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United Airlines: CEO Oscar Munoz will not take chairman position

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United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz apologized for the forcible removal of a paying passenger from one of its flights on April 9th, 2017 and called the episode “truly horrific.”

By Jackie Wattles

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — United Airlines says its CEO, Oscar Munoz, will not take broader control of the company as previously planned.

The airline’s parent company, United Continental Holdings, said in a public filing Friday that Munoz asked that his employment agreement be changed to remove terms that would have allowed for him to take on another role at the company: chairman of the board of directors.

Munoz is currently a member of the board, and he was scheduled to take on the role of chairman at the company’s 2018 annual stockholder meeting.

United did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The decision comes on the heels of an incident — and an ensuing public relations disaster — in which a passenger was dragged, bloodied and screaming, off an aircraft after he refused to give up his seat for commuting crew members.

Munoz took the top spot at United in 2015 during trying times for the company. He was hired as CEO from outside the company after the company’s former cheif, Jeff Smisek, was forced to resign due to a scandal involving the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Shortly after he took the reins, Munoz suffered a heart attack and underwent a heart transplant, which kept him out of the office for two months.

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