00:44:19 · John Collison, Scott Kirby
[00:44:19] S1: How do you make the decisions? Like, when you launch Nuke in Greenland, is that you have a vibe that it could work? It actually Is it card counting or poker? [00:44:31] S0: That one, it's different. It's hiring great people because I would've never picked Nuke or known Nuke. We got a guy named Patrick Quell and a great team that are really creative and they go look for things that are different and outside the norm, not in the data. We talked about data earlier. That aren't in the data because no one's ever done it. So there's no data to support it. And NUC has been really, really good as an example. Really? Yeah, people love it. It's a great place to go. We've added, so across The Atlantic, by next summer we'll have 53 destinations. We had 23 destinations ten years ago when I got to United. We'll have 53 next summer. We've only had two that didn't work. We're also disciplined about it. When they don't work, we stop. Like that's the great, you know, our assets are fungible. Like Bergen Norway didn't work. Like, I think Norway's awesome. It's still like incredible. I think it should have worked, but it didn't. But so we tried it and you know, it lost a little bit of money. It's not that much. Lost a little, and we just stopped. That's the great thing. Like we can try stuff and stop. [00:45:30] S1: But so the fellow, Patrick Quayden? [00:45:32] S0: Patrick Quayden. [00:45:32] S1: Yeah, Patrick Quayden. How does he make the decision that nuke is a go?
00:45:32 · John Collison, Scott Kirby
[00:45:32] S1: Yeah, Patrick Quayden. How does he make the decision that nuke is a go? [00:45:39] S0: He has all kinds, you know, they're staying really connected to what's happening in the world. Another example, I forget the names of these cities, we added a couple of cities in Spain and Portugal that but I've never even heard of, and I don't remember them now, the names, that are part of pilgrimage trips. So people, Catholic, they're Catholic pilgrimage, they fly to one and they walk, you know, to the pilgrimage to the other, a couple 100 miles apart, then they fly out of the other city. Oh, so you have add both of them at the same time. So we've added, you know, and anyway, he went and somehow read about pilgrimages, went and got some data, how many people do it. Then he went and found data that said, Oh, I can see all these broken itineraries that somebody flew us into one of the cities and they flew another airline out of the other cities and we added them and they went gangbusters. He, this year, took a trip to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Like we can't fly there today because we can't fly over Russia. All right. But he's there like, you know. [00:46:36] S1: This could work. [00:46:37] S0: This could work down the road. [00:46:38] S1: Kind of. [00:46:38] S0: So he's doing stuff, you know, he's doing stuff like that and his team is great. But... Be more interesting maybe for one of your podcasts in [00:46:46] S1: the future Yeah, than [00:46:46] S0: I'm very interested.
00:46:46 · Scott Kirby, John Collison
[00:46:46] S0: I'm very interested. [00:46:48] S1: Greenland, by the way, fascinating. Love it. It's a country of 50,000 people and they're just going gangbusters building airports where obviously... [00:46:57] S0: Well, it's the only way to get there to places. [00:46:58] S1: Yes, but like, for sure, it's the only way to get there, and so an international airport in Nuuk maybe makes They just replaced it, that's why the new route that you guys have. But they're replacing the airport in Narsarsquak. There's already a perfectly good airport there, and they're building a new airport there in the full jet capable international airport. They love these capital projects for a country of like 50,000 people. Yeah, so they spend their money on it. [00:47:19] S0: It's such a cool, no pun intended, place to go. And, you know, it can drive the economy. 50,000 people, having people come in and, know, it can The international economy is driving [00:47:28] S1: that is. [00:47:28] S0: Drive the economy. [00:47:29] S1: I wanna talk about the tech for a second. [00:47:31] S0: Yeah.
