换心之后雄心不减，他继续带领公司走出低谷

此刻，奥斯卡·穆诺兹（Oscar Munoz）正在向飞行员们讲述他命悬一线的那一天。“我想和你们所有人分享那些让我死里逃生的建议，”他说。

这是十月中旬一天。这位美联航大陆航空的CEO正手持麦克风站在丹佛郊外一家丽笙酒店的会议室里。他身着蓝色上衣和灰色休闲裤，向正在这里参加公司年度培训的250位资深飞行员发表讲话。

这位富于魅力的57岁CEO用幽默感征服了在座的听众。他说，和气氛沉重的去年（当时，美联航和飞行员工会还未就薪酬水平更高的延期合同达成一致。）相比，同一批听众在今年的心情要轻松愉快许多。“去年，会议室里的所有人都对我怒目而视。” 穆诺兹回忆说。

但是，他兴高采烈的神情突然间暗淡下来。穆诺兹提到的2015年10月15日清晨发生的事情让整个房间陷入沉寂。他对全神贯注的听众说：“这周是我心脏病发作一周年。”

当时，在完成早锻炼后，穆诺兹正在返回他在芝加哥市中心租赁的寓所。这位健身达人一直坚持吃素食，就在短短几周前，他还刚刚参加过一场铁人三项赛。电话铃响起的时候，他正在搅拌蛋白奶昔。“在我去接电话时，腿突然开始打颤。”

他突然记起了一位和他一起慢跑的心脏病专家朋友曾经说过的话。“他说，‘你要是感觉不对，马上打911告诉他们现在你的位置。你可能连第一个电话都坚持不过去’。”

穆诺兹立即抓起固定电话,拨打了911并且告诉接线员他的地址. “要知道我曾经在美国电报电话公司（AT&T）工作过。”穆诺兹调侃到。然后恍惚中记得门被锁上，他就在半昏迷状态下跌跌撞撞地穿过公寓房间去把门打开。刚把门打开，他就倒在了衣柜门上撞破了鼻子。很快，医疗急救人员冲进了房间。他回忆到，在拨打911电话37分钟后，他已经躺在西北纪念医院（Northwestern Memorial Hospital）的呼吸机上。

这次濒死体验发生在穆诺兹担任美联航CEO的第38天。这使得在他就任美联航CEO后的头7个月内，有6个月的时间都是在一系列断断续续的治疗中度过的。1月5日他生日那天，他接受了为时11个小时的心脏移植手术。（医生告诉他，心脏捐献者是一位30岁的年轻人，但是没有透露更多信息。）他的身体状况在短短2个月内迅速恢复，然后重返工作岗位。穆诺兹是为数不多的几位在接受了心脏移植后仍然继续履行高管职务的大企业CEO之一。“这是有史以来最激动人心的励志故事，”加拿大航空前总裁，今年3月刚刚应穆诺兹之邀加入美联航董事会并担任董事长的罗伯特·米尔顿（Robert Milton）说。“我加盟美联航的原因之一就是想帮这位老兄取得成功。”

Oscar Munoz is telling his pilots about the day he almost died. “I want to share with all of you the advice that saved my life,” he says.

It’s mid-October and the CEO of United Continental UAL is standing, microphone in hand, at one end of a conference room in a Radisson hotel outside Denver. Dapper and relaxed in a blue blazer and gray slacks, Munoz is here to address 250 of the airline giant’s veteran pilots, who have flown in for annual training exercises.

The charismatic 57-year-old executive has already won the room over with his sense of humor, pointing out that today’s crowd is in a far more jubilant mood than the tense group at the same event last year—before the company and the pilots’ union had agreed to a generous contract extension. “I was facing a room full of fingers pointing at me,” he says.

But suddenly his sunny mood turns somber. The room grows quiet as Munoz recalls the morning of Oct. 15, 2015. “This is the anniversary week of my heart attack,” he tells his rapt audience.

Munoz had just returned to his downtown Chicago rental apartment after an early-morning workout. The fitness freak—who had completed a triathlon weeks earlier and maintained a vegan diet—was mixing a protein shake when the phone rang. “As I went to answer, my legs buckled.”

