First they accidentally reinstate two 9/11 flight numbers, then this. United Airlines, this is not your best week ever.
United Airlines and New York City’s MTA removed an advertisement that appeared above ground at the Cortlandt Street R subway stop — right across from Ground Zero — after people complained that its message was insensitive. The ad read, “You’re going to like where we land.” Passersby complained that the proximity of the ad to where United Flight 175 hit the south tower on Sept. 11 should have screamed inappropriate to whoever placed it there.
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United Airlines says that it was not aware of the placement of the ad, while the MTA stated that it approved the ad but that a third-party vendor was in charge of choosing where it would be plastered. The MTA contacted the vendor to have them remove the ad from the subway stop.
This snafu comes just days after United inadvertently reinstated flight numbers 93 and 175 in its computer system — an automatic update that airline officials were not aware had happened until media reports began to circulate. (United and Continental, which merged last year, are undergoing a flight number realignment.) While flight numbers 93 and 175 had been retired after the Sept. 11 attacks, they were not removed from the system altogether. United reportedly now plans to permanently retire the numbers.
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