United CEO visits workers during leave after heart attack

  • Bloomberg News
  • Friday, November 27, 2015 3:39pm
  • Business

Oscar Munoz, the chief executive officer of United Continental Holdings Inc., interrupted his recuperation from a heart attack to visit workers at the airline’s operations center on Thanksgiving.

United confirmed the visit to the Chicago facility and declined to provide further details. Munoz, 56, suffered the heart attack in mid-October, a month after being chosen to succeed Jeff Smisek as CEO. United declined to say whether the visit was Munoz’s first appearance with workers since he fell ill.

“Our team was happy to see Oscar and his family for the holiday, and we look forward to his return next year,” Karen May, a United spokeswoman, said Friday. The airline has said Munoz would return to work in the first quarter.

Brett Hart, United’s general counsel, has been serving as interim CEO.

Munoz became United’s president and CEO on Sept. 8, after Smisek resigned amid a government probe into the airline’s dealings with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Munoz, who already was a United director, joined the airline from railroad giant CSX Corp., where he was president and chief operating officer.

At United, Munoz needs to address problems remaining from the 2010 merger of UAL Corp. and Continental Airlines. That includes completing labor agreements with flight attendants and mechanics and improving a computer infrastructure that caused United’s fleet to be grounded twice last summer.

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