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THANKS FOR CHOOSINGUNITED
for your
flight today. I’d like to take a fewmoments
of your time to discuss our focus on fuel
efficiency, which is good for the environ-
ment and good for us, and to talk a bit
about the European tax scheme relating
to aviation emissions. In this era of high
and volatile fuel prices, we’re focused
on providing safe and reliable air trans-
portation in as fuel-efficient a manner
as possible.
I’m proud to say that thanks to my
co-workers’ focus, our streamlined oper-
ating procedures, and investments we’ve
made in our fleet, we’ve improved our fuel
efficiency by more than 32 percent since
1994, significantly reducing our environ-
mental impact. We’ll continue to improve
our fuel efficiency and reduce our carbon
emissions as we accept delivery of new,
more fuel-efficient aircra , including the
Boeing 787Dreamliner.We have 50Dream-
liners on order, with our first one arriving
later this year. These modern, customer-
pleasing aircraft are up to 20 percent
more fuel-efficient than comparably sized
current aircra . In addition, we have 25
new Airbus A350s and more than 50 new
Boeing 737s on order. We’ve also been a
leader in alternative fuels, and last year,
we flew the first U.S. commercial flight
powered partially by biofuel made of
microbial algae.
United leads an industry that is com-
mitted to reducing fuel consumption.
While our industry contributes less than
2 percent of annual carbon emissions
worldwide, airlines including United have
endorsed a plan requiring us to improve
fuel efficiency by an average of 1.5 percent
a year through 2020. It’s the right thing do
for the environment and for our industry.
In contrast, the European Union
Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) is
an entirely inappropriate way to deal
with the issue of carbon emissions from
airlines. Under this scheme, the European
Union would levy a tax on all airlines for
emissions over the entirety of each flight
departing from or arriving in an EU
member state, including for miles flown
outside of European Union airspace, or
Welcome Aboard
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
UNITED AIRLINES
when an aircra is on the ground taxiing
in one of our U.S. hubs. The proceeds of
the taxwould simply fill European coffers
to help them out of their debt crisis. This
scheme is also unworkable. Imagine if
every country the world over taxed air-
lines not only for miles flownwithin their
airspace, but also for those flown all over
the globe. Such a patchwork regulatory
structure for a global andmobile industry
would be very poor public policy. While
the issue of greenhouse gas emissions is
important, we cannot be subject to a ran-
dom patchwork of emission taxes across
the globe that doesn’t cohere into a global
and rational policy.
We are encouraged by the actions of
the U.S. and many foreign governments
(including China, India, Japan, andRussia)
to engage constructively on this issue, and
urge an expedited resolution to prevent
airlines all over the globe from having to
pay the EU without clear environmental
benefits. We commend the House of
Representatives for passing bipartisan
legislation, co-sponsored by Congress-
men John Mica (Florida) and Nick Rahall
(West Virginia), opposing the EU ETS
scheme. We urge the Senate to do the
same by approving legislation oppos-
ing EU ETS, co-sponsored by Senators
John Thune (South Dakota) and Claire
McCaskill (Missouri).
While we continue to comply with EU
ETS as it stands today, we call upon gov-
ernments to seek a prompt resolution to
the EUETS issue and continue their work
within the International Civil Aviation
Organization to develop a rational, inter-
national, and cooperative global solution
for aviation carbon emissions.
On behalf of my more than 80,000
co-workers on the United team, thanks
again for flying with us today. We hope to
see you again soon.
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
MAY 2012
13
CEOLETTER