The words of a cardiologist friend he jogs with suddenly came to him. “He said, ‘If you ever feel something weird, call 911, and tell them where you are. You may not get past that first phone call.’ ”

Munoz grabbed his landline—“I used to work for AT&T”—dialed 911, and sputtered his address. Then, remembering that he had locked the front door, he stumbled across the apartment in a stupor. Just as he got the door unlocked, he tumbled backward into a closet door, breaking his nose in the fall. Moments later the paramedics rushed in. Within 37 minutes of making the 911 call, he recounts, he was on life support at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

The near-death experience occurred on Munoz’s 38th day as United’s CEO. And it marked the start of a series of medical trials that, on and off, kept him sidelined for six of his first seven months at United. On Jan. 5, his birthday, Munoz received a heart transplant in an 11-hour operation. (He’s been told the donor was a 30-year-old but has no further information.) But he returned to the job after an extraordinarily brief recovery of just over two months. In fact, Munoz is one of the very few CEOs of a major company to ever continue in the top job after receiving a heart transplant. “This is the craziest human-interest story ever,” says Robert Milton, the former chief of Air Canada who joined the United board in March at Munoz’s behest and now serves as chairman. “I took the job in part because I wanted this guy to win.”

另一位新任董事，来自PAR资本（今年早些时候曾经威胁争夺董事会代表权，后来与穆诺兹达成协议的两家对冲基金之一）的埃德·沙彼罗（Ed Shapiro）说：“真正让我们印象深刻的是，他是冒着生命危险来领导美联航的。他本可以说，‘我得了要命的病，没法继续工作’，但它选择了回来继续承担这份压力巨大的工作。”

和穆诺兹的回归一样引人瞩目的是他为扭转这家多年来身陷困境、四分五裂的航空公司命运所做的艰苦努力。他与公司四大工会达成协议，解决了持续数年的劳资冲突；他聘用了来自竞争对手的高管；他提高了美联航的准点到达率。华尔街已经开始关注这些动向：在截至11月初的短短4个月时间里，美联航股价飙升了44% ——把竞争对手美国航空（37%）和达美航空（17%）抛在身后。事实上，穆诺兹回归美联航的举动将会极大改变规模达7,000亿美元的全球航空业的平衡。

在几小时的采访过程中，穆诺兹为《财富》独家详细介绍了美联航雄心勃勃的目标、实现目标所需的战略、以及他如何九死一生并成功康复的惊险历程。

美联航和大陆航空2010年失败的合并造成了灾难性的后果。自那时起，美联航的业绩就一直乏善可陈。穆诺兹担任CEO之前，美联航与空乘和地勤的合同谈判一直延宕了多年也未达成一致，公司劳资关系一直处于紧张状态。在美国四大航空公司之中，美联航的航班准点率一直位列末席。

由此，美国航空产业逐渐形成了很多专家都认为将会持续多年的层级结构。在美国三大航空公司中，达美航空以高可靠性、强大的盈利能力和高市场占有率扮演着龙头老大的地位。美国航空则在与全美航空合并之后稳居次席。

排名第三的美联航存在的问题已经远远不止可靠性差和机舱服务态度恶劣两条。近年来，在一系列并购活动后，美国航空市场只剩下了四大航空公司（包括廉价航空的领导者西南航空）。从而使这一市场的盈利能力大增。然而，美联航却没有及时抓住美国国内航班密集、票价坚挺的机会扩大经营规模，而是侧重于经营连接美国和亚洲、欧洲的航线。

为了扭转这种不利局面，穆诺兹做出了一系列大胆举措，其中包括一项重大招募行动。今年8月，美联航将曾经长期担任美国航空总裁的斯科特·科尔比（Scott Kirby）纳入麾下并担任相同职位，使业界深受震撼。科尔比擅长精心编制航班计划以增加盈利航线的数量，被誉为业内最佳的“网络管理者”。

穆诺兹正是想利用科尔比的网络开发能力缩短与美国航空和达美航空的差距。事实上，由于航空燃料价格大幅下跌，以及业内并购所导致的航空公司平均飞机数量大增，三大航空公司目前均能够实现盈利。尽管如此，美联航却在关键财务指标上远远落在它的两大竞争对手身后：2016年头9个月，美联航的运营利润率为14.5%，远低于达美航空的19.7%，比美国航空的16.3%也要低将近两个百分点。

