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United Airlines to link executive pay to customer satisfaction

United Airlines is to link pay more closely to customer satisfaction.

The move comes two weeks after a passenger was violently dragged from one of its aircraft in the US.

The carrier has also revealed its chief executive, Oscar Munoz, will now not become chairman, as anticipated.

The airline has been under heavy scrutiny since video of the incident was shared worldwide.

The executive pay decision features in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission financial watchdog, the BBC reported.

“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.

A prior employment agreement with Munoz had been reversed, so he would not become chairman of the board in 2018.

The company, listed as United Continental Holdings, said Munoz initiated the amendment, and future appointments to the chairman position would now be at the board’s discretion.

The filing also showed Munoz was paid $18.72 million (£14.5 million) in 2016.

Munoz was heavily criticised and faced calls to resign after passenger Dr David Dao two lost teeth and suffered a broken nose as he was dragged from an overbooked flight in Chicago on April 9.

In his first public statement, the executive had appeared to place the blame on Dr Dao, describing him as “disruptive and belligerent”.

Days later, Munoz said he felt “shame and embarrassment”, and vowed that it would never happen again.

United was due to answer detailed questions about the incident at a Senate panel on Friday, but the airline requested a further week’s postponement.

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