Oscar Munoz travel tips

United CEO Oscar Munoz began this morning’s investor call by acknowledging the company’s subpar operational and financial performance, and then proceeded to outline plans to increase his airline’s profit margins to levels achieved by American, Delta, and Southwest.

Former American Airlines CEO Doug Parker will step down as chairman and leave the carrier’s board of directors in April. The move ends his decade-long tenure in at the airline that began in 2013 after he successfully orchestrated American’s merger with US Airways.

Washington lawmakers are flyers, too. Frequent flyers in most cases.

In a setback to United’s new management team, led by Oscar Munoz, the airline’s mechanics today voted to reject the company’s “final offer” for a new wage and benefits package and to authorize a strike.

The media—social media, asocial media, major media, marginal media, all media—has been positively aflame for the past 24 hours with reporting and editorializing on United Airlines’ latest mishandling of a passenger confrontation.

In the airline’s first major initiative since replacing CEO Jeff Smisek with Oscar Munoz, United today announced details of a major upgrade to its international business-class product.

United’s forcible ejection of a paying passenger from flight UA3411 earlier this month was a perfect storm of bad decisions, both leading up to the incident and in its subsequent handling by company chief Oscar Munoz. The airline’s image, less than sterling to begin with, was deeply tarnished.

Things seemed to be looking up for United. The company’s CEO, Oscar Munoz, had announced his imminent return to the job, less than three months after a heart transplant. In a news release announcing Munoz’s return, a United board member gushed thusly:

Yesterday, two of the world’s largest airlines got new presidents. What’s less clear is how, and why.