美联航能够强势东山再起的原因在于：美联航拥有三大航空公司中最优越的枢纽机场网络。在大多数重点城市的航空市场，它总是排名首席或次席 – 在丹佛、休斯顿、纽约纽瓦克、旧金山排名第一，在华盛顿排名第二。“关键在于是否能把我们未曾开发的潜力全部开发出来，”美联航董事长米尔顿在他位于芝加哥威利斯大厦11层的办公室表示。身材苗条、精神抖擞的穆诺兹看起来并没有最近接受过心脏移植这种大手术的任何迹象。他存在健康问题的唯一表现是右手抓握时的些许无力感。（他已经恢复了骑行锻炼，但在左侧车把上安装了能给前轮和后轮同时刹车的特殊刹车手柄。）但至少他现在能握手，而在一两个月前，他的抓握能力尚在恢复中，只能和别人行碰拳礼。为了增强体力，他的饮食由全素改成了偶尔吃荤，他的菜谱中加入了鱼肉和禽肉。

美联航正在采取引人注目的举措吸引商务旅客。今年12月，美联航将正式启动一项称为“United Polaris”的服务，将以前国际航班上的商务舱和头等舱合并，从而使每个座位都能直达机舱过道。United Polaris服务附属的超豪华特别候机室还提供正餐美食及淋浴服务。

但是穆诺兹认为，仅凭上述便利服务还不足以让美联航超越其竞争对手。“每个人最后都会赶上甚至超过别人。”他说。

他的最终目的是要改变美联航的企业文化 – 由极端被动接受转为积极主动进取。“我们的员工和竞争对手都认为美联航是一家性情保守的公司，”他解释说。“我们想大胆颠覆这一切。我指的不一定是打价格战，而是要在基础服务上做到最好 – 以细腻周到而又充满激情的方式提供最好的客户服务、最高的航班准点率、以及最好的咖啡。”

穆诺兹在人生初始就领略到了纪律的重要性。他生于南加州，父亲是一名从墨西哥移民到美国的屠宰工。穆诺兹是家中9个孩子中的老大。“我们在家里没有准备9个牌子的麦片，”他回忆说。“我们要排队从一个盛满麦片粥的大桶里舀粥。”

1982年从南加州大学毕业后，穆诺兹在一系列财务分析师和财务主管工作中一路高升。他首先就职于百事可乐公司，后来跳槽到了可口可乐公司。1990年代中期，在时任可口可乐公司传奇CEO郭思达（Roberto Goizueta）的领导下，他在可口可乐谋到了一个受到众人窥伺的高层要职。后来，他陆续在Qwest和美国电报电话等公司任职。

2003年对于穆诺兹是实现跨越发展的关键一年。这一年，他进入总部位于杰克逊维尔的CSX铁路公司任首席财务官和首席战略官。“穆诺兹具有大刀阔斧的铁腕作风，”CSX总法律顾问艾琳·菲茨西蒙（Ellen Fitzsimmons）说。他裁掉了占员工总数20%的800个管理岗位，精简了人浮于事的管理体系。他还利用新的分析工具发现了最具盈利能力的细分市场，提高了CSX在高利润煤炭和化工产品运输领域的市场份额。在穆诺兹任职的12年期间，CSX的总市值由70亿美元剧增至280亿美元，年均股票分红比例高达15.9%，比标准普尔500企业的平均分红比例高出一倍。

2015年年中，CSX董事会决定由穆诺兹在当年年末接替迈克尔·沃德（Michael Ward）担任公司CEO，但是，这时急需拯救者的美联航向他抛出了一根他无法拒绝的橄榄枝。作为一位早在2004年就已成为大陆航空董事会董事的航空业圈内人士，穆诺兹清楚地知道，美联航正在深陷其中的一场危机可能会导致时任CEO杰夫·斯米塞克（Jeff Smisek）的去职。

