These airlines just trolled United so hard on Twitter

It's a good time not to be United Airlines.
 By 
Patrick Kulp
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo

As United Airlines scrambles to contain a flood of public outrage this week, its competitors are happy to pile on.

The company is under fire over a viral incident in which airport police violently manhandled and dragged a paying passenger from one of the company's flights.

Some rival airlines have taken the opportunity to remind everyone that they aren't in the habit of roughing up their customers.

Emirate Airlines, which TripAdvisor named the best airline in the world this week, released a 30-second ad that culminated with the message, "Fly the friendly skies... this time for real" -- a jab at United's famous slogan.

The Royal Jordanian took a slightly subtler approach with a double-meaning tweet that stressed that "drags on our flights are strictly prohibited." While ostensibly a no-smoking message, most Twitter users picked up on what kind of "dragging" the company was actually referring to.

The tweets aren't the first time rivals have expressed schadenfreude over United's viral missteps. Arch-rival Delta slammed the company last month after it refused to board girls wearing leggings.

Delta has been notably quiet in the wake of the most recent incident, perhaps because it's dealing with its own angry customers.

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz apologized for the third time on Tuesday after the airline's stock plummeted in early trading.

Topics X/Twitter

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Patrick Kulp

Patrick Kulp is a Business Reporter at Mashable. Patrick covers digital advertising, online retail and the future of work. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in political science and economics, he previously worked at the Pacific Coast Business Times.

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