00:47:31 · Scott Kirby, John Collison
[00:47:31] S0: Yeah. [00:47:31] S1: So how should we feel about the last few decades of, you know, the actual airframe advances, where everyone likes to talk about, you know, the seven thirty seven first flew in 1967. It flew at Mach 0.78. Yeah. And the seven thirty seven Max today flies at Mach 0.78 ish. Yeah. Now, we... It does burn 50% So, less fuel, the latest that's like a significant improvement. It is 30 to 40 times safer. So, that's a significant improvement. But at the same time, people feel like, again, it's one of these examples people trot out of stasis. How do you feel about the rate of technological improvement It's in [00:48:11] S0: maddening that we haven't done more. In fact, this book, where is it? Impossible Factory. [00:48:20] S1: A skunkworks book. I want [00:48:21] S0: to read this. Yeah. [00:48:22] S1: Had not known there's a new [00:48:23] S0: skunkworks book. Clarence Kelly Johnson, you know, and developing, you know, the SR-seventy one, you know, the U-two, you know, in a couple of years from start to finish. I think the fundamental problem is Boeing and Airbus have a global duopoly and they have quietly, not officially agreed, but they have quietly agreed neither one of us will invest in new airframes. [00:48:43] S1: They're pacing the frontier. [00:48:44] S0: And if no one had, if you don't have an option, you know, like, we need a third aircraft manufacturer, to be blunt. [00:48:50] S1: Okay, so you think there's basically a breakdown of competition
00:48:50 · John Collison, Scott Kirby, Ben Thompson
[00:48:50] S1: Okay, so you think there's basically a breakdown of competition [00:48:53] S0: in the so neither one of them, their investors don't want to reinvest and so they just won't do it. I've been begging them to vote for twenty something years to build a seven fifty seven replacement. Begging them, and they just won't [00:49:03] S2: do it. I am on a seven fifty seven, but actually Chicago. I'm little nervous about it. Plane. The takeoff's amazing. A cool airplane. [00:49:09] S0: It's a cool airplane. [00:49:11] S1: Speed is obviously one thing and obviously you guys are working with Boom. But speed is also hard and it requires much Other more than speed, what improvements would you like to see? [00:49:21] S0: Well, a couple. The next generation, I think, of airframes you could build on the current airframes. I think the biggest thing is probably gonna be blended wing bodies. So, think of the B-two bomber. It's a much more efficient airframe for flying. And so turning that, we're an investor in a company called JetZero who's trying [00:49:40] S2: Is that an airport challenge though too? [00:49:42] S0: It's airport challenges. Yeah, it's bigger, so airport space. But that's really a gate challenge. You've to regate. Cool. I think that's an example of something. Engine technology, I think, can advance as well. Another cool thing, by the way, we're starting the relax road next, later this year or next year, which is in Coach, you can put three seats and a bed comes out and you can lay down on them. [00:50:03] S1: Oh yeah.
00:50:03 · John Collison, Scott Kirby, Ben Thompson
[00:50:03] S1: Oh yeah. [00:50:03] S0: But we have little United stuffies, airplane stuffies. And it's already got some for my kids. My kids love them, but that's another [00:50:10] S2: cool I mean, that an example of, like, basically a lot of the economic outcomes that you're looking for? I sort of pushed you on this with the premium question. [00:50:17] S0: Yeah. [00:50:18] S2: Is how can you take a large fixed capital product and basically deliver infinite numbers of strata of, like, pricing [00:50:26] S0: Yes and no. Like, I think of this as, I don't think of it that way. I think of we are trying to build a brand. We're trying to build a great brand. And something like Relaxer Oil, I think will be profitable but it's gonna not even be a rounding error in our financials. Right. But it's cool. Yeah, I just And it's good to do stuff that's cool. Good for families. Like I also, I said earlier, I have seven kids and I think of air travel through the lens of a parent traveling alone with a couple of young kids. How do we make it easy for them? If we can make it easy for them, we're going to make it great for everyone. And Relaxed Room is perfectly consistent with making it easy. Starlink is great for them, seatback entertainment. Like I love walking through our airplanes when we have, you know, with seatback entertainment and which a lot of airlines went away from. And you'll see kids watching and parents just totally relaxed because their kids are watching buoy. Like it just makes [00:51:20] S2: How pretty you now watch Cheeky Pint on there.