Millennials are going crazy for the Green New Deal. Some say it’s more popular than Instagram and more influential than the Top 40, but one thing’s for sure; it has everybody talking. It’s just that those conversations might not be what the Democratic Party was expecting.
Maybe telling people their truck has got to go, air travel should become a thing of the past, nearly all the buildings in the United States need to be remodeled, and cow flatulence is now punishable by the force of law got people’s attention? President Donald Trump’s line “it sounds like a high school term paper” was an accurate description of how many of us view the green tropes of the new progressives.
Championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Ed Markley of Massachusetts, the idea of an earth free from climate change touched the hearts of those on the left and led the majority of Democratic presidential candidates to endorse the idea without reading the fine print…or the second sentence. Never mind the fact that the earth has always been and forever will be susceptible to changes in the climate and our attempts to eliminate this design from Washington, D.C. reflect a supreme arrogance.
The rewards for the supporters of the New Green Deal? Money for those unwilling to work, justice on behalf of the marginalized, no more gasoline and no more pesticides – all for the low cost of a couple trillion dollars. Lucky for those presidential hopefuls and political leaders alike who aspire for the deal, they’ll have a chance to vote on the measure thanks to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. No doubt a vote for the New Green Deal will demonstrate to the true believers how committed they are to a green planet and all the social justice attached thereto.
If you listen to much of the mainstream media you’ll often hear that the future of our country rests with the millennials cheering on the Green New Deal, people like Reps. Ocasio-Cortez or Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. “The presidency of Trump and the GOP’s electoral success in recent years is nothing more than a fluke,” Omar insists. According to the young progressives now pushing the New Green Deal, the future belongs to the millennial who is well versed in the merits of socialism, the philosophy of social justice, and environmental activism.
These notions wouldn’t be out of place on NPR or MSNBC. The radical left has been making similar arguments for decades. Now, such progressive policy positions are creeping into the mainstream of a party, which seeks to control the White House.
The Green New Deal is preposterous on its face. However, despite being doomed to fail, it does provide a window into how the highly educated, coastal, liberal elite in America think. Solutions which amount to the complete deconstruction of the American economy in an effort to cure the environment and combat social justice sounds radical to the average American, yet at elite universities, the coffee shops of urban cities, and the newsrooms of media’s upper echelon, the Green Deal is Avant Garde. It is woke. It is hip. In short, it is the new black.
Despite the mainstream media’s fascination and coronation of AOC and her tribe, polling shows millennials as a whole don’t want a Green New Deal, a 70% marginal tax rate, the recognition of infinite genders, or the abolition of national borders. Despite the Democratic Party moving towards progressivism and the Republican Party moving towards statist cronyism, the people of America still want a representative republic where ideas like individual liberty, free markets, limited government, and personal responsibility reign.
If coastal elitists want to understand how those of us in “fly over country” feel about a world without trucks, grilled meat, or homecoming queens, I suggest they attend a tailgate at an Ole Miss or Mississippi State game day this fall and ask around. It’s a pretty safe bet there will be more than a couple of enthusiastic answers.
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CHICAGO, Feb. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — United Airlines (UAL) will present at the 2019 J.P. Morgan Aviation, Transportation and Industrials Conference on Tuesday, March 5. Scott Kirby, president of United Airlines, will present at the conference beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET / 8:30 a.m. CT.
The live webcast and accompanying presentation will be available on the investor relations section of United’s website at ir.united.com. The company will archive the audio webcast on the website within 24 hours of the presentation and the webcast will be available for a limited time.
Every customer. Every flight. Every day.
In 2019, United is focusing more than ever on its commitment to its customers, looking at every aspect of its business to ensure that the carrier keeps customers’ best interests at the heart of its service. In addition to today’s announcement, United recently released a re-imagined version of the most downloaded app in the airline industry and made DIRECTV free for every passenger on 211 aircraft, offering more than 100 channels on seat back monitors on more than 30,000 seats. The multimillion-dollar investment in improving inflight entertainment options will benefit the more than 29 million people expected to fly United’s DIRECTV-enabled planes this year.
