On this page you'll find United News such as Highlights from Newsreal and Eye-on-UA and now UA connections . For everyday newsreals go to the Skynet page.
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NEW Welcome to UA Connections UAConnections Daily and breaking new Employee publications like UA Today and NewsReal |
You can access UA Connections through one click from the SkyNet homepage. You'll find: Helpful information on employee travel and employee discount offerings. You can also click on the "Travel" button on the main page. For more info on pass travel, and policy changes |
NEWSREAL Today's News Feb 1, 2010 Recap of Industry Earnings John Gebo, managing director-Investor Relations, sent a recap of fourth quarter financial results for the major U.S. network carriers and Southwest to all employees via e-mail.
Key themes for this quarter, across the network carriers, include the following: * Revenue Recovery. To varying degrees, all carriers commented positively on the recovering revenue environment -- and, importantly, most carriers noted month-to-month sequential strengthening throughout the fourth quarter. * Cost Guidance. Most carriers provided non-fuel unit cost outlooks for the full year. And as described in more detail in the e-mail, most carriers are planning for fairly tight cost control in 2010. * Capacity Discipline. Several carriers echoed the importance of capacity discipline to a recovery in our industry -- and their mostly flat-ish capacity outlooks for 2010 supported that commentary. For additional detail on how United's results for the fourth quarter compared to those of other carriers, please visit SkyNet (at work, offsite). Mileage Plus Introduces Two New Flexible Awards Starting today, our Mileage Plus members can enjoy two new ways to use their miles with our One-Way Awards and Miles and Money Awards. These new awards are part of Mileage Plus' ongoing efforts to give our members more choices and greater flexibility.
Mileage Plus' One-Way Awards are available for half the miles of a roundtrip award (starting at 12,500 miles for a domestic Saver Award) for a one-way ticket on United or United Express.
Our members can also stretch their miles further with our new Miles and Money Awards. What this means is if you are low on miles, you can still book a roundtrip award, hotel stay or car rental for fewer miles and make up the difference in cash.
As employees, we know that flying on a space-available basis requires flexibility. That may not be possible when traveling for important events that are locked on the calendar. Spring break, wedding and graduation seasons are coming, and when you can't miss an important milestone, our new One-Way Awards can get you there in time to see the sunset, the bride walk down the aisle or a family member receive his or her diploma.
"Our Mileage Plus members, some of whom are also our own employees, are looking for more ways to get the most out of their hard-earned miles, and we continue to develop new programs that enable them to do just that," said Robert Sahadevan, VP–Mileage Plus. "Our new One-Way Awards and Miles and Money Awards give you the flexibility to use your miles – and fewer of them – by providing more options to book the type of travel you want." More information about One-Way Awards and Miles and Money Awards will be available at www.mileageplus.com. UAL Corporation's stock (NASDAQ: UAUA) closed Friday, January 29, 2010, at 12.23,down 0.40 (3.17 percent) on a volume of 10,198,166 shares. The UAUA stock ticker is available on the right side of SkyNet's homepage.
Today's News Dec 14, 2009 Tackling Short Delays Anyone who has boarded a full B757 at Chicago O'Hare knows that there is often more carry-on baggage than the long, skinny planes can accommodate safely.
Dealing with the excess bags is frustrating for our customers and challenging for our customer service representatives (CSRs) and flight attendants who work hard to prevent the situation fromleading to a flight delay.
Across the airline, we have a number of Continuous Improvement projects aimed at tackling short delays, specifically those affecting B757 departures. One of the root causes for short delays is our handling of gate-checked bags, especially on flights with high load factors and hub-to-hub flights. VP-Airport Operations Planning and United Express Cindy Szadokierski has led a Lean Six Sigma project to address the root causes. Her team developed a number of solutions for the gate-checked bags through rigorous analysis and piloting of frontline ideas. Among the most effective improvements: more targeted announcements in the gate areas, as well as proactively collecting a specific minimum number of bags before boarding. The improvements will soon be rolling out in other hubs and stations, and bag collection targets are being calculated for each possible hub/fleet combination.
