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W
elcome aboard, and on behalf
of the entire United team,
thank you for choosing us
for your flight today. We appreciate your
business, and knowwe have to earn it each
time you fly with us.
During the past couple of months, our
operational performance did notmeet our
goal of providing the reliability of service
that our customers expect and that we
want to deliver for you. Delayed and
cancelled flights cause you problems, and
they cause problems for our co-workers as
well. It’s important that we deliver reliable
service. Although there are sometimes
things beyond our control that can delay
your flight, such as adverse weather or air
traffic control restrictions, there are other
things within our control that we can do
to increase our reliability, and we are tak-
ing immediate and aggressive actions to
improve our on-time performance. We are
confident that the actions we are taking
will improve our reliabilitymaterially, and
improve it soon.
We’ve been making a lot of changes to
build a be er airline for you in 2013 and
beyond, including converting to a single
passenger service system, loyalty program
and website; harmonizing hundreds of
new processes and procedures; rerouting
aircra across our network to serve you
be er; and harmonizing ourmaintenance
programs. While these changes are neces-
sary to permit us to build the foundation
for the world’s leading airline, they are in
large part responsible for the decline in
operational performance you may have
experienced in the past couple of months.
These changes have also driven a lot of
challenges for our co-workers, who have
had to absorb an enormous amount of
change over a short period.
I want you to know that we understand
what caused our recent reliability prob-
lems, we are taking the right actions to
remedy the issues, and those actions will
produce positive results for our customers
and our co-workers. All of us appreciate
your loyalty and your business during the
rough sledding of our merger integration.
We know what is important to you as
customers and are focusing on delivering
the on-time performance and consistent,
reliable service that you expect from us
when you fly.
At the same time, we’re continuing to
invest in products that our customers
value, like Economy Plus seating, bigger
overhead bins, flat-bed seats, brand-new
airplanes, satellite-based WiFi, in-seat
power and modern self-service technol-
ogy. We have the best network in the
world—we can take you pretty much
wherever youwant to go. This fall, we’ll put
into scheduled service our first Boeing 787
Dreamliner, which is the most advanced
and customer-pleasing aircra in the skies,
and we recently announced a new order
for 150 brand-new Boeing 737s, including
the new Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircra .
We have many exciting things ahead,
but we recognize that we must first and
always get the basics right: providing you,
our customers, with safe, cleanand reliable
air transportation. We hold ourselves to
a higher reliability standard than we’ve
delivered for our customers lately, and I
amconfident thatwewill promptly return
to the level of reliability that you expect.
Thanks again for flying with us. We
appreciate having you onboard.
Operational Focus
CEOLETTER
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
UNITED AIRLINES
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
SEPTEMBER 2012
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