New United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz suffered a heart attack Thursday morning, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Munoz, 56, who took over leadership of the troubled airline last month, is being treated in a Chicago hospital, according to Dow Jones, which said only that the information came from "a person familiar with the matter."
United did not confirm the nature of Munoz's ailment in the brief statement it issued Friday.
"We have been informed by Oscar's family that he was admitted to the hospital on Thursday and we will provide further details as appropriate. In the meantime, we are continuing to operate normally," the airline said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and we are respecting their privacy."
Munoz, formerly the COO of railroad company CSX Corp., took over United on Sept. 8 after his predecessor of five years, Jeff Smisek, resigned as a result of a federal probe into the airline's dealings with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He inherited an airline that is still struggling with reliability performance measures (such as timeliness) five years after its merger with Continental. United is also involved in drawn-out contractual negotiations with unions representing its mechanics and flight attendants.
Munoz has pledged to work on those issues as United CEO, as well as to focus more attention on technical innovation.
Citing their anonymous source, Dow Jones reported that United is waiting to hear from Munoz's family about the severity of his condition before deciding whether it will need to appoint an interim chief officer.
There's a possibility that the heart attack was a mild one, Dow Jones was told.