United Airlines CEO reveals new politics after David Dao was dragged off a flight

United Airlines has revealed its new policies to deal with overbooked flights and some passengers can score up to $10K.

United Airlines has detailed several new policies to deal with overbooked flights as it issued a report about the April 9 dragging incident on a United Express plane in Chicago.

Dr David Dao, 69, who was already seated on the plane refused to leave when told to make room for airline crew members travelling for work, and video of him being dragged off Flight 3411 by airport security officers lit up the internet.

The airline says it will raise the limit to $US10,000 ($A13,356) on payments to customers who give up seats on oversold flights and will increase training for employees as it deals with fallout from the video.

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United is also vowing to reduce, but not eliminate, overbooking — the selling of more tickets than there are seats on the plane.

It isn’t saying whether ticket sales have dropped since the removal of Dao, but the airline’s CEO admits the incident could be damaging.

United CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement: “Every customer deserves to be treated with the highest levels of service and the deepest sense of dignity and respect. Two weeks ago, we failed to meet that standard and we profoundly apologise. However, actions speak louder than words.”

“I breached public trust with this event and how we responded,” Oscar Munoz also told AP.

“People are upset, and I suspect that there are a lot of people potentially thinking of not flying us.”

Dr David Dao, the United Airlines passenger removed from the flight. Picture: AP

“We have to re-earn their trust. Today’s announcements are a first step in that.”

“Today, we are taking concrete, meaningful action to make things right and ensure nothing like this ever happens again.”

When asked by AP why it took the video of a passenger being violently removed from a plane for United to make these changes, Munoz said: “Clearly the event certainly accelerated our focus on this ... We’ve been on a pretty nice trajectory with regards to our reliability, with regards to our friendliness. We hear that from customers. Progress has been made, and this event a couple weeks ago was a failure.”

Munoz also admitted his first response to the incident was “insensitive beyond belief”.

When asked if he regretted anything he personally did in responding to this incident, including the letter he wrote where he blamed Dao and called him “disruptive and belligerent”, he said he “messed up”.

“That first response was insensitive beyond belief. It did not represent how I felt,” he said.

“Like most people, I got caught up in facts and circumstances because clearly the event was more complicated than other recent ones at other airlines. I messed up, plain and simple,” he said.

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz while seated in the seating configuration of the carrier's new Polaris service. Pictue: AP

To head off customer defections, United had already announced that it will no longer call police to remove passengers from overbooked flights, and will require airline crews travelling for work to check in sooner.

United also said it would:

*Limit the use of law enforcement on a plane, except for safety and security reasons.

*Stop forcing passengers already seated to give up their seats, except for safety or security reasons.

*Establish a customer solutions team to provide agents with creative solutions such as using nearby airports, other airlines or ground transportation to get customers to their final destination.

*Ensure crews are booked onto a flight at least 60 minutes prior to departure.

*Provide employees with additional annual training.

*Create an automated system for soliciting volunteers to change travel plans.

*Reduce the amount of overbooking.

*Empower employees to immediately resolve customer service-issues.

*Eliminate the red tape on permanently lost bags by adopting a “no questions asked” policy on lost luggage valued up to $US1,500 ($A2003).

Reverend Jesse Jackson stages a protest against United Airlines at O'Hare International Airport over the incident. Picture: AP

Delta Chief Executive Edward Bastain said his carrier has adopted several policies to avoid such incidents, including giving supervisors the authority to offer a passenger a free iPad to give up a seat on an overbooked flight.

“It could never happen at Delta,” he said of the Dao incident.

Dao, who was hospitalised after the incident, suffered a concussion and other injuries, according to his lawyer Thomas Demetrio.

Mr Demetrio said that Dao is prepared to sue United over the incident, the LA Times reports.