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Munoz named United Airlines CEO
after Smisek leaves amid federal probe
Oscar Munoz was named
United Airlines’ new president
and CEO Sept. 8 after former chairman, president and
CEO Jeff Smisek was forced
to abruptly step down amid
an ongoing US government
probe into the Port Authority
of New York and New Jersey
(PANYNJ).
Munoz was formerly the
president and COO of rail and
intermodal giant CSX Corp.
Munoz said he will focus
on customer service and cost
discipline, but offered few
specifics during a conference call with analysts and
reporters on his first day at
Chicago-based United’s helm.
Munoz served on Continental
Airlines’ board of directors
from 2004-2010, and then on
United’s board following the
United-Continental merger.
He cited his 11 years on the
boards of Continental and
United as helping to prepare
him for his new job. But
Munoz conceded he needs
to be briefed on a number of
specific issues.
“I’m going to spend the first
90 days or so traveling the
[United] network and listening
to and talking to people,” he
said, adding, “I have a ton of
calls [to make] … I’ll get up to
speed very quickly.”
Munoz did say that
he thought United and
Continental had gone through
a “rough integration” process
and acknowledged IT sys-
tems failures that have hurt
United’s operational perfor-
mance and standing with con-
sumers. “I have a very strong
technology background,” he
said. “Systems unfortunately
have their ups and downs
… We’ve made significant
progress over the last sev-
eral years and certainly this
year [in terms of operational
performance] … It’s just an
absolute and complete point
that we need to reach out to
our customers with a better
service product.”
Munoz said there “are a
lot of analogs and parallels”
between the airline and rail
industries. “I think the airline
industry has
been closely
watching,
monitoring
and following
what the rail
industry has
done … from a
yield manage-
ment perspec-
tive,” he said.
Munoz said
he will stick to
the capacity
discipline prac-
ticed by United
recently, add-
ing, “Capacity
management
seems to be
something that
has worked well in the [airline]
industry.”
US federal prosecutors
investigating PANYNJ are,
among other issues, examin-
ing whether United oper-
ated low load factor flights
from United hub Newark
(controlled by PANYNJ) to
Columbia, South Carolina,
near a vacation home owned
by former PANYNJ chairman
David Samson.
Two VPs in United’s gov-
ernment affairs office, Nene
Foxhall and Mark Anderson,
also resigned with Smisek.
United said it is conducting
its own internal probe and is
cooperating fully with the fed-
eral investigation, about which
it declined further comment.
Un
ite
d
A
i
rl
in
e
s
IATA
Tyler
Munoz
IATA CEO and director general Tony Tyler to retire next year
IATA CEO and director general
Tony Tyler will retire in June
2016 after serving five years in
the position.
“It is a great privilege and
responsibility to lead IATA,
and I am proud of what the
IATA team is achieving dur-
ing my term of
office,” Tyler said
in a statement. “I
greatly appreci-
ate the support I
receive from the
board of governors
and the member-
ship at large, and
from my col-
leagues. I remain
fully committed to
leading IATA until
my successor is
appointed in June
next year.”
IATA board
of governors’
chairman and
AeroMexico CEO Andrés
Conesa said Tyler was “a very
effective leader, who is achiev-
ing much in his role as director
general and chief executive
officer. I regret that he will be
leaving [IATA], but respect
his decision to retire next year
after a long and successful
career in aviation.”
Conesa said that the search
will now start for a successor
to be appointed at the next
IATA AGM in Dublin in June
2016.
Before joining IATA in 2011,
Tyler was CEO at Cathay
Pacific Airways, from where
he also served as IATA chairman from June 2009 to June
2010. He succeeded Giovanni
Bisignani as IATA DG.
Tyler has proved a popular
and highly respected leader,
both within the IATA airline
membership and among the
many industries, agencies
and government bodies with
which IATA works. A passion-
ate believer that airlines and
aviation are a force for good in
the world, he has championed
many issues and initiatives,
including passenger rights leg-
islation that is fair and reason-
able on airlines; smarter, more
efficient and less-obtrusive
security screening processes;
global, equitable eco-aviation
standards; and a new frame-
work—New Distribution
Capability—to enable modern
distribution system practices.
He has also overseen a
major internal restructuring of
IATA to improve the associa-
tion’s organizational effective-
ness.
But Tyler’s work and travel
schedule is also grueling. He
told staff that he while he
enjoyed working with everyone
in “this great organization,” he
had decided that “five years
will be long enough for a life-
style which is demanding in
terms of both time and travel.”
He added to ATW, “I’ll
always love the airline busi-
ness, but after nearly 40 years
in it, from next June I’ll be lov-
ing it from a distance!”