过去几个月以来，美国司法部一直在调查如下事件：纽约新泽西港务局董事长大卫·萨姆森（David Samson）对美联航施压，要求后者恢复前往与其度假别墅相距不远的南卡罗莱纳州哥伦比亚的航班，他提出的价码是启动美联航长期以来一直期待的纽瓦克自由机场（改建工程。新泽西州的州检察官称，在萨姆森的要求下，美联航恢复了这个亏损航班。在联邦调查和美联航内部调查下，萨姆森于2015年9月被解职。（2016年7月，萨姆森被判受贿罪名成立，美联航则被判处225万美元罚款，并同意对其法律合规程序实施大改进。而斯米塞克和美联航其他高管中无一人受到指控，斯米塞克也从未对这一事件发表任何评论。）

Adds another new director, Ed Shapiro of PAR Capital, one of two hedge funds that threatened a proxy fight earlier this year before reaching an accord with Munoz: “What impressed us was that he put his life at risk to lead United. He chose to come back when it would have been easy to say, ‘I had a life-threatening issue, so I won’t be coming back’ to this incredibly stressful job.”

Almost as remarkable as Munoz’s swift return is the progress he has already made in turning around what has for several years been a struggling and divided airline. He has ended years of labor strife by reaching new deals with the company’s four major unions, recruited away top talent from the airline’s rivals, and boosted United’s on-time arrivals. And Wall Street has taken notice: As of early November, United’s stock price had soared 44% in four months—besting fellow mega-carriers American (37%) AAL 0.94% and Delta DAL 0.80% (17%). Indeed, a comeback at United promises to substantially shift the balance of power in the $700 billion global airlines industry.

In hours of interviews, Munoz recently provided Fortune with a close-up, exclusive look at his ambitious goals for United, his strategy for reaching them, and his amazing recovery from his near-death experience.

united has been an underperformer ever since the disastrous merger between United and Continental in 2010. Prior to Munoz’s arrival, negotiations on contracts with flight attendants and mechanics had been dragging on for years, causing a bitterly antagonistic relationship between management and labor. United regularly posted the worst on-time performance among America’s four major carriers.

As a result, the U.S. industry settled into a hierarchy that most experts predicted would persist for years. Among the nation’s Big Three global carriers, Delta was the clear -champion—with excellent reliability, strong margins, and a dominant market cap to match. After its successful merger with US Airways, American was a strong second place.

Third-place United’s problems ran deeper than just poor reliability and grumpy onboard service. In recent years the U.S. market has proved extremely profitable, in part because the industry has shrunk to just four big carriers (including the leading budget choice, Southwest). But instead of expanding to benefit from the packed planes and strong fares, United had neglected its U.S. business to focus on profits ferrying passengers to Asia and Europe.

Munoz has made bold moves to reverse these trends—and at least one blockbuster hire. In an August coup that astounded the industry, United grabbed the longtime president of American Airlines, Scott Kirby, to take on the same role at United. Kirby, a master of orchestrating schedules to maximize lucrative connecting traffic, is renowned as the best “network manager” in the business.

Munoz is counting on Kirby’s network magic to close the gap with American and Delta. To be sure, today all three major carriers are profitable thanks to a steep fall in the price of jet fuel and the industry consolidation that has helped lead to packed planes. But United trails its rivals by a wide margin on key financial metrics: For the first nine months of 2016, United posted an operating margin of 14.5%, far below Delta at 19.7% and almost two points under American’s 16.3%.

Here’s why United actually has a shot at a strong comeback: It boasts what’s arguably the best array of hubs of the majors. It is the first- or second-ranking carrier in more of the biggest urban markets than any of its rivals—holding the top spot in Denver, Houston, New York City/Newark, and San Francisco and ranking second in Washington, D.C. “The key is the opportunity to exploit all that potential we haven’t been exploiting,” says Milton, the United chairman sitting in his 11th-floor office in Chicago’s Willis Tower (the formerSears Tower), the trim, athletic Munoz shows no outward signs that he’s powered by a recently implanted heart. The only apparent legacy of his health issues is a slight looseness in the grip of his right hand. (He’s back cycling but with a special brake lever installed on the left handlebar that works both front and back wheels.) But he’s shaking hands where he used only fist bumps a couple of months ago and says his grip is returning. To increase his stamina, he has shifted from being a pure vegan to what he calls a “flexitarian,” by adding fish and poultry to his diet.