"The timing of this project is really beneficial," Cindy said. "We now have proven techniques we can share just as we start the busy holiday season."
"It's also a great application of our continuous improvement process, involving employees and vendors in a meaningful way to improve our processes and address operational issues," says Cindy, who became the first United officer to earn her Green Belt through United's Lean Six Sigma program.
After living the process of achieving a Green Belt, Cindy says, "Now I can relate more to the trials and tribulations of leading a project. Having done that, I can now ensure that employees managing projects will get the support they need, because I needed that same support and teamwork to make my own project successful.
"It's important that I walk the talk, and apply what I learned. It's up to leaders to ensure that we continue to improve our processes and make it possible for more employees to become part of continuous improvement in a meaningful way."
To see a presentation about the team's short delay project, go to the Enterprise Continuous Improvement project archive on SkyNet (at work, offsite). Many other CI projects are aimed at reducing short delays, some of which we'll feature in an upcoming NewsReal:
* Boarding start times –proposed solutions are being piloted at San Francisco and focus on prioritizing gate tasks as well as establishing a feedback loop for flights that begin boarding late.
* Improving the handling of "hot bags," which are moved from plane to plane on the ramp, and "sorter bags," which originate at the station.
* The new standard work to optimize ramp service planeside staffing at O'Hare has shown good results and work is well under way to improve the planeside standard staffing at Denver, Washington Dulles and San Francisco.
* We are working across divisions with cleaning and catering partners to improve their contributions to our on-time departure rates.
United Named "Best North American Airline" in Three Top Industry Awards in Asia We have recently received three top industry awards in the Asia-Pacific region for recognition of the outstanding services we provide to frequent travelers.
* Travel Trade Gazette Asia (TTG Asia) voted us the "Best North American Airline" for the tenth time.
* Business Traveller Asia-Pacific voted us the "Best North American Airline" for the ninth consecutive year.
* Business Traveller China voted us the "Best American Airline Serving China" for the fifth consecutive year.
The awards are three of the region's most prestigious accolades for top players in the travel industry. Every year, industry professionals and savvy travelers, in Asia and around the world, are surveyed on their opinions of airlines, hotels, destinations and travel industry services.
"We are very grateful to our customers and industry peers for recognizing the effort we have put into satisfying their travel needs," says James Mueller, VP-Pacific. "Since the Asia-Pacific region has always been a key element of our global network, we are committed to hearing what our customers here have to say and giving them the products and services they desire. The rave reviews customers have given us on our new first and business class lie-flat seats are the latest example of our success in meeting their high expectations."
Key Account Manager Angeline Yong has been with United in Hong Kong for 22 years and shares in the excitement of the awards. "The Asia-Pacific region has always been a significant part of United's global success and I am tremendously proud to be part of a winning team all these years."
We are the first U.S. carrier to introduce all-new first class suites and a business class cabin with a 180-degree, fully flat bed and iPod connectivity. Currently, many of our international aircraft flying to and from Asia have already been configured with these new flat beds. In addition, we are one of the few U.S. carriers which offers three cabins of service on all of its international overseas flights, including economy class with Economy Plus® seating, which provides up to 5 inches of extra legroom.
Boeing 787 Dreamliner Scheduled for First Flight Today Last week we announced that we will purchase 25 Boeing 787s, in addition to 25 Airbus A350s.
The B787 Dreamliner is scheduled to make its historic first flight today. The test flight is scheduled for 10 a.m. Pacific time, weather permitting.
