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W
elcome aboard, and thanks
for choosing us for your flight
today. Each year, just at United
Airlines, we fly about 150 million people,
which is equivalent to around half the
population of the United States. So most
people across the country are pretty
familiar with our industry and have a
general idea of what we do. But whatmost
people probably don’t know is how vitally
important a healthy commercial aviation
industry is to our nation’s economy.
Here in the U.S., our industry drives
more than a trillion dollars in economic
activity every year and employs about 10
million people. U.S. airlines move people,
cargo, and both physical and intellectual
exports around the world. Commercial
airlines help generate more than 5% of
U.S. GDP. Economic growth and pros-
perity in our globalized world are now
heavily dependent on access to the global
economy, and communities attract—or
lose—business and jobs based onwhether
or not theyhave convenient airline service.
Hubswithin theU.S. compete against each
other for this access, and importantly, hub
cities in the U.S. compete with hub cities
around the world for market share.
Yet our ability to deliver all the benefits
of air travel to our customers and com-
munities is harmed by our government’s
confused policies toward the aviation
industry. The U.S. airline industry lost
$55 billion over the last 10 years, yet we
are brutally taxed by our government.
Airlines and our customers pay 17 different
federal aviation taxes and fees in the U.S.
(not including income tax), accounting for
about 20%of the cost of the typical ticket.
Those taxes totaled nearly $18 billion in
2011. For those of you in business reading
this letter, imagine how your business
would perform if the government taxed
away 20% of your revenue before you
had a chance to bring in a single penny. In
addition to our absurd tax burden, we’re
the most regulated deregulated business
in the world.
U.S. airlines compete on a global scale
with carriers that benefit from strong
and supportive national aviation policies,
designed to help them compete. The Gulf
carriers—Emirates, EtihadandQatar—ben-
efit from sensible aviation policies, as well
as from substantially more sensible taxa-
tion policies. These sensible policies feed
the growth of those carriers. Meanwhile,
U.S. carriers struggle under the burden of
government actions that hinder, rather
thanhelp, our ability to growand compete.
Airlines are an unalloyed economic
good, and a healthy, profitable and glob-
ally competitive U.S. commercial airline
industry is in the national interest. For
more information onwhy the U.S. needs a
strong national aviationpolicy, please visit
Airlines for America at www.airlines.org.
Thanks again for flying with us today.
We hope to see you again soon.
Seeking a National Airline Policy
CEOLETTER
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
UNITED AIRLINES
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
JULY 2012
17