United is making some splashy moves to attract business travelers. In December it will introduce a new service called Polaris that combines the former business- and first-class cabins on international flights so that every seat has direct aisle access. Polaris will also offer special, extra-luxurious lounges serving sit-down gourmet meals and equipped with showers.

But Munoz doesn’t think that such amenities are what’s going to lift United above its rivals. “Everyone eventually matches or leapfrogs everyone else,” he says.

Instead, he’s set on transforming the United culture—from extremely passive to highly aggressive. “Our employees and competitors thought we were docile,” he explains. “We want to be defiantly disruptive. I don’t mean necessarily by launching price wars but by being the best at the basics—having the best customer service, the best on-time performance, the best coffee—in a thoughtful, not a testosterone-laced, way.”

Munoz learned about operational discipline early in life. He grew up in Southern California, the son of a union meat cutter born in Mexico and the oldest of nine children. “We didn’t have nine brands of cereal at home,” he recalls. “We’d line up to fill our bowls from a giant vat of oatmeal.”

After graduating from USC in 1982, Munoz rose through an ascending series of financial analyst and controller jobs, first at PepsiCo PEP -0.31% , then at Coca-Cola Enterprises. In the mid-1990s he secured a coveted chief-of-staff-like role under legendary Coca-Cola KO -0.51% CEO Roberto Goizueta. He moved on to stints at Qwest and AT&T.

In 2003, Munoz made a big jump when he joined railroad operatorCSX CSX 0.12% of Jacksonville as CFO and chief of strategy. “Oscar brought a certain steeliness,” says its general counsel, Ellen Fitzsimmons. He helped streamline the bloated managerial ranks by eliminating 800—or 20%—of the management positions. He also developed new analytics that identified the most profitable product segments, steering CSX to increase its shares in high-margin coal and chemicals. Over his 12 years at CSX, its market cap soared from $7 billion to $28 billion with a 15.9% average annual stock return that was double the performance of the S&P 500.

In mid-2015 the CSX board chose Munoz to succeed CEO Michael Ward at the end of the year. But then a challenge appeared that Munoz couldn’t turn down.united needed a savior. And as a director of the airline—he had joined the Continental board in 2004—Munoz knew well that the company had been embroiled in a crisis that might end the tenure of CEO Jeff Smisek.

For months the Justice Department had been investigating charges that David Samson, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, had pressured United to reinstate a flight to Columbia, S.C., near his vacation home in exchange for improvements that United sought at Newark’s Liberty Airport. United reinstated the money-losing flight because of Samson’s demands, according to New Jersey’s U.S. Attorney. The federal investigation and United’s internal probe led to Smisek’s ouster in September 2015. (In July 2016, Samson pled guilty to bribery. United paid a $2.25 million penalty and agreed to substantially improve its compliance procedures. Neither Smisek nor other United officials were charged. Smisek has never commented.)

The United board didn’t see a good internal candidate to replace Smisek, who had consolidated power by holding the positions of president, CEO, and chairman. One potential contender, CFO John Rainey, had already left to take the top financial job at PayPal PYPL 0.50% . The directors had hired an executive search firm to look at outside candidates if Smisek was forced to leave. But they wanted to avoid a long-term search that could leave United even more rudderless. Their fellow director Munoz, with his knowledge of the airline and track record at CSX, seemed the logical candidate.

Munoz recognized the opportunity. He felt that if he could fix morale at United, performance would follow. “There was a high level of distrust and disengagement with employees,” says Munoz today.

his heart attack wasn’t the only major hurdle Munoz had to overcome to start the turnaround at United. Just two months after receiving his heart transplant and days before he returned to work full-time on March 14, Munoz faced a potentially crippling proxy battle with investors.

Two Boston hedge funds that specialize in airlines—PAR and Altimeter—had decided they could no longer tolerate United’s terrible record and demanded major changes to the board. They supported the selection of Munoz as CEO but, given his lack of an operating background in airlines, argued that he needed guidance from directors with long experience in the industry. None of United’s 12 directors had ever worked for an airline. In a March 8 letter to the board, the two hedge funds castigated United’s board as “underqualified, ineffective, complacent, and entrenched.”

