As United Airlines continues to grapple with a long-haul public relations disaster, rival airlines are pouncing on the opportunity to poke fun and promote themselves.United has been roundly lambasted after a passenger was violently removed from a flight to make room for a crew member. The airline's initial response was widely seen as inadequate, and in recent days United has been trying to apologize.Meanwhile, rival airlines have hastened to mock United and snag a little good PR for themselves — especially Middle Eastern airlines.The major Middle Eastern airlines have a longstanding, bitter rivalry with U.S. carriers, which accuse them of having an unfair advantage in competition for international passengers. In fact, United CEO Oscar Munoz's comments about that issue — accusing the Middle Eastern competition of being "branding" for their home countries, instead of a real airline — appear in a new ad spot by Emirates.Meanwhile, users on Twitter say some flight attendants for other U.S. airlines have been riffing on the controversy.But we should note that an official-looking "Southwest: We beat the competition. Not you" image was not produced or endorsed by Southwest, the company said on Twitter. Copyright 2017 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
Rival Airlines Pounce On United's Bad Press
