UAL Extends Chairman's Contract

Directors of United Airlines parent UAL Corp. extended by four years to 2011 the employment contract of Glenn Tilton, the airline's chairman, president and chief executive officer, and gave him a hefty raise, the Wall Street Journal reports. The board also awarded a four-year contract to Chief Operating Officer Pete McDonald after another company tried to poach him, according to UAL. Tilton, 58, joined the airline in September 2002 on a five-year contract. A severe industry downturn pushed the nation's second-largest airline by traffic into bankruptcy court protection later that year; it emerged last February and returned to profitability in the second quarter of this year.