The hedge funds demanded a slate of six new directors headed by former Continental CEO Gordon Bethune, whom they wanted as chairman. For Munoz, naming Bethune chairman was a deal-breaker; he argued it would inflame the old divisions between United and Continental. But he also sought to avoid a debilitating fight with major investors. “I didn’t want weeks and months of cultural damage and brain damage that would continue to undermine the company.”

Munoz recognized the need to fortify the board with more airline experience. So on March 7 he had launched a preemptive strike by naming three new directors, including two airline -veterans—Air Canada veteran Milton and James Whitehurst, former COO of Delta.

穆诺兹建议任命米尔顿为董事长，并将他自己的晋升时间向后推迟一年直至2018年年中。他选择经验丰富的航空公司前高管担任董事是最终促成谈判成功的关键原因。两家对冲基金最终放弃了任命白求恩为董事长的计划。4月，双方达成协议，同意任命三位新董事，其中两人是由这两家对冲基金所遴选。

如果体现一位航空公司高管是否成功的标准之一是能否和普通员工保持良好关系的话，那么穆诺兹无疑是极为成功的。他能够非常自然地让包括售票员和行李搬运工在内的基层员工们对他产生好感，并且和他们谈笑风生。

他最近一次出差去休斯顿，晚上9点左右才到。到达机场后他直接去了维修机库看望那里的机械师们。第二天早晨，他走遍整座机场，不停地和售票员和客户服务员们聚在一起自拍，说些鼓舞士气的话，然后走到停机坪上看望那些正在把行李从飞机行李舱转移到行李传送带上的工人们。“我在机库里和舷梯上感觉很舒服自在，”穆诺兹说。另外，他还和一位卡车司机工会成员交谈了30分钟。这位工会成员在心脏移植手术后已经离开工作两年，在两天前才刚刚重返工作岗位。

早在他自己的心脏病发作之前，穆诺兹就已经做出了调整重要政策的计划。过去，在斯米塞克管理下，美联航曾经将杰克逊维尔和博伊西（Boise）等小城市机场的客户服务和舷梯操作工作外包给非工会工人。而在CSX任职时经常往返杰克逊维尔的穆诺兹曾经亲眼目睹过在这项外包政策下，技能低劣的新工人给旅客们造成的种种麻烦和不便。2015年秋季履新CEO职位后不久，他就果断叫停了外包，从而赢得了各家工会的广泛信任。

穆诺兹还在达成新空乘合同的过程中发挥了决定性作用。在斯米塞克时代，这项新合同的谈判曾经陷入僵局。“当时所有人都在整天无谓地打嘴仗、绕圈子，”前美联航空乘，目前担任全国空乘工会AFA会长的萨拉·尼尔森（Sara Nelson）说。“甚至连员工的陪审义务补助这种小事都谈不妥，更别说薪酬待遇这种重大问题了。谈判持续了3年，真正解决掉的问题数量可能只有10%。”

达成协议是真正实现美联航和大陆航空最终整合的关键一步：荒唐的是，现有规则禁止前大陆航空空乘人员登上美联航在合并完成前拥有的飞机上工作，反之亦然。让我们设想一下这个古怪情景：一架飞机晚点到达休斯顿，机上的“大陆航空”空乘人员已经完成了他们的工作班次。而这时尽管有一个“美联航”空乘组无事可做，但却不能登上这架航班飞往下一个目的地。

过去，美联航认为它没有义务提供等同于达美航空和美国航空的“市场”薪酬和福利标准。穆诺兹则从一个不同的角度看问题。“和铁路一样，航空产业是一个遵循‘模式谈判’的产业，”他说。“你要支付相当于市场标准的薪酬，才能最终落实合同。没有合同，你和员工之间的关系就会非常脆弱。”于是，穆诺兹直接插手制订了更优厚的薪酬方案，从而打破了谈判僵局。

Munoz proposed appointing Milton as chairman and deferring his own ascension for a year, until mid-2018. The choice of a seasoned airline veteran was crucial to forging a deal. The hedge funds dropped their demands for Bethune to head the board. In April the two sides reached an accord by agreeing to three additional directors, including two picked by the hedge funds.

if part of being a successful airline executive is connecting with the rank and file, Munoz checks that box easily. He’s a natural at charming and connecting with everyone from ticket agents to baggage handlers.