Boeing is offering a live webcast of the flight at www.newairplane.com. A link to the webcast also will be available through the Strengthening Our Flight banner ad on the SkyNet homepage. UAL Corporation's stock (NASDAQ: UAUA) closed Monday, December 14, 2009, at 11.52, up 0.53 (4.82 percent), on a volume of 18,092,024 shares. The UAUA stock ticker is available on the right side of SkyNet's homepage Today's News Oct 20, 2009 UAL Corp. Reports Third Quarter 2009 Results; Reported Operating Profit; Narrowed Loss and Enhanced Liquidity On Tuesday, we reported results for the third quarter ended, Sept. 30, 2009. We: * Reported a GAAP operating profit of 88 million dollars for the third quarter; after excluding special charges our operating profit was 123 million dollars. * Reported a net loss of 63 million dollars, or 43 cents per basic share, excluding noncash, net mark-to-market hedge gains and certain accounting charges, narrowing our net loss by 202 million dollars compared to the third quarter of 2008. We reported a GAAP net loss of 57 million dollars, or 39 cents per basic share. * Reported a year-over-year decline in consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) of 14.7 percent, a 2.5-percentage- point improvement compared to the 17.2 percent decline experienced in this measure in the second quarter of 2009. * Delivered a third consecutive quarter of non-fuel unit cost reduction, with mainline unit cost per available seat mile (CASM) for the quarter down 1.6 percent year-over-year, excluding fuel and certain accounting charges, despite a reduction in mainline capacity of 8.2 percent year-over-year. Mainline CASM, including fuel and excluding non-cash, net mark-to-market fuel hedge gains and certain accounting charges, was down 20.3 percent year-over-year. GAAP mainline unit cost, including these items, was down 24.8 percent. * Closed the quarter with total cash of 2.8 billion dollars, unrestricted cash of more than 2.5 billion dollars, and restricted cash of 309 million dollars. * Completed financings totaling more than 1.5 billion dollars, including 270 million dollars in the third quarter and nearly 1.3 billion dollars early in the fourth quarter, raising roughly 1 billion dollars in new liquidity. Through these financings, we also reduced our debt and net capital lease obligations for 2010 by 215 million dollars and for 2011 by 100 million dollars. * As a part of the 1.3 billion dollars in early fourth quarter financings, we completed a 129 million dollar financing with SkyWest, one of our regional flying partners. The agreement includes a contract extension on 40 existing aircraft as well as commitments for a small number of additional aircraft. * Ranked No. 2 in on-time arrivals among the major network carriers year-to-date through September, trailing the leader by less than one half of one percentage point * Continued to improve the quality of our products and services, with customer satisfaction scores significantly improving across the board compared to last year. "Against a challenging environment, our people are delivering improvements across the business. With the work we have done and the strength of our network, we are poised to see better year-over-year unit revenue performance as economies begin to recover and business travel returns," said Glenn Tilton, UAL Corporation, chairman, president and CEO. "We are again demonstrating that we can improve customer satisfaction and on-time performance even while reducing our unit costs." Early in the fourth quarter, we raised an additional 1.3 billion dollars. This includes 345 million dollars from a convertible debt offering, 138 million dollars from the issuance of common equity, 129 million dollars from SkyWest Inc., and 659 million dollars from refinancing an enhanced equipment trust certificate (EETC) resulting in 90 million dollars of incremental liquidity between closing and repayment of the existing secured notes. In addition to generating incremental liquidity, the EETC refinancing also reduced our debt amortization for 2010 by 215 million dollars and for 2011 by 100 million dollars. During the third quarter, we generated 56 million dollars of positive operating cash flow and 4 million dollars of negative free cash flow, defined as operating cash flow less capital expenditures. We had scheduled debt and net capital lease payments of 264 million dollars during the third quarter and non-aircraft capital expenditures of 60 million dollars. "We have made significant progress relative to last year, reporting an operating profit of 123 million dollars excluding charges, and generating what we believe will be leading cost control among our peers, reducing our mainline unit costs even as we reduce capacity," said Kathryn Mikells, UAL Corporation' s chief financial officer. "We continue to take action to improve our liquidity, and after successfully executing nearly 1.5 billion dollars in transactions over the last four months, our unrestricted cash balance now stands at more than 3.1 billion dollars, with only 90 million dollars in debt payments remaining this year." Strong On-Time Performance and Customer Satisfaction Improvements Continue United ranked second among the five U.S. network carriers in year-to-date 2009 ontime arrival performance through September, falling just one half of one percentage point behind the No. 1 spot. For the third quarter of 2009, United ranked third in on-time arrival performance, trailing the industry leader by less than one percentage point.
