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United Airlines’ post-bankruptcy strategy includes upgraded premium cabins, hiring new customer-oriented staff, and a little bit o’ NASCAR:

Chief Operating Officer Peter McDonald said in a speech Tuesday evening at Northwestern University that the company has hired NASCAR pit crews to train ramp workers in order to reduce turnaround time at airports.

Indeed, as reported a few weeks ago, United crews have been training at Pit Instruction & Training in Mooresville, North Carolina:

By immersing its supervisory “lead” ramp workers in the adrenalin-pumping realm of Nascar, the airline hopes to cut the average aircraft ground time by eight minutes to 53 minutes, competitive with United’s peers. For the airline’s leisure-oriented “Ted” flights, the goal is to cut ground time by five minutes to 36.

While the NASCAR combination may actually help build crew unity and cooperation, and the shorter turnarounds would indeed affect the bottom line, the possibilities for other combinations, with more or less utilitarian outcomes, are endless. Cabin service working together with MTV’s “Pimp My Ride,” perhaps?

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tags: travel | air travel | United Airlines | NASCAR