I normally don't mention Jack Creighton's EYE-ON-UA messages that are published each week.  Many of them seem to all carry a similar message: we are losing money so we need to cut labor costs...

However, in his EYE-ON-UA message dated July 31, he chose some interesting wording that seemed to bring out the more literary side of him.  When speaking about losing 1.5 billion dollars since October 1, he offers:

"Essentially, you're walking backwards in sopping wet clothes, uphill, into a stiff wind.  It's hard to get any momentum."

He used sports metaphors too, like "The winner in the game this quarter was Southwest."

Jack's recent message got me thinking about the financial picture of UAL Corporation; certainly no 'game' to anyone.  In reading some of the news stories and publications lately, one would get the impression that United's financial woes were squarely caused by September 11, and the downward spiral since then.

I'm not so sure about that.  The free-fall of United's stock price and employee morale did not originate on September 11.  Nor did the decrease of the all-important business passenger revenue.  I think those issues surfaced back in late 2000 as fallout from poor management decisions like trying to gobble up US Airways and the pilot scheduling mismanagement later that summer.  And what also contributed to scaring business passengers in the last few pre-September 11 years was strained employee relations resulting in strike threats with the flight attendants and mechanics' Unions.

Those events upset three important groups of people:  United's customers (for having to sleep on the floor at Camp O'Hare during the Summer of 2000), United's employees (for having to deal with the irregular ops as well as the US Airways fiasco which inconvenienced everyone, particularly United's budget), and United's shareholders (who glumly watched their stock price drop, drop, and drop).

By the way, speaking of stock price, UAL stock had already dropped over 41 percent, from $60.38 the day before the US Airways acquisition was announced, to close at $35.15 on June 30, 2001.  That's a 41 percent drop exclusively during the main period of the proposed US Airways purchase!  Long before September 11th!

Flash forward to present day.

There is no question about it:  United is losing a lot of money at the present time.  And the current financial situation this company finds itself in is quite serious.  However, it would be a mistake to get caught up in the 'Our Terrible and Unfortunate History Began on September 11' theme.  It didn't.  And ironically, some of those same individuals in senior management who lead the company down those business paths back then are still working for the company today.

A disturbing practice with Fortune 500 companies like UAL seems to go like this:  When a specific employee in senior level management screws up again and again, instead of getting fired and replaced, they are simply transferred to another department.  It's almost as if certain employees, no matter what their business performance, seem to have an untouchable position within the company.

So what will it take to fix United's situation?  Many things.  And not just increased revenue in the form of loans, either.  Here are three other suggestions:

1. The traveling public still needs to be re-conditioned to the realities of air travel.  Those annoying 'RISING' ads back in 1999 made false promises to them.  You can't change an industry overnight by promising to head off in a "new direction".  Customer expectations of airline travel in terms of ticket price vs. amenities received are still ridiculously distorted.  Unfortunately, because of Greyhound airlines like Southwest, many travelers don't understand the differences in operation and service.  They simply want their cake and to eat it too on all airlines for $59.99.  They see Holiday Inn and Ritz Carlton and figure they ought to cost about the same.  It's absurd.  It's high time that some of them let go of the cell phone gabbing-upgrade expecting-pushy-belligerent-drunk twin model-free-for-all Shuttle-style mentality that was evident throughout much of pre-September 11 flying.
2. UAL Corporation needs some strong leadership---with accountability.  Sorry, but the Rule of Five being touted in all the domicile briefings must also include 'Accountability'.  And we need that UAL CEO position filled---quickly.  It should be filled by someone outside this company's 'inner circle'.  A big mistake would be to fill the CEO position with someone who was in Senior Management during the past few years.  We desperately need a fresh face to come in with an ability to use an outside, objective viewpoint.  This will help prevent us from making the same 1998-2001 corporate missteps in the future.  Whoever that person is, they will also need to convince the shareholders of this fact also.  In light of today's creative accounting practices, corporate shareholders are taking an active interest in the direction of their companies.  Filling the important CEO position is easier said than done I know, as the CEO job isn't exactly popular these days...  But it should be priority number one.  That will also raise the confidence level for UAL investors as well.
3. All UAL Employees (including us Flight Attendants) need to be staying more active and knowledgeable in what's happening with the financial picture of this company.  This is so important that I should have put it at the top of the list.  We also have to be careful of spreading false rumors, as that can have a bad domino tumbling effect.  Fact: UAL Corporation currently has $900 million in debt.  Fact: UAL Corporation owes this money later this year.  It's very easy to take for granted that United will be around forever---and I sure as hell hope they are.  But, these are very serious times that United is going through.  The last thing anyone wants is for this company to go under.  At that point, blame on management becomes pointless.  The he said-she said crapola goes out the window and the 'game' is over.

I hope I'm just standing on a soapbox with all of this.  I hope I'm just Flight Attendant #162611 with a strange website and an opinionated news page.  In the end, even that doesn't really matter to me personally.  The fact is, I love working for United Airlines.  I love this company.  And I sure as hell don't want to see it go down the road to ruin, no matter what imbecilic decisions, poor management choices, misinformed public perceptions, or acts of terrorism led us there.  Those are my metaphors.