About United
United’s shared purpose is “Connecting People. Uniting the World.” We are more focused than ever on our commitment to customers through a series of innovations and improvements designed to help build a great experience: Every customer. Every flight. Every day. Together, United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 4,800 flights a day to 353 airports across five continents. In 2018, United and United Express operated more than 1.7 million flights carrying more than 158 million customers. United is proud to have the world’s most comprehensive route network, including U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. United operates 770 mainline aircraft and the airline’s United Express carriers operate 559 regional aircraft. United is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to 193 countries via 28 member airlines. For more information, visit united.com, follow @United on Twitter and Instagram or connect on Facebook. The common stock of United’s parent, United Continental Holdings, Inc., is traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol “UAL”.
Following several alleged antisemitic incidents during flights, United Airlines has vowed to combat antisemitism in its ranks.
The statement was made during a meeting on Monday between high-ranking United Airlines representatives and Duvi Honig, founder and CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce at the Newark Airport hub.
The two parties discussed the airline’s relationship with the Jewish community, its families and business travelers.
The airline reached out to the Chamber after it publicized a recent troubling incident with a young Jewish mother, which was followed by another troubling incident experienced by an elderly Jewish couple.
During the meeting, the United officials expressed their disappointment in these events and vowed to take concrete steps to battle antisemitism in its ranks, improve customer service and prevent any similar incidents from occurring in the future.
They thanked the Chamber for bringing the relevant issues to their attention and working to build bridges between the community and the airline, which is currently the fourth largest in the nation.
At the meeting, the officials, which included Magda Morais, Managing Director of Customer Service; Matt Colbert, Director of NY/NJ Strategic Initiatives; and Jon Gooda, Director of Customer Service; listened to Honig as he shared the concerns of the Jewish community’s over the incidents and the “Chamber’s mission to build positive relationships between the community and all echelons of the business world.
“I would like to thank United for their commitment to work with the Chamber and our community,” said Honig following the meeting. “We look forward to continue working together with United and help them make the skies as friendly as they can be.”
United has long been committed to being a leader in advancing women in the aviation industry. Today the carrier has more women who are pilots than any other airline in the world, including Bebe O’Neil, United’s System Chief Pilot, who manages the carrier’s 12,600 pilots. The airline has worked with Women in Aviation, a nonprofit organization which provides networking, education, mentoring, and scholarship opportunities, for more than 25 years and Girls in Aviation Day to ensure a growing number of female pilots.
“As a global company with inclusion at our core, we constantly seek unique opportunities to celebrate and showcase diverse talents,” United’s California President Janet Lamkin commented. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity through this unique contest to bring visibility to the work of these exceptional female artists. We take pride in leveraging our global presence to showcase their great work to millions of people who see our planes on the ground and in the sky.”
To enter, individuals must identify as a woman, including cisgender, transgender, woman-aligned or non-binary, and reside in the United States, who can visually represent either New York/New Jersey or California, two key markets for the airline, in their own style, while combining the company’s mission and what the communities in each region mean to the artist. Two winners, one representing each region, will be chosen and given a chance to work alongside renowned artist Shantell Martin to finalize a design for their respective region’s plane. Shantell brings to the contest her talents and work, from the New York City Ballet to a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Kendrick Lamar, which are full of whimsical drawings and storytelling, that are dedicated to making sure other women artists are seen.
To enter, individuals are encouraged to visit united.com/HerArtHere and submit a design idea, examples of their work portfolio along with a short video by March 24, 2019. Submissions will be judged and narrowed down to three finalists by a panel of judges from each region, led by each region’s president, Janet Lamkin in California and Jill Kaplan in New York/New Jersey from March 25 – April 9, 2019, followed by a public vote from April 10 – April 19, 2019 to determine the winning artists from each region. Finalists and winners will also receive their own open gallery show, have their art work on display inside United Airlines terminals through 2019 with their works available to purchase and they will also be awarded 100,000 MileagePlus award miles. The final designs will take flight this fall.
Customers in Los Angeles and New York have an opportunity to visit murals by Shantell Martin as part of this contest. Each mural showcases interactive airplane windows that lead to videos with more information. The murals will be on display from now until March 18 at 799 West 8th Street, Los Angeles, CA and at 38 Norman Ave, Brooklyn, NY.
In 2019, United is focusing more than ever on its commitment to its customers, looking at every aspect of its business to ensure that the carrier keeps customers’ best interests at the heart of its service. In addition to today’s announcement, United recently released a re-imagined version of the most downloaded app in the airline industry and made DIRECTV free for every passenger on 211 aircraft, offering more than 100 channels on seat back monitors on more than 30,000 seats. The multimillion-dollar investment in improving inflight entertainment options will benefit the more than 29 million people expected to fly United’s DIRECTV-enabled planes this year.
