Parker dumping Kirby may wind up being like the Patriots dumping Jimmy Garapollo. It took a couple years, but he's now going to eclipse what he would have being Parker's backup.
What I can say based on observing UA over the past two decades, and as a former CO employee (before I worked for AA)....
Oscar was brought in to clean up the post merger mess left behind by Jeff Smisek and repair the culture. He's done that and more.. Smisek and Parker both kept "their" team largely in charge after the merger, and in too many ways post merger UA felt like CO with a name change. Sure, they kept the HDQ in Chicago and the loyalty program name, but the corporate branding and product on the airplanes were just a slight shift from CO's, the PSS was CO's and apparently a lot of the IT was CO's.
Munoz replaced Smisek amidst controversy, but was on the CO board prior to the merger so he wasn't as much of an outsider as some might have thought. Nice guy by all accounts, and the culture change according to people who work there hasn't just been window dressing. But Munoz wasn't exactly a clean break with the past.
Kirby is a true outsider to both previous cultures. The sacred cow factor won't be as big of an image issue for Scott, in that he can do things and nobody will be able to accuse him of favoring his old team. That's why taking the gold tail off and replacing with purple in the new livery isn't just a color change. It's adding something that neither airline could lay claim to.
Looking at the numbers, the historic revenue deficit that UA had doesn't seem to be there anymore. As of this week, they're again flying round the world (launching SFO-DEL which connects to an existing DEL-EWR), which only UA, TW and PA have ever managed to do. Time will tell if Kirby can manage to eclipse his team.
