United Airlines CEO Won 'Communicator Of The Year' Honors Last Month. Seriously. (Updated)

By Stephen Gossett in News on Apr 11, 2017 6:17PM

Update, 2:55 p.m.:
As if on cue, CEO Oscar Munoz issued a much more contrite, take-two apology on Tuesday afternoon, calling Sunday's removal "truly horrific" and taking "full responsibility." Munoz said that United will launch a review of how the airliner handles overselling, how it works with airport security and law enforcement and its policy for reaching out to "volunteers" in such cases.

"Like you, I continue to be disturbed by what happened on this flight and I deeply apologize to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard," Munoz said. "No one should ever be mistreated this way."

Original:
Not since Vice President Mike Pence won the inaugural 'Working for Women' award or my dog was bestowed with Best Not Pooping On The Floor honors (still fact-checking that second one) has an award designation proven so brutally ironic.

Oscar Munoz, CEO of United Airlines and epic-level wizard of bungled public relations as of late, the same man who made sure "re-accommodate" will live on in damage-control infamy and threw blame on a victim mere hours after aviation police appear to have thrown him to the floor, was named Communicator of the Year less than a month before Sunday's fiasco and Munoz's subsequent tone-deaf response.

Shocking videos emerged on Sunday night of a United Airlines passenger, identified today as David Dao, bloodied and violently dragged down the aisle of a plane after he refused to give up his seat on the overbooked flight. Munoz, who saw a PR-nightmare ditch and screamed "deeper!," released the following SMDH-worthy statement on Monday, which includes the infamous line, "I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers."

It didn't take long for Munoz's award-worthy communications skills to be further exposed, after an email to employees surfaced on Monday afternoon. In it, Munoz casts blame aside and refers to Dao as "disruptive and belligerent."

Both of these responses went down like water in a clogged toilet, of course, and they seemed proof positive of Munoz's lack of messaging (and, also, human empathy) skills. But the CEO—whose company was also at the center of leggingsgate, lets not forget—was in fact honored just this past March by PR Week as "Communicator of the Year."

PRWeek wrote this in March, painfully unaware of what was to follow:

"Munoz has shown himself to be a smart, dedicated, and excellent leader who understands the value of communications. His ability to connect and share with employees his vision for the airline, and get them to rally behind it, is a key reason PRWeek named him 2017 Communicator of the Year."

It goes on to highlight Munoz's demonstrated ability to rein in CS issues (no really, it does):

"Critical to its success has been United’s ability to reach new contracts with all union groups, most well ahead of deadlines, helping to curtail customer service problems caused by disgruntled workers that had long plagued the airline. A lot of the credit went to Munoz. He won praise from union bosses for his easy rapport with shop-floor workers, a rarity in any industry."

You can check out PRWeek's hosannas and United's press release about the award, both of which obviously ooze bitter irony today, by following the links.

No word yet on whether the master communicator has been briefed on the definition of "volunteer" yet.

[H/T Quartz]