United Airlines Chief Executive Oscar Munoz will not chair the company's board in 2018, it said in a regulatory filing on Friday, following a high-profile incident in which a passenger was dragged from a flight.
In a reversal of Munoz's earlier employment agreement, he has opted to leave "future determinations related to the Chairman position to the discretion of the Board," the filing said.
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United CEO 'ashamed' about passenger's removal
Oscar Munoz says he felt "ashamed" when hearing about the violent removal of a passenger from an overbooked flight and promised the situation will never happen again.
The company also said it would revise its 2017 executive compensation to more directly tie incentives to improvements in customer satisfaction.
"United's management and the Board take recent events extremely seriously, and are in the process of developing targeted compensation program design adjustments to ensure that employees' incentive opportunities for 2017 are directly and meaningfully tied to progress in improving the customer experience," the filing said.
Future determinations related to the chairman position are left to the discretion of the board, the carrier said in a regulatory filing Friday.
Munoz, United's top executive, earned $US18.7 million ($24.8 million) in 2016 as he collected a multimillion-dollar signing award.
His base salary, bonus and other compensation of last year was boosted by a stock grant valued at $US6.8 million ($9.02 million) that the company awarded to entice him to join the company in September 2015, according to a proxy filing Friday by the Chicago-based carrier.
Munoz's 2016 payout came well before the April 9 incident that sparked global outrage.
![United chief executive Oscar Munoz.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170627075024im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/j/4/a/y/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvq598.png/1492988775815.jpg)
Munoz had been expected to become chairman at next year's annual shareholders meeting, according to a regulatory filing from last April.
The decision to remove the provisions came less than two weeks after carrier was engulfed by a global public-relations crisis after the passenger's forced removal from a Chicago flight to Louisville, Kentucky.
![The United Airlines incident in April with Dr David Dao made global headlines.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170627075024im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/i/8/b/l/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvq598.png/1497516615681.jpg)
The passenger, David Dao, suffered a concussion, broken nose and two lost teeth after he refused to give up his seat for a United crew member.
Munoz agreed last year to delay taking on the chairman's position after the board was revamped as part of a deal with two activist shareholders. The company named Robert Milton as chairman, and three incumbent directors decided not to stand for re-election.
Munoz said earlier this week that Dao's treatment was a "humbling learning experience" for United and accepted full responsibility.
The CEO's initial reaction drew scorn worldwide last week when he called the incident "upsetting" and apologised for having to "re-accommodate" the passengers who were asked to leave the plane. Hours later he told employees that Dao had been "disruptive and belligerent," based on early reports.
He finally went on ABC's Good Morning America with a more contrite message and promised a full review of United's policies regarding oversold flights.
Bloomberg, Reuters