Touting operational improvements and new alliance deals, United
Airlines is ready to “reintroduce itself to the market,” according to its new vice
president of sales for the Americas, Jake Cefolia.
The carrier recently appointed him to replace John Slater,
who after five years in the role has moved to lead United’s Chicago O’Hare
International hub. Since its merger with Continental in 2010, United has
grappled with operational difficulties, including several
brief fleet groundings owing to computer glitches, but Cefolia said he will
relay the carrier’s “many great strides over the last couple of years” to
corporate customers.
“October was one of the best months we’ve had since the
merger, with two consecutive perfect days and zero cancellations,” he said.
“From January until now, we’ve had 31,000 fewer cancellations across the
network, and that makes a big difference in the experience of our customers.”
He also plans to use the growth of United’s partner network,
such as its investment
in Azul Brazilian Airlines this year, and product enhancements like in-flight
Wi-Fi as selling points to grow United’s Americas sales portfolio. It now
stands at about $15 billion in corporate and travel management revenue, he
said.
United also created a sales role targeting small and midsize
enterprises and is changing its approach toward that market. “We’re going to
look to manage that a little more as a portfolio than what we’ve done in the
past, where we’d either put the programs in place and had them be self-managed
or lightly managed these customers on an individual basis,” Cefolia said.
Cefolia previously worked as United vice president of
Atlantic and Pacific sales, acting as the carrier’s sales representative
outside the Americas. United named Marcel Fuchs, formerly managing director of
sales for continental Europe, to fill that position.