On a recent trip to Houston, Munoz arrived at around 9 p.m. and went directly to a maintenance hangar to meet with a crew of mechanics. The next morning he strolled through the airport taking selfies and giving pep talks to ticket agents and customer service folks, then descended to the tarmac to hang out with the workers who move bags from planes to carousels. “I feel most comfortable in the hangars and ramps,” says Munoz. He also met for 30 minutes with a Teamster who had returned to work two days earlier following a heart transplant, after two years off the job.

Even before his own heart attack, Munoz set a new tone with a crucial shift in policy. Under Smisek, United was outsourcing jobs to non-union customer service reps and ramp workers in small cities such as Jacksonville and Boise. Munoz, who regularly flew out of Jacksonville while at CSX, saw firsthand how the policy annoyed travelers, since inexperienced new hires frequently provided below-par service. Shortly after becoming CEO, in the fall of 2015, he halted the outsourcing, which went a long way toward winning the confidence of the unions.

Munoz also played a decisive role in clinching the new attendants’ contract. Under Smisek, the talks had been grounded. “It was a lot of stalling and talking around in circles,” recalls Sara Nelson, a United flight attendant who now heads the AFA, the national flight attendants’ union. “We couldn’t get past things like compensation for jury duty, let alone the big pay issues. Probably 90% of the issues weren’t settled after three years of talks.”

Reaching an agreement was essential to finally integrating United and Continental: Bizarrely, the rules barred the legacy Continental flight attendants from working on planes owned by United before the merger, and vice versa. Let’s say a plane arrived late in Houston and the “Continental” flight attendants onboard had finished their shift and a “United” reserve crew was free. The “United” attendants weren’t allowed to service the flight to its next connection.

Under the previous regime, United felt that it couldn’t afford to match the “market” wages and benefits paid by Delta and American. Munoz took a different view. “This is a pattern-bargaining industry, like railroads,” he says. “You need to pay market to get a contract at all, and without contracts, you have a poor relationship with workers.” So Munoz directly intervened to break the final deadlock, authorizing a more generous deal.

薪酬提高后，美联航的准点率表现有了大幅度提升。根据FlightStats网站提供的统计数据，今年前三个季度，82%的美联航航班在自计划到达时间起的15分钟内打开舱门 – 这同时也是行业内对“准点”的定义。这个数字比去年同期的77%提高了5个百分点。美联航的准点率已经以2个百分点的优势超过了美国航空，与达美航空的差距也从6个百分点缩窄为不到3个百分点。

现在，劳资关系已经归于平静，穆诺兹开始专注于提升机场网络管理水平。他希望完全发挥美联航旗下大量机场设施的潜力。把科尔比招于麾下则是实现这一跨越的关键举措。

关于这位前美国航空总裁是如何空降美联航的过程，圈内人都讳莫如深。但是《财富》了解到，早在美国航空董事长科尔比离职前两周，穆诺兹和美联航董事会就已经获知了他即将离开美国航空的消息。令人们大感意外的是，美国航空董事会决定晋升COO罗伯特·伊索姆（Robert Isom）担任总裁，并声称伊索姆继任的是CEO道格·帕克（Doug Park），而非科尔比的职位，同时要求科尔比离职。让美联航感到高兴的是，科尔比不受竞业限制协议限制，可以自由地加入其他航空公司继续工作。“听到消息的那一刻，我不禁兴奋地跳了起来，”穆诺兹说。

美国航空于8月20日下午4时15分公布了科尔比的离职消息，而美联航则在4时18分宣布，科尔比将担任美联航总裁。脾气暴躁的白求恩对这一职务变动表示赞赏。“很多人会出于自我保护的目的，不愿意聘用能力强的人，”他告诉《财富》说。“但是穆诺兹敢于聘用最适合这个职位的人 – 科尔比。这让我对他的好感增加了10倍。”

穆诺兹如此快速出击是出于一个明显的原因：通过各大枢纽机场把合适的飞机派往合适的地方正是科尔比的专长 – 同时也是任何航空公司实现盈利的基石。美联航目前的网络管理效率在三大航空公司之间最为薄弱，而科尔比深知解决问题的方法，并且在不久以前曾经帮助美国航空从美联航手里拉来了不少客户。

