United Puts Off CEO’s Added Role as Chairman Amid Dragging Furor

  • Airline ties bonuses more closely to customer service
  • Munoz took home $18.7 million in compensation last year

Oscar Munoz

Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
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United Airlines canceled Chief Executive Officer Oscar Munoz’s expected 2018 elevation to chairman and tied compensation more closely to customer service, after a passenger’s forcible removal from a flight sparked a public-relations disaster.

Maintaining an independent chairman “is a means to ensure that Mr. Munoz is able to more exclusively focus on his role as chief executive officer,” United Continental Holdings Inc. said in a regulatory filingBloomberg Terminal Friday. The carrier said it would link executive bonuses in part to “demonstrable progress toward improvements in the customer experience.”