New United Airlines CEO Apologies to Customers
New United Continental CEO Oscar Munoz has kicked off his tenure with an apology. Only a month into the new job, Munoz apologized for the company’s failure to live up to the lofty expectations that were set when United and Continental merged five years ago.
“The integration has been rocky, period. We just have to do that public mea culpa…The experience of our customers has not been what we want it to be,” the 56-year-old said in his first interview since the hire.
In the interview, he also promised to return $3 billion to shareholders through buybacks, to improve the airline’s reliability, and to bring customers back.
When he was initially hired, Munoz sent out an email to frequent fliers acknowledging that the airline “can do better.” He came on board after Jeff Smisek resigned in the middle of a federal probe in September.