Well-positioned to Succeed in 2009

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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,
Glenn
 
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,
Glenn



Just wait til Glenn and the boys have to take on all 4 unions at once with contracts. We'll see who is in a position to succeed. It's time to end the tyranny!
 
Just wait til Glenn and the boys have to take on all 4 unions at once with contracts. We'll see who is in a position to succeed. It's time to end the tyranny!

Glenn & Boys have had a lot of time to get ready for unions. 1st is to follow the NWA playbook.
With so many FA's, AMT's & Pilots on the street I would bet there are enough SCABS for Tilton
to get his way.

Something to think about!!!

Happy 2009
 
Glenn & Boys have had a lot of time to get ready for unions. 1st is to follow the NWA playbook.
With so many FA's, AMT's & Pilots on the street I would bet there are enough SCABS for Tilton
to get his way.

Something to think about!!!

Happy 2009


Agreed..it won't be pretty
 
We at Continental have the weakest pilot group and one of the largest SCAB group of pilot's out there. There will be no stone setting from our pilot's...... It's a sad thing to say but overall I think us F/A'S are much stronger here at CAL, then our pilot's.
 
Great news! At least we'll have a vision going forward and some clue as to what it takes to make us great again. Go Mr. Pres.!!!!! He rocks!!

Cheers,
Z B)

I don't think the UAW is too enamored right now about CEO being replaced by Obama at GM. Thousands of union workers will be out of a job soon in Detroit. GM should have gone through bankruptcy instead.