United Airlines says its chief executive Oscar Munoz will no longer become chairman of its board in 2018, following the controversial incident in which police forcibly removed a United passenger from a flight.
Chicago-based United is also re-looking executive compensation incentives to improve the airline's customer service, adding that it takes "recent events extremely seriously".
United had previously expected to appoint Munoz to chairman of its board at the company's 2018 shareholders meeting. The carrier says Munoz had "initiated" the amendment to his employment contract. Future decisions on the appointment of a new chairman will be at the discretion of the board, says United.
The Star Alliance carrier has come under a storm of criticism for the 9 April incident, in which passenger David Dao was dragged off a United Express flight by Chicago aviation police. Munoz, who was blasted for his initial response to the incident, has said he will not resign.
The airline says in filings that it is in the process of changing executive incentives to ensure that they are "directly and meaningfully tied to progress in improving the customer experience".
An incentive programme for 2017 had previously been approved, but this will be revised to further drive improvements in customer service, says United.
Without referring directly to the Chicago incident, the airline says: "United's management and the board take recent events extremely seriously."
Source: Cirium Dashboard