We continue to improve our key customer satisfaction measures among our best customers, with a significant improvement for the fourth consecutive quarter. Improvements were achieved across the travel experience, including aircraft cleanliness, seat and entertainment product workability, and employee courtesy. 2009 Outlook We expect mainline CASM, excluding fuel, profit sharing and certain accounting charges, for the full year 2009 to be down 0.5 percent to flat year-over-year. Since our original guidance in January, we have reduced our projected full year mainline non-fuel costs by about 350 million dollars. We expect scheduled debt and capital lease payments of 215 million dollars and capital expenditures of approximately 70 million dollars for the fourth quarter of 2009. Complete details on United's outlook can be found in the Investor Update, available at united.com/ir.
Today's News Sept 28, 2009 Glenn Addresses American Bar Association's Forum on Air and Space Law Glenn Tilton was invited to speak Friday at the American Bar Association's Forum on Air and Space Law. He spoke principally in his role as chairman of the Air Transport Association, addressing a topic critical to United -- the airline industry's ongoing dilemma. While the industry provides absolutely essential service to the public, and we enable tremendous collateral wealth creation – the industry has been systemically incapable of sustainable profitability. And, we are constrained by regulation from taking the necessary actions that would strengthen our businesses and provide investment in product and services. Glenn posed the question to the audience of aviation lawyers: if the current regulatory environment is intended to "protect" the industry, what are we protecting the industry from? His speech was a call to action inviting U.S. aviation policymakers to make progress in globalizing the business environment in which we operate. The speech also centered on the importance of alliances and ATC modernization, and the steps that United and other airlines continue to take to align our businesses with market realities as they occur, including the current economic crisis. To read the full text of Glenn's speech, please visit SkyNet. United Cargo and HerbThyme Have Recipe for Success The arugula in the salad, chives on the baked potato or tarragon flavoring the fish you enjoy at an East Coast restaurant one evening may have been plucked fresh from the California soil that same morning. Gourmands demand the freshest herbs, and finer establishments far away from prime growing areas are able to offer same-day freshness, thanks to a partnership between United Cargo and HerbThyme, which has become by far our largest SPD (Small Package Delivery for Priority Shipments) customer. SPD is right for HerbThyme, because from their headquarters in Southern California, it's a short truck ride to Los Angeles International Airport, and from there our schedule makes it possible for them to meet commitments with grocers, restaurants and wholesalers in all major U.S. markets. Most mornings, the cargo warehouse at LAX is buzzing in the pre-dawn hours to prepare shipments on the morning bank of flights to other hubs and to stations such as Baltimore, Boston, Kansas City, New York, Orlando and Pittsburgh. Our route network and schedule make United Cargo the right choice for HerbThyme, says Senior Account Executive Ken Sitzwohl with United Cargo in Los Angeles. But service has always been the key factor, he adds, noting that HerbThyme still prefers United with connections to other car Inside Our Industry * British Airways plc is scrapping all free meals --except breakfast -- on its short-haul flights as the airline continues to trim costs amid a recession-driven downturn in demand for travel. BA said Wednesday that the decision to cut meals on flights lasting less than two hours would save the airline around 22 million pounds (36 million dollars) each year (Associated Press Newswires). Additionally, British Airways is pressing Boeing Co. to renegotiate installment payments on 787 Dreamliners the carrier has ordered. BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh said in an interview in London he is seeking to delay cash payments that all airlines make to Boeing and its European rival Airbus as new planes are being built (Wall Street Journal).
* Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Europe's second-biggest airline, has reached a "material agreement" with the European Union on its purchase of Austrian Airlines AG, according to its Chief Financial Officer Stephan Gemkow (Bloomberg News). On Thursday, Lufthansa also said its second quarter profit fell 88 percent on a slump in sales -- especially of lucrative first- and business-class seats -- due to the global recession (Associated Press). * American Airlines sold 276.4 million dollars of debt backed by aircraft in a scaleddown offering designed to build up cash before the slow U.S. winter travel season. The sale was 20 percent smaller than the Fort Worth-based carrier outlined in a July 20 offering memorandum obtained by Bloomberg News. The memo said the company sought to raise 344.1 million dollars. "They reported earnings since the last transaction, and investors might have some concerns," Betsy Snyder, a Standard and Poor's analyst in New York, said of the reduced size of the sale (Bloomberg).
