– Shares of United Continental slipped Tuesday.
– The airline’s stock had climbed nearly 1 percent Monday, not reacting much initially to the internet’s response to an ugly video of a passenger being dragged off an overbooked flight.
Shares of United Continental slipped by more than 3 percent Tuesday as outrage over a passenger being dragged off an overbooked flight finally caught up to the stock. The shares were the worst performer in the S&P 500.
Videos of the incident went viral on social media and prompted CEO Oscar Munoz to apologize for having to “re-accommodate” customers after a two-hour delay.
The airline’s stock, however, climbed nearly 1 percent Monday, not reacting much initially to the internet’s response.
Overnight, though, even more graphic videos showing the passenger — who appears to be Asian — being dragged off the flight, covered in blood, triggered further outrage on social media on China.
Although the unnamed passenger’s identification as ethnic Chinese has not be confirmed, the top trending topic on Tuesday on microblog Weibo, China’s take on Twitter, was #UnitedAirlinesforcespassengeroffplane.
“This went to the next level when the CEO and the [United] executives began to respond,” said Andy Swan of LikeFolio, which monitors social media for financial applications. “They threw gasoline on a fire.”
Instead of viewing what transpired on a United plane Sunday evening as a “one-off” incident, now United’s shareholders are questioning the competence of management in handling crisis scenarios, Swan said, hence why the stock is starting to drop.
“This is an enormous deal for shareholders,” he said.
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United Continental shares fall 3.4% in early trading, wiping out $730M in market value amid scandal https://t.co/6o4PKoyseS
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) April 11, 2017
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