Asians hold protests at the O'Hare Airport Terminal when a Vietnamese doctor was dragged off a United Airlines flight. (Photo : Getty Images)
Dennis Dao was videod being dragged down the aisle of a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Louisville. The video went viral and many Asians are upset with the news.
The reaction not only came from angry Chinese but from many Asians around the world.
The doctor is not Chinese but is Vietnamese-American.
Many netizens were angry about the incident. A Vietnamese named Anh Trang Khuya posted on Facebook, "Watching this makes my blood boil, I'll never fly United Airlines."
Another Facebook user, Nguyen Khac Huy, wrote, "Boycott United!!! This is excessive!"
The incident is coined as the worst PR catastrophe for United Airlines. By next year, there will be 23 million Chinese who will travel to the U.S. and it is predicted that United will have a small share due to the incident.
A representative from Japan Airlines said, "We would never drag our customers off our planes. That is unimaginable."
"We ask passengers to voluntarily give up their seats. If nobody does, then we just keep asking until we find one," he added.
Aside from being a PR disaster, stocks of United plummeted by $1 billion. Analysts predict that United's 20 percent control of flights to China, particularly Beijing, Chengdu and Xian, will be lost to other airlines.
United Airlines' lack of sympathy was also highly criticized. The airline's CEO, Oscar Munoz, publicly apologized and stated, "This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers."
However, United Airlines' handling of the situation is in accordance to the boarding priority policy of the airline. These policies are compliant with the bill of rights of passengers and sanctified by the U.S. Supreme Court.
United Airlines' boarding priorities policy state, "If there are not enough volunteers, other Passengers may be denied boarding involuntarily in accordance with UA's boarding priority."