You can read the full text of this story on the SkyNet version of NewsReal. UAL Corporation's stock (NASDAQ: UAUA) closed Thursday, July 30, 2009, at 4.13, down 0.03 (0.72 percent), on a volume of 7,794,585 shares. The UAUA stock ticker is available on the right side of SkyNet's homepage.
Today's News June 30, 2009 United and Continental Expect DOT to Approve Request for Antitrust Immunity Both United and Continental continue to expect that the U.S. Department of Transportation will finalize approval of Continental's request for antitrust immunity to join our immunized alliance with Lufthansa, Air Canada and several European carriers next month. While the U.S. Department of Justice has objected to certain aspects of the application, the final decision regarding the scope of immunity to be granted to the parties rests with the Transportation Department, which gave preliminary approval to the request several weeks ago. In response to media inquiries, Continental said, "We appreciate that Department of Justice has submitted its comments, which will allow the Department of Transportation to close the docket and move forward with the application. We remain confident that Department of Transportation will approve our application." The final ruling from the Transportation Department is expected in mid-July. Anti-trust immunity, similar to the status that Delta and Northwest Airlines have with KLM/Air France and SkyTeam, would enable Continental to cooperate with us and other immunized Star Alliance airlines on schedules and pricing. American Airlines and British Airways have submitted a similar request to the Transportation Department.
International SOS Provides Employees With Valuable Assistance While Traveling Overseas Have you ever wondered what you would do in an emergency situation while traveling outside of your home country? What if your passport was stolen or you lost your prescription medicine? In today's volatile world, finding yourself in the middle of political or social protests is not even far-fetched.
"The safety and well-being of all of United's people is our No. 1 priority," says Michael Quiello, Vice President-Corporate Safety, Security, Quality and Environment. "So we engaged one of the top firms in the industry, International SOS, to provide security and medical assistance in emergency and non-emergency situations." The new program is available to all employees, retirees and travel eligibles (including Enrolled Friends). Prior to your travels, visit the International SOS Web site (www.internationalsos.com ) which offers medical alerts, cultural tips, visa information, country facts and other relevant information. It's easy to access from the member's section by entering United's member ID number: 11BYCA000027. If you need to find a doctor or have a general health question, medical and dental referrals are simply a phone call away. The centers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For crews on an active ID and other employees traveling on company business, International SOS will provide medical resources in an emergency or evacuation to a medical center of excellence. For additional information, check the International SOS link on the Travel page of SkyNet under Travel Information. You can also print a member card or view a list of Frequently Asked Questions. Be sure to print your membership card and keep it handy as you travel. It contains our corporate membership number and phone numbers to access International SOS. See SkyNet for more details.
United Interline Pleasure Travel Program Adds KLM and LIAT KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and LIAT are being added to the portfolio of airlines available for employee interline pleasure travel privileges. Medium Zonal Employee Discount (ZED) fares for KLM take effect on July 1 for all employees while medium ZED fares for LIAT took effect June 22.
KLM serves cities across the United States as well as destinations in Canada, Africa, Asia, Europe, Mexico, Latin America, Middle East and the Caribbean.
With hubs in Antigua, Barbados and Trinidad, LIAT offers service to 21 destinations within the Caribbean.
ZED fares are an interline fare program used by many carriers worldwide for spaceavailable travel, replacing industry discount ID90/95 fares for interline travel on several carriers. ZED pricing simplifies and significantly reduces the cost of non-revenue, spaceavailable interline pleasure travel.
For more information on United's employee interline travel privilege program, visit the interline travel page in SkyNet's travel section.
UAL Corporation's stock (NASDAQ: UAUA) closed Monday, June 29, 2009, at 3.47, down 0.01 (0.29 percent), on a volume of 3,582,977 shares. The UAUA stock ticker is available on the right side of SkyNet's homepage.
