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- United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz announced on Thursday that he would step down in May 2020 and transition to the role of chairman of the board.
- Scott Kirby, United's president, will assume the chief executive role.
- Kirby was recruited from American Airlines by Munoz in 2016.
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United Airlines announced on Thursday that CEO Oscar Munoz would leave the role in May 2020, and would transition to chairman of the board.
Scott Kirby, United's current president, will be promoted to CEO. Kirby was recruited to United as president in 2016 to help improve the airline's operations. He has been widely considered a driver behind United's performance and growth since joining the airline.
"With United in a stronger position than ever, now is the right time to begin the process of passing the baton to a new leader," Munoz said in a statement. "One of my goals as CEO was to put in place a successful leadership transition for United Airlines."
Shares of United were up nearly 1% in early trading following the announcement.
United has seen relatively strong performance in the latter part of 2019 despite several headwinds, most significantly the ongoing grounding of the global Boeing 737 Max fleet. United currently has 14 of the grounded jets, but had been planning to receive 16 additional jets in 2019. Deliveries have been halted while Boeing develops a fix for the troubled plane. The airline was forced to reduce its capacity growth forecast to 3.5% for 2019, down from the 4%-6% growth it initially targeted.
Before joining United, Kirby had been president at American Airlines since its 2013 merger with US Airways. He worked closely with American CEO Doug Parker since 2006, while both were in their same roles at US Airways.
Kirby has been widely anticipated to take over as CEO at some point since joining United. More recently, there had been some speculation that he could be recruited back to American to take over from Parker. Thursday's announcement essentially quashes that possibility.
Munoz has been CEO since 2015, after then-chief Jeff Smisek was forced to resign after a federal investigation into United adding a flight route in an apparent attempt to influence an official from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. One month later, he suffered a heart attack, and received a transplant in early 2016.
During that time, United was in a difficult position. Lagging growth, profits, and customer ratings put heavy pressure on the airline, while the 2017 scandal when Dr. David Dao was dragged by police off of an oversold flight led to a reputational crisis, along with an episode in which a flight attendant forced a passenger to put a dog in an overhead compartment in early 2018 (the dog died).
Later 2018 and 2019 have seen Munoz's United seek to aggressively grow capacity and improve its financials, as well as operations and customer service.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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