United Airlines’ board was too isolated in recent years, allowing the carrier to fall behind rivals since its 2010 merger, said Chief Executive Oscar Munoz. Better operational insight might have prompted the board to insist on fixing a reservations system full of bugs that resulted in grounded flights or to solve technical issues that prevented employees from being paid on time, he said.
“As board members, we only meet infrequently and are not as engaged with the front line, necessarily,” he said at the airline’s annual meeting Wednesday in Chicago. “The first thing I did as CEO was I left this board room” and visited employees.