomenon of bending to the will of the party or person in power isn’t new in the U.S. per se, it’s growing to a degree we haven’t seen before and that’s dangerous.

Timur Kuran has written about preference falsification (Private Truths, Public Lies). It’s tough to know how much support a totalitarian regime has. They look stable until they aren’t.

People appear to support the regime out of fear of revealing their true beliefs, but when the tides turn and it becomes safe as part of a group to express opposition even true supporters act as though they had opposed the regime all the time to gain advantage in the shifting world.

This same phenomenon explained a lot about the fall of Harvey Weinstein. No one publicly criticized him, until it became clear it was safe to do so.

When women started speaking out, other women did so, and there was a cascade of stories that came out. His enablers all distanced themselves from him, claiming to have either been unaware or quiet critics all along. Everyone switches sides.

Now United Airlines is doing it, but they aren’t alone. In internal remarks to employees following the American Airlines earnings call last Thursday (a copy of which was reviewed by View From The Wing) CEO Robert Isom spent a good bit of his introduction talking about the risks and harms of tariffs – but too the step of hedging, claiming he wasn’t talking about the merits of tariffs. Even in closed rooms, you don’t want word getting back to the powers that be that you aren’t on their side.

Both Scott Kirby and Robert Isom have each earned more than $30 million in a single year. I’d hope that if I ever put together a little bit of money, like John Goodman in The Gambler I’d feel a little bit more liberated and not have to be so obsequious over things I did not actually believe. The hard thing here is we know longer know what Kirby actually believes?