About United
United’s shared purpose is “Connecting People. Uniting the World.” We are more focused than ever on our commitment to customers through a series of innovations and improvements designed to help build a great experience: Every customer. Every flight. Every day. Together, United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 4,800 flights a day to 353 airports across five continents. In 2018, United and United Express operated more than 1.7 million flights carrying more than 158 million customers. United is proud to have the world’s most comprehensive route network, including U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. United operates 770 mainline aircraft and the airline’s United Express carriers operate 559 regional aircraft. United is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to 193 countries via 28 member airlines. For more information, visit united.com, follow @United on Twitter and Instagram or connect on Facebook. The common stock of United’s parent, United Continental Holdings, Inc., is traded on the Nasdaq under the symbol “UAL”.
TSA got back to the basics with some tips on air travel to make checkpoints quick and easy this afternoon at the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport.
TSA had a table full of items that had been stopped only in the last month with items like knives, wrenches, and other things that could be used as a weapon.
They want to remind people who might be traveling with spring break travels around the corner what’s acceptable and what’s not. Just follow the 3-1-1 rule. Liquids, aerosols, and creams must be less than 3.4 ounces, must be in a one quart-sized plastic bag, and one bag is permitted per passenger.
Guns have also been a problem for the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport, they have found two this year. TSA Spokesperson Sari Koshetz said, “First and foremost leave your guns at home. People face civil penalties from the TSA from up to $13,000 and possible arrests if you bring your firearm to the checkpoint, but also keep in mind that you can’t have anything that could be considered a bludgeoned for instance a giant hammer or a giant tool. You don’t want anybody sitting next to you on the plane to have these hazardous items. We also want to put this word out so that your time and stress level will be less at the checkpoint.”
If you are in doubt about an item, it is better to just put it with your checked baggage.
RENO, Nev. (KOLO) High winds whipping across Washoe County continue to impact air travel. For passengers at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, that means delays, diversions and cancellations. Airport officials say more than two dozen flights have been affected.
“We’ve had more than two dozen flights canceled or delayed in the last 24 hours,” April Conway of Reno-Tahoe International Airport says. “There’s a ripple affect so flights that could get in last night weren’t able to go out on Tuesday.”
Conway says with so many delays, the airport is now playing catch-up.
“There are certainly flights that have not been able to land today that will perhaps affect flights later into tonight and even tomorrow,” she says.
Despite the delays, Conway says things are running smoothly because passengers are contacting airlines before arriving at the airport.
“That does a great service that lets people know before they leave their homes, hotels, and before they leave the ski slopes, whether flights are on time, so that’s a great way to be a savvy traveler,” she says.
Airport officials say they are well-equipped and prepared to handle whatever Mother Nature has in store next.
arc Parent learned to fly before he earned a driver’s license. As a teenager in the 1970s, he’d hitchhike 15 miles from his parents’ modest home in the Montreal suburbs to the Saint-Hubert Longueuil airport, where he took lessons in a Piper Cherokee. Before he turned 18, he’d flown a Cessna four-seater 2,800 miles to the Bahamas and back with a friend.
Now as CEO of CAE, known for decades as the world’s top maker of flight simulators, Parent is steering the $2.2 billion (revenue) Montreal-based company on a lucrative new flight path, convincing airlines and militaries to outsource pilot and crew training to CAE.
Amid an unprecedented boom in air travel, CAE has become the world’s biggest flight instructor, increasing revenue 70% in Canadian dollar terms from when Parent took over as CEO in 2009, with the proportion accounted for by civil flight simulators falling to 20% of the total. CAE’s share price has increased more than threefold in the same period on the Toronto Stock Exchange, compared to a 40% rise for the benchmark SP/TSX Composite Index.
The demand for CAE’s services is likely to keep growing. The International Air Transport Association projects that the annual number of airline passengers will double to 8.2 billion worldwide by 2037, driven in part by rising international living standards that are giving more people money to fly, with 54% of the growth coming from the Asia-Pacific region. Consequently, the world will need 790,000 new civil pilots over the next 20 years, Boeing forecasts.
Pilots from easyJet and other European airlines train at CAE’s Burgess Hill center, shown here, located close to London. It’s one of 65 CAE training centers worldwide.
