W
elcomeaboard!Onbehalf ofmy
morethan85,000co-workers,I’d
like to wish you a Happy New
Year and thankyou for flyingwithus today.
Wehave a lot to look forward to this year
as we continue to build the world’s leading
airline. Last year, we didmost of the heavy
li ing of ourmerger integration andmade
significant progress. It was a challenging
year, but we accomplished a lot, and made
investmentsthatwillbenefitourcustomers
for years to come.
We completed the largest technology
integration in airline history when we
converted to a single passenger service
system last spring. We also moved to a
single website, a single loyalty program
and, in many areas, a single set of policies
and procedures for our co-workers. This
was the toughest challenge of our merger
integration process. We had a rough sum-
mer, for both customers and co-workers,
as a result of merger integration, but my
co-workers worked together to fix the
problems, and we significantly improved
our operational reliability beginning
in September. We performed so well in
November that our co-workers earned
their on-time bonus by beating both our
domestic and international on-timeperfor-
mance goals. With this behind us, we are
nowdevoting significant resources tomod-
ernizing and upgrading our technology
and enhancing its reliability and stability,
including building a new, state-of-the-art
data center and providing our co-workers
withmodern, easy-to-use technology to do
their jobs well and efficiently.
Last fall, we were the first North Ameri-
can carrier to take delivery of the Boeing
787
Dreamliner aircra . To be the world’s
leading airline, youhave tohave theworld’s
leading aircraft, and we have it with the
Dreamliner.We also placed anorder for 150
brand-newnarrowbodyBoeing 737 aircra ,
including 100Boeing737MAX9aircra and
50
Boeing 737-900ERs.Wewill take delivery
of our new aircra between 2013 and 2022,
and they will allow us to provide a be er
experience for co-workers and customers,
enhance our network, and reduce our fuel
and operating costs.
Wehavemanyexcitingthingsahead,and
in 2013, customerswill begin to see some of
the results of our continuing investment in
our onboardproduct, includingbroadband
wireless and streaming video onmany air-
planes,moreflat-bedseats, bigger overhead
bins, and many more customer-pleasing
features. Wewill continue to put the basics
first byprovidingyouwithsafe and reliable
air transportation. We’ll also focus heavily
on customer service in 2013, as we know
that a flight is an experience, and service
canmake all the difference betweena good
flight and a bad one.
Thanks again for choosing United for
your flight today. We appreciate your
business and look forward to seeing you
onboard throughout 2013.
HappyNewYear
CEOLETTER
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
UNITED AIRLINES
12
JANUARY 2013
•
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
