United Airlines’ CEO Oscar Munoz was admitted to a hospital Thursday, the airline confirmed Friday afternoon.
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United directors are “waiting to hear back from his family and his doctors” regarding further details about the heart attack, the Journal said.
United Continental is a transportation company based in Chicago that owns the United Airlines brand. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and we are respecting their privacy”, a United statement read. The airline says it is continuing to operate normally. However, the airline also struggled during his leadership to merge operations of the former Continental and United airlines.
Munoz, 56, was named to the post just last month – and just three weeks later, was taking out full-page newspaper ads acknowledging the airline’s poor performance and customer-service lapses.
A former port authority chairman, David Samson, reportedly asked Smisek to provide poorly traveled flights to South Carolina.
UAL stock closed Friday’s regular trading at $55.97, down $1.79 or 3.10%, in the after-hours trade.
He had called a meeting of United’s union leaders for Thursday, but a United spokeswoman said those talks did not take place. That compares with a profit of $924 million, or $2.37 per share, on sales of $10.6 billion.
“The journey hasn’t always been smooth”, Munoz said in the letter.
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Vicki Bryan, an analyst for bond-rating company Gimme Credit, said however that United’s other executives were the same ones who supported Smisek’s “long, calamitous reign”.