Parent, 58, has been an effective salesman-in-chief for the flight-training business, in no small part because of his love for flying. Parent pilots his own Piper Meridian turboprop on business trips in North America. He qualified to fly a Boeing 737 by taking CAE classes and is working on a business jet rating. “I fly in my customers’ environment at 40,000 feet,” says Parent. “When we’re pitching airlines, they see that I understand their world.”
His sales pitch is that CAE can offer big savings by either taking over an airline’s training centers and running them more efficiently or funneling its pilots through one of the programs CAE operates in 65 centers around the globe. A large carrier with in-house instruction might train 5,000 pilots a year; CAE trains 135,000 annually, as well as 85,000 flight crew members. “You can imagine the knowledge, the scale, the process we build to perfect that,” he says.
Flying airliners can be boring — the vast majority of flights go without a hitch. Pilots keep themselves ready for the worst through sessions in full flight simulators, 13-ton machines on telescoping legs that buck and roll through six degrees of freedom. In recurring training, typically two-day courses that airline pilots are required to take every six to nine months, they confront a gamut of rare disaster scenarios inside “the sweat box”: failure of engines on takeoff and landing, bird strikes, fires, sudden shifts in wind, midair near-collisions. They practice diagnosing and dealing with malfunctions as warning lights flash and bells and buzzers sound while the machine convincingly simulates the vertigo-inducing lurches and the view out the windshield that pilots see in the real cockpit. After a practice session or two, pilots step into the simulator with an examiner. If they fail and then fail again on a second try, depending on the airline it could lead to a demotion or put their job in jeopardy.
Given the high cost of flight simulators — $6 million to $15 million apiece —and to keep up with the demands of recurrent training, operators generally try to run the machines 16 to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, requiring many pilots to train on the night shift. CAE promises it can operate a training program more efficiently than an airline given its deep knowledge of its own equipment and its extensive training center network.
Inside a CAE flight simulator.
CAE won’t disclose numbers, but analysts estimate the company saves airlines 20% to 30% on training. Parent has built a client roster dominated by rapidly expanding Asian airlines and low-cost carriers like AirAsia, EasyJet and Ryanair. Those customers are happy to grow their pilot corps without sinking capital into buying simulators or constructing their own training facilities.
“It’s been a great working relationship,” says Adrian Jenkins, operations chief for AirAsia, which has grown into Asia’s largest budget airline since CAE first sold the upstart Malaysia-based carrier a used Boeing 737 simulator in 2004. In 2011 they established a joint venture to train AirAsia’s pilots as well as those of other local airlines; in 2017, Air Asia cashed out its 50% stake to CAE and signed a 20-year training contract.
“Having worked with CAE for years, we trusted them with our training,” says Jenkins, so AirAsia decided, “Let’s just focus on the airline business.”
Gaining that trust has been a hurdle for CAE. Many established airlines are hesitant to outsource training, seeing it as a mission-critical way to imprint their operating procedures and culture on pilots. “It’s still not very well accepted in North America and Europe,” says Fadi Chamoun, an analyst with BMO Capital Markets.
But analysts and Parent believe the company has gained critical mass in the past few years, inking 40 long-term training deals in 2018 alone and making inroads with some bigger-name airlines. CAE launched a rookie pilot training program with American in 2018 and established a joint venture with Singapore Airlines to establish a training center. Parent sees winning business from the widely admired airline as a big get. “I take huge pride in that,” he says.
The company was founded under the name Canadian Aviation Electronics in 1947 by Ken Patrick, a World War II wing commander in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Patrick started out installing radar systems in the Canadian Arctic Circle to detect Russian bombers, then in 1952 he won a contract to build a flight simulator for the CF-100 Canuck fighter jet.
In the 1980s, CAE made the first simulators deemed realistic enough by U.S. regulators to allow pilots to train on them exclusively. The result: The first time the vast majority of pilots get behind the controls of an airliner today, it’s as co-pilot on a plane loaded with passengers.
By the 1990s, CAE was riding high with a 67% share of the commercial simulator market, but the computer revolution in Silicon Valley was about to end the good times. The increasing power of commercial software and off-the-shelf graphics processors eroded CAE’s technology edge, and a steady rise in the value of the Canadian dollar starting in 2002 made its products more expensive than the competition, tipping the company into crisis. Enter Parent, which then-CEO Robert Brown poached from the Montreal-based industrial conglomerate Bombardier to find a fix.