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Letter From the President Our Progress, Our Future On Friday, September 25, John Tague, president of United Airlines, sent the following e-mail to all employees. Dear Fellow Employee: Today, our Board of Directors concluded their annual, two-day strategic discussion. This meeting provides the opportunity to review the progress we have made over the last year, as well as discuss further performance improvement required to meet our shared objective of becoming an industry-leading airline. Focus on 5 is a major component of our strategy to build both the competitiveness of our airline, and a reputation for executional excellence. This focus on the fundamentals of running a good airline is proving to be a powerful plan, and we have achieved tremendous progress in a number of areas. While the improvements are widespread, some highlights are of note: * Safety, first and foremost; we have significantly decreased aircraft damages while making improvements in workplace safety.
Other areas have proven to be more challenging, notably revenue. Given the composition of our network, including our strength in the Pacific region, and our strong corporate account and premium cabin business, we have been particularly hard hit in this global recessionary environment. These are cyclical economic weaknesses, however, that will again be a source of strength for us as economies around the world recover. In the meantime, we have identified a number of improvement opportunities – both tactical and strategic – that our revenue team is executing. Not the least of these is the significant revenue benefit we expect from the addition of Continental in the Star Alliance in October. I want everyone to know that we are working to maximize revenue from all customer segments by continually improving our tools and processes for optimum effectiveness in this environment. Overall, we have made great progress in running a good airline. Yet, all of us know that we have opportunity for further improvement. Achieving our goals will require investment, and I want to outline the work under way that we covered with the Board. * As I mentioned in my last letter, we’re continuing to make investments in our international first and business cabins. We will soon complete our B747 fleet, adding to the completed roll out in our B767s. Our B777s are next, starting early in 2010. Additionally, we have committed to a complete uniform replacement program for 2011 that will enable a higher level of pride to better reflect your professionalism and the airline we are becoming. Next year, we will get the design, materials and system right, while also taking the time to involve many of you in the process, which we believe will actually cost less to maintain than what we have currently. As I meet with employees across our system – most recently at ORD and IAD – it’s clear that the future of our industry and our company is understandably at the top of everyone’s mind. These discussions are a great opportunity to hear from you, as well as an opportunity to discuss the work we have under way, including the work of our finance team and the many people across the company who support them. The team continues to demonstrate their capabilities to provide the company with the necessary resources, and the market is taking note as demonstrated by our recent stock performance and many positive analyst reports. In fact, just yesterday an additional analyst published a strong recommendation for our company. The sum of this work forms the basis for my confidence in our future. The improving competitiveness of United and your good work certainly play a significant role in the team’s success as well. Over the next several weeks, we will celebrate the work we did over the summer at a series of events at our hubs and stations. Each of you worked hard during this time to take care of our customers and continue our progress in running a good airline. It’s important that we take time to mark our achievements and thank each other for the work that led to them. Our officers will participate in these celebrations. Please share your thoughts with them, so that we can all benefit from your input. The opportunity for us to meet always provides me with important takeaways, and I’m always energized by your commitment and passion for our customers and by your desire for our airline to succeed. These, too, form the basis of my confidence in our future. Times are tough, but so are we. Successfully managing in these times calls for preparation. We are prepared. Given the benefit of the knowledge of our work and future opportunities, I can’t help but be more confident in our future with each passing day. The people of United are clearly up to the task and the opportunity we have before us. Be safe. John Tague