在丹佛郊区向飞行员们发表演讲后，穆诺兹与亲友共同庆祝他死里逃生一周年。他的妻子由于要照料他们四个子女中最小的男孩上中学，目前还住在杰克逊维尔。穆诺兹夫妇和他们小儿子的两位朋友，以及他们的父母一道飞往芝加哥观赏周末的体育比赛。周五，他们在芝加哥郊区观看了公牛队的篮球比赛（公牛队获胜），周日则在军人运动场（Soldier Field）观看了芝加哥熊队迎战来自杰克逊维尔美洲虎队的橄榄球比赛（美洲虎队获胜）穆诺兹刚刚搬离杰克逊维尔不久。

周六晚，他们在一家餐厅观赏了全国棒球联盟冠军系列赛首场比赛——小熊队对阵洛杉矶道奇队。“看到芝加哥接球手米盖尔·蒙泰罗（Miguel Montero）打出了一记漂亮的满贯本垒打，”出生于洛杉矶的穆诺兹说，“我不禁放弃了一贯支持的道奇队，转而成为小熊队的球迷。”

这记本垒打发生10月15日。就在整整1年前的这天，穆诺兹正在挣扎着去打开他的公寓大门等待急救。对于一家急需重整旗鼓的老牌航空公司，很难想象还有谁比他更适合担任这家公司的领导人。（财富中文网）

作者：Shawn Tully

译者：郑立飞

The payoff has been a remarkable improvement in on-time performance. According to statistics complied by FlightStats, for the first three quarters of this year, 82% of United flights opened their doors at the gate within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival—the definition of “on-time.” That’s an improvement of five percentage points from the 77% number in the same period last year. United actually beat American by more than two points and narrowed the gap with Delta from six to under three points.

now that he has achieved labor peace, Munoz is focused on improving network management. He wants to fully exploit the potential of United’s powerful collection of hubs. And luring Kirby was essential in making the leap.

The story of how American’s president landed at United is a closely guarded secret, but Fortune has learned that Munoz and the board heard Kirby would be leaving American about two weeks before his departure. In a surprise move, American’s board had decided to promote its COO, Robert Isom, to president—tabbing Isom as the heir apparent to CEO Doug Parker rather than Kirby, and forcing Kirby’s departure. United got a big break because Kirby wasn’t restricted by a noncompetition agreement that would have prevented him from joining another airline for an extended period. “I jumped on it right away,” says Munoz.

American disclosed -Kirby’s departure at 4:15 p.m. on Aug. 29, and United announced his appointment as president at 4:18 p.m. The move wins praise from the crusty Bethune. “A lot of guys won’t hire strong people because they’re afraid of being overshadowed,” he tellsFortune. “But Oscar had the balls to hire Kirby—the right guy for the job. He rose 1,000% in my estimation.”

Munoz pounced for an obvious reason: Getting the rightsized planes to the right places, all funneled through hubs, is Kirby’s specialty—and the keystone of any airline’s profitability. Of the three mega-carriers, United’s network management is by far the weakest. And Kirby, who had been targeting United to win customers to American just a few months ago, knows its problems inside-out.

the weekend after this speech to the pilots near Denver, Munoz marked the anniversary of surviving his heart attack by celebrating with friends and family. His wife has remained in Jacksonville to allow the youngest of their four children, a teenage boy, to finish high school. The pair flew up to Chicago, accompanied by two of the son’s friends and their parents, for a sports super-weekend—featuring excursions to watch the Bulls on Friday (they won) and to Soldier Field to see the Bears lose to Munoz’s last hometown team, the Jacksonville Jaguars, on Sunday.

On Saturday night the group joined revelers in a restaurant to watch the Cubs defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in game one of the National League championship series. “When [Chicago catcher] Miguel Montero hit that grand slam,” says L.A. native Munoz, “I transferred my lifelong loyalty from the Dodgers to the Cubs.”

The home run came on Oct. 15—one year to the day after Munoz had managed to stumble to his apartment door, and salvation. For an airline in need of a comeback, it’s hard to imagine a better-qualified leader.