Parent had built a strong track record as an aerospace engineer and manager at Bombardier, belying the prediction of a high school physics teacher who had told his father, an insurance company manager, and his mother, a bank teller, that he’d never amount to anything. Brown, who ran Bombardier Aerospace in the 1990s and was promoted to CEO of the whole company in 1998, says he had been impressed by Parent’s ambition and his ability to execute under pressure. Brown parachuted him into a series of aircraft factories in Toronto; Wichita, Kansas; Tucson, Arizona; and Northern Ireland to get the production lines humming. “When there was something that needed to be delivered, I could count on him,” Brown recalls.
At CAE, Brown put Parent to work in 2005 as head of the simulator division, where Parent slashed head count and production costs, putting the business back on its feet. But the experience crystalized for Parent that CAE had to diversify, a mission he has carried out with zeal since he succeeded Brown as CEO in 2009.
One hurdle Parent had to clear: a perception that CAE was still primarily a hardware company. CAE surveys showed more than half of airline CEOs didn’t even know the company trained pilots. Internally, Parent says, he realized the company was sending an outdated message to its employees. “If you looked at our vision [statement] at the time, you would see words like, ‘best modeling simulation company,’ ” he says.
In 2015, Parent restated it clearly: going forward, the company’s mission was simply training.
That led him to zero in on CAE’s curriculum and its staff of instructors, contractors who had been such an afterthought that Parent initially couldn’t get a ready answer to the question of how many the company had. He revamped instructor hiring, training and compensation. Last year CAE acquired a 45% stake in Pelesys, a Vancouver-based courseware development company it had been working with, and rolled out Rise, an artificial intelligence system that evaluates students’ performance in simulators, picking up on little details that instructors might miss.
CAE faces formidable competitors that see the same opportunity in training. Through acquisitions, the defense contractor L3 has cobbled together a civil simulator and training business that has the second-largest market share behind CAE, and Airbus and Boeing have expanded into pilot training as part of their push into higher-margin services. In the lucrative niche of business jet pilot training, CAE is going up against Flight Safety International, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway.
But analysts say there should be room for all to thrive in a growing market. Airbus and Boeing may dwarf 9,000-employee CAE, but their rivalry naturally limits them in training: Boeing isn’t about to teach pilots how to fly an Airbus A320.
CAE has followed the same playbook in growing its defense business, which accounts for 38% of sales. Like commercial airlines, militaries are increasingly willing to outsource training and to conduct more of it on simulators. Defense revenues have risen 26% since 2015 to 1.1 billion Canadian dollars ($845 million), and Parent believes that growth will remain strong amid a global upturn in military spending to counter a more belligerent Russia and China. Like its civil training business, CAE’s military training customers sign multiyear contracts, promising CAE a smoother ride through economic downturns.
Barring a global pandemic or other disaster that clobbers airlines, Parent is upbeat about CAE’s prospects in a travel market that’s expanding 3.5% to 4% a year: “We have no ceiling on how we grow.”
United Airlines — the wholly owned subsidiary of United Continental Holdings (UAL – Free Report) — filed an application with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in a bid to expand its footprint in Japan and attract additional traffic. Notably, this Chicago-based carrier has sought permission to operate daily non-stop flights to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport from six U.S. international airports.
In the summer of 2020, United Airlines plans to commence operations to Haneda after the slots are awarded from its hubs at Newark Liberty, Chicago O’Hare, Washington Dulles, Los Angeles International, Houston George Bush and Guam. The aviation agreement between the United States and Japan is expected to be completed later this year.
Per United Airlines’ application, the flights to Haneda from Newark, Los Angeles and Guam would be in addition to the daily flights between the above three hubs and Tokyo’s other international airport — Narita. However, the non-stop flights to Haneda from its hubs at Chicago O’Hare, Washington Dulles and Houston George Bush would be shifted from Narita.
With the Olympics to be held in Tokyo next year, the routes are likely to invite substantial traffic. Accordingly, other U.S. carriers — Delta Air Lines (DAL – Free Report) and American Airlines (AAL – Free Report) — have also applied for slots at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.
While Delta is bidding for five slots, American Airlines has sought permission for four. With leading carriers interested to fly to Haneda, investors would keenly look forward to DOT’s decision on the applications.
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WICHITA, Kansas – Amberley Snyder, 28, is the only professional barrel rider who’s paralyzed from the waist down.
Recently, she was in Dwight D. Eisenhower airport in Wichita, Kansas, and was about to board a flight that was heading to Denver, Colorado.
