United Airlines will no longer use law enforcement officers to remove overbooked passengers from aircraft in the wake of a video that showed a Chicago passenger dragged from one of its flights on Sunday.

"We're not going to put a law enforcement official... to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger," United Continental Holdings Inc Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz told ABC News on Wednesday morning. "We can't do that." 

Munoz said the problem resulted from a "system failure" that prevented employees from using "common sense" in the situation and that Dr. David Dao, whom security officers dragged by his hands, on his back, from the cabin before takeoff, was not at fault.

Shares of United Continental were up 1.1 per cent in premarket trading. They had fallen as much as 4.4 per cent on Tuesday.

The backlash from the incident resonated around the world, with social media users in the United States, China and Vietnam calling to boycott the No. 3 U.S. carrier by passenger traffic.

An online petition calling for Munoz to step down as CEO had more than 40,000 signatures on Wednesday morning.

Munoz told ABC that he had no plans to resign over the incident and profusely apologised to Dao, his family, passengers and United customers.

"This can never, will never happen again," he said.

Source: Timesofoman