The airline said: ” We have been informed by Oscar’s family that he was admitted to the hospital on Thursday and we will provide further details as appropriate. But a source, who has knowledge about the incident, told Reuters that he suffered a heart attack.
Advertisement
Smisek resigned in September amid a federal criminal probe into whether the airline restarted money-losing flights in order to get the then-chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to authorize improvements to Newark’s Liberty Airport.
In a statement released this morning, United Airlines has said it is still going through “the corporate governance process necessitated by the hospitalization of President and CEO, Oscar Munoz”.
United Continental Holdings Inc. said it would release more details about the company’s next administrative step later Monday or Tuesday, in light of the hospitalization of Chief Executive Oscar Munoz. Last week, United directors were at an impasse on whether to appoint an interim CEO or start seeking a new one, another person familiar with the situation said. On average, equities research analysts forecast that United Continental Holdings will post $11.83 earnings per share for the current year.
Giglio criticized the two public statements United has made on the heels of Munoz’ hospitalization.
James Compton, who is also chief revenue officer, typically shared responsibility with Smisek in discussing the results on quarterly conference calls.
“We need to know who is speaking on the behalf of the company and who is accountable for the decisions of this great airline”, said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a corporate governance expert and a professor at the Yale School of Management.
There are numerous questions that boards grapple with when it comes to disclosures about a CEO’s health-where the line of privacy should be drawn, what impact the CEO’s prognosis could have on the stock, how quickly the company should share news and still respect the CEO’s family.
The episode highlights the apparent fact that United did not have a solid succession plan for temporary or permanent absences of the CEO.
Having its CEO out of commission is only the latest hurdle for the carrier.
Advertisement
Shares of United, after dipping about 3 percent on Friday after the news, rose 1.7 percent on Monday in midday trading. Jobs died in 2011 of pancreatic cancer.
