In the face of continued national and international public outrage, united airlines is still reeling a month after the passenger-dragging incident captured on video went viral, showing passenger Dr. David Dao being violently removed from a UA plane after refusing to voluntarily give up his seat. The incident triggered other passengers to share videos showing that there is a bigger problem at hand with airlines across the US and Canada routinely asking passengers to give up their seats due to overbooking.

Congress cracks down on airline industry's poor customer service practices

US and Canadian legislators are responding to the public's outrage by vowing to crack down on the airline industry's overbooking practices with critics calling for a ban on the practice. On Tuesday, at a US House of Representatives committee, United Airlines president Scott Kirby apologized for the mistreatment of Dr. David Dao.

United Airlines tried to appease lawmakers threatening to write legislation to oversee airline industry's customer service policies by saying that they have plans to reduce the number of overbooking but with no promises to eliminate the practice. They further stated that they will no longer call security officers onboard planes to remove passengers for non-security incidents.

Legislators not taking a wait-and-see approach

Chairing the aviation operation, safety and security subcommittee Republican Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri said Congress wanted "to find out what went wrong and what we are going to do to be sure it doesn't happen in the future."

Florida's Democratic Senator Bill Nelson added that Congress "isn't just going to sit back and take a wait-and-see approach."

The Senate Aviation Subcommittee commented that the United Airlines incident only casts light on the airline industry's poor customer service practices in general.

These range from the increase of add-on fees which nickel and dime customers for almost every service to reducing basic comforts such as legroom between seat rows referring to American Airlines' plans to reduce 30 inches between rows.

Other air carriers responding to the backlash have since announced measures to improve customer service.

According to the La Times, Southwest Airlines announced plans to stop the practice of overbooking. Southwest spokesperson, Beth Harbin told the LA Times that "with better forecasting tools and a new reservations system coming online next month, the airline no longer will have a need to overbook flights." Delta airline stated that they will give up to $10,000 dollars to passengers who voluntarily give up their seats in cases of overbooking.

On April 27 Dr. David Dao reached an amicable settlement with United Airlines for an undisclosed amount for the incident.