Good morning. Today I'm back in Chicago, having returned from a weekend trip to Germany, where I met with our colleagues at Lufthansa. The trip to Germany followed United's board meeting on Thursday.

This morning I'm pleased to tell you that both meetings were very productive. We have an excellent partner in Lufthansa. They're extremely supportive of United and what we're trying to accomplish. And they're offering resources and experiences of their own to help us during this critical time for United. And this is a most critical time for United. It is, as The Wall Street Journal said several weeks ago, crunch time.

Every day is important, we have to make progress each day on every front with all the people who have an interest in our future. And, as I've said repeatedly during our employee engagement meetings, we have to do very good work and we have to all get on the very good same page.

Our meeting with United's board last Thursday met all of those tough requirements. We used our time together well. The team presented excellent analytic work, and we had a meaningful, open, candid dialogue with all of our directors.

During the meeting, Pete McDonald talked about our ongoing business operations. And of course he had very good progress to report in all areas.

Pat Mash, our vice president-Revenue, updated the board on our revenue realization performance, including our recent business fare restructuring.

Jake Brace and others on the team updated the board on our financial performance, the excellent management of the court case and our financing circumstances.

Greg Taylor and Doug Hacker took the majority of their time to lead the discussion of our plan for transformation. And, very importantly, a review and analysis of alternative strategies from other airline experiences or strategies suggested by some of our key constituents. Continuing to stress test our preferred strategy against such alternatives is very important.

And, from our discussions with the board of directors, we today have no doubt as to the strength of our plan. We believe that the marketplace has the most significant voice in this discussion. I've said that repeatedly during the employee engagement meetings. And we need really to pay attention to the facts that the marketplace presents us, not to those that we wish it would.

The revenue model that United has been built upon, the high-value business traveler, has changed and is continuing to change as business travelers continue to press for more value for money. The leisure traveler also has a significant influence on our industry, and increasingly so. But, again, value for money is the critical factor across the full spectrum of our customer base, either business or leisure. We also know that change is going to continue to define our industry.

United needs a business plan that will put us in a competitive position today, but also, very importantly, give us the flexibility to stay in sync with the marketplace as it changes. That's the only way we can be sure that we'll have an airline that can continue to meet customer needs and be viable and durable for the long term.

We have a terrific opportunity at United because we know what it's going to take to transform this company, as difficult as that is, in an industry that is acknowledged to be in crisis. We have the opportunity to reposition ourselves for the longer term and come out ahead of our very aggressive competitors.

Every day we make good progress, but we have much to accomplish in a very short period of time. I personally know that the situation is a very stressful time for you all. It's stressful for all of us, and I want to thank you again for your commitment to this company, to your coworkers and to our customers.

I'm headed out to Washington, D.C., this evening, and while there I will be meeting with employees in Dulles. I'll look forward to meeting some of your there. I'll also look forward to meeting you, of course, on the way -- in the cockpit, on board and on the concourse, taking every free minute that we have to discuss our way forward. We all need to make every day and every moment count. And I'll continue to do everything I can to keep us moving forward together.

Keep your heads up. Be united. I'll be talking to you soon, either on the call or in the event that we have the chance to get together.