Amberley, sitting in her wheelchair, was in line and speaking to the United Airlines gate agent.
She says the agent told her she could not take her wheelchair onto the jet bridge without being led by someone.
“He said, ‘Well, we need to take you down backwards.’ I said, ‘I don’t want that, I’m not comfortable with that. I can take myself to the door of the plane,'” Amberley said.
Amberley told Fox 13 the agent insisted and told her it was a “liability” for her to go down the jet bridge by herself.
“It’s not a good feeling when you get turned around; I just don’t like it, I’m not comfortable with it. Then he said, ‘well you can’t get on the plane.'”
As a public speaker, advocate for people with disabilities and a professional barrel racer, Amberley travels a lot.
She said she has traveled 150 to 200 times, just last year.
“I do this all the time, I fly all the time. I fly probably three times a week,” Amberley said.
Eventually, the situation was defused and Amberley agreed to transfer over to an airport-approved wheelchair and was led through the jet bridge and onto the plane.
“I love help, I accept help, I really try to advocate for that,” Amberley said. “I understand safety, I understand that concept, it’s kind of insulting that you can’t handle yourself down to the door of the plane.”
Amberley wrote a complaint to United Airlines and the company sent this statement in response:
“United proudly welcomes all customers and flies thousands of people with disabilities every day. We are concerned to learn about our customer’s experience and have reached out to her. We are also working with our team in Wichita to better understand what happened.”
Amberley said, “I’m hoping a platform opens up that allows me to bring this concept to light. I think this is one of the starts really, making it more aware to people.”
Utah rodeo star Amberley Snyder is calling out a United Airlines staffer for treating her with less than respect and calling her desire to board a plane in a wheelchair by herself a ‘liability.’ Snyder, who is a professional equestrian and is paralyzed from the waist down due to a car accident, files all the time and says she was shocked by the way the unnamed male staffer treated her as the situation unfolded.
A Utah rodeo star in a wheelchair has called out United Airlines, saying a gate agent treated her with less than respect for refusing to allow her to board a flight alone – via a jet bridge – on the grounds that such action would be a “liability.”
The alleged incident unfolded on Feb. 16, as Amberley Snyder prepared to board her flight from Kansas’ Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport en route to Denver, Fox 13 reported.
For context, the 28-year-old professional equestrian was paralyzed from the waist down in a 2010 car accident, and now uses a wheelchair. Bravely getting “back in the saddle” soon after, Snyder competes today as a barrel racer and breakaway roper in Western-style rodeo events, in addition to working as a motivational speaker and advocate for people with disabilities, as per her website.
Telling Fox 13 that she flies “all the time” and traveled well over 150 times last year, Snyder detailed that she was shocked by the way the unnamed male United Airlines staffer treated her as the situation unfolded.
According to the outlet, the gate agent told Snyder that she was not allowed to move her wheelchair onto the jet bridge without being led by someone — facing backwards.
“He said, ‘Well, we need to take you down backwards.’ I said, ‘I don’t want that, I’m not comfortable with that. I can take myself to the door of the plane,’” Snyder recalled.
The Utah woman says that the staffer continued to describe her wish to board alone via the jet bridge as a “liability,” and said that she would not be able to board the flight if she did not comply.
The two eventually reached an agreement, and Snyder transferred into an airport-approved wheelchair before being led through the jet bridge, onto the aircraft.
In the days since, however, Snyder has continued to describe the experience as uncomfortable, sharing the story with her Facebook following of nearly 200,000.
“Honestly, that’s kind of insulting when someone says ‘No, you can’t handle yourself down to the door of the plane,’” she told Fox 13.
“I love help, I accept help, I really try to advocate for that,” she added.
Moving forward, the athlete said that she hopes the story will help raise awareness of the importance of inclusive travel accommodations for people with disabilities.
“I’m hoping a platform opens up that allows me to bring this concept to light, I think this is one of the starts really, making it more aware to people,” she said.
Reps for the carrier returned Fox News’ request for comment on the story with the following statement:
“United proudly welcomes all customers and flies thousands of people with disabilities every day. We are concerned to learn about our customer’s experience and have reached out to her,” a spokesperson said. “We are also working with our team in Wichita to better understand what happened.”
Snyder’s incredible life story is set to hit Netflix in the biographical flick “Walk. Ride. Rodeo,” premiering March 8.