We continue to invest in our IT infrastructure to ensure our systems are reliable and ready to support new customer-facing technology next year. Data network bandwidth is being upgraded by 300 percent to 600 percent at 169 domestic airports, and an additional $17 million will be invested to refresh all network and customer-facing technology at ORD, DIA, IAD, SFO and HNL by the end of this year. As we reconfigure our Ted aircraft, we are installing first-class seats and leather throughout. Shortly we will begin the work to cover our first-class seats with leather in all our narrowbody aircraft. We also continue to refurbish our Red Carpet Clubs, ensuring that we are meeting our customers’ expectations when they join us pre-flight or during layovers. Sincerely, EYE-ON-UA Well-positioned to Succeed in 2009 Glenn Tilton, president, chairman and CEO, sent the following message in an e-mail to all employees on Monday, January 5. The New Year brings a new administration and Congress to Washington, D.C. President-elect Obama and his team face enormous challenges, both in the U.S. and abroad. There is little argument that the scope of issues to be addressed is as broad and complex as any new administration has confronted. The drive to stimulate the economy will clearly be the new administration's top policy objective. We play a unique role in enabling global commerce and connecting the U.S. to world markets, and the industry will need to partner with the new administration and Congress to ensure that we can contribute to restoring the global economy and our ability to compete in it. Investment in infrastructure already has been identified as a top governmental priority and we welcome that, particularly as it relates to improving the air traffic control system (ATC), which we know is inadequate and inefficient, yet so important to the future efficiency and growth of the U.S. and our industry. For the next two years, United will chair the Air Transport Association (ATA) and will be involved in leading industry efforts to make progress on infrastructure and other key industry policy priorities at this important time. 2008 was an extraordinary year -- unprecedented in the speed and severity of the global impact of first $147 oil and then the economic downturn and recession marked by failures in business sectors once thought immune from such catastrophic breakdowns. Our industry, more than most, is impacted by any number of external factors and we have been well tested in our ability to work through circumstances that could not be predicted. During the course of the year we transitioned from managing volatile and historically high fuel costs to navigating rapidly deteriorating economic conditions. The decisive and consistent actions we took served us well in both circumstances. * Our capacity reductions, driven initially by escalating fuel prices, have been important in managing the decline in demand caused by today’s recession – and the industry followed our lead. * Cutting our costs by more than $400 million – both fixed and variable – while reducing capacity by 4 percent, has been critical in keeping us competitive, and the fact that we expect to end 2008 at about a 1.5 percent increase in unit costs despite our capacity reductions is key in building our investors’ confidence. * Creating new sources of revenue offers our customers choices and has contributed to our bottom line at a time when fewer passengers are flying. * Completing a steady stream of financial transactions despite the tight credit markets has improved our liquidity and cash position. * Focusing on operations reliability and customer satisfaction delivered performance improvements on what matters most to our customers: planes that are on time and clean and people who provide courteous and respectful service. * Strengthening our position within the Star Alliance has benefited our customers and our competitive position, as does our announced partnership with Continental to connect our networks and leverage cost and revenue opportunities. These timely actions in 2008 have set us up to move forward aggressively in managing what we can control – executing our business plan of improving the fundamentals of our airline in 2009. The industry is now benefiting from lower fuel prices. In the short term, as with the rest of the industry, the rapid fall in fuel prices created obligations related to fuel hedges put in place to offset previous price increases. The benefit of lower fuel prices is expected to have offset completely the impact of those fuel hedge positions by April -- and if current fuel price levels hold, it would mean an overall savings for United of approximately $2.5 billion in fuel costs in 2009. We have done much to strengthen United’s position and we will continue to take actions that benefit our company in the ongoing challenging environment. We have strong partnerships, a strong brand and network; we are focused on the right plan -- both our product and our performance are improving. Never compromising the safety of our customers and our people, our efforts for further improvement in our safety is our first priority and is the foundation of our work, commanding our attention above all else. We have a great team at United and we have the collective benefit of the work we do, individually and as a part of the many teams tackling tough issues every day and developing new approaches. Our recent performance is evidence of our progress. We completed a challenging December in which our year-over-year performance was better in all our fundamental operational metrics despite more difficult weather conditions. We opened 2009 by flying President-elect Obama and his family from Honolulu to Chicago on New Year's Day – and our entire team executed the trip flawlessly. You can read more about the flight in today’s NewsReal and later today Joe Kolshak and Scott Dolan will have a wrap up of December for you. We go into 2009 prepared, well-positioned and resolved to succeed. Thank you for all your hard work in what was by any measure a tough 2008 – and I wish you and your families all the best for the New Year. Be safe and stay United,
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