I'll begin my first message of the New Year by sharing the results of our record-breaking operational performance in 2003, along with a recap of our Department of Transportation (DOT) and Marketrak ratings for November. I'll also share some specifics about December's operation.

In 2003, we turned in one of the best full-year operational performances in the company's history. Despite recent operational challenges, including severe weather in the U.S., United recorded it's best-ever annual performance in both departures on-time: 00 and STAR departures on-time: 00. Further, employees exceeded nearly all of the company's other 2003 operational goals, despite significant weather challenges, record-high load factors and air traffic control (ATC) issues at O'Hare and San Francisco International Airport.

Narrowing the focus to November, the DOT reported that UAL's arrival on-time :14 dropped significantly, as did the other major carriers. However, year-to-date, United stands at second place in this category. In the area of customer complaints, the DOT reported that we improved significantly over November 2002, and these monthly results were the best that we achieved in the last twelve months. As a result, we ranked fourth among the major carriers, up from fifth in October. And year-to-date, we rank third among our competitors.

As you know, among other things, our Marketrak survey measures customer definite intent to repurchase, which is a key indicator of customer satisfaction and loyalty. In November, Marketrak ratings were down slightly for both North America and international, though we remain at our 2003 goal for the year through November.
Ratings for most drivers, such as CSR courtesy, seat comfort and baggage service, were very close to the previous month, but we experienced a decrease in ratings for on-time perception, check-in efficiency and flight attendant service. Definite intent to repurchase for international increased in November, with most drivers rated the same as in October, except for on-time perception, which received a lower rating.

Which brings me to the December operation. In the airline industry, we can usually count on December to present the most operational challenges, and this year was no exception. Severe weather, high loads, ATC issues and employee lost time contributed to increased delays, cancellations and staffing shortages for United and other carriers at the end of the year.

In my message before the holidays, I explained that our scheduling team developed a tool that would enable them to do more accurate day-to-day reserve manpower planning. As a result, they were able to better predict when our greatest flight attendant shortages would occur in advance. This gave them time to analyze and allocate resources as well as possible. Through selective understaffing and minimum crew compliments, they utilized reserves conservatively throughout the month so that we would not run out of crews over the holiday period, and it paid off. While we did have significant understaffing over the last 10 days of the month, which I know is very tough for our working flight attendants, we certainly fared better than our competitors, many of whom were forced to cancel flights due to lack of crews. We operated through this period without canceling any flights because of lack of cabin crews.

As I said, I know that many of you faced working understaffed flights over the holidays, and I want to thank you for your hard work in difficult circumstances. While understaffing clearly was higher than we hoped, the new analytical tool developed by scheduling worked well in its debut, and we will be conducting a detailed analysis to look for ways to make improvements for the future. We'll let you know the results of this analysis when it is complete.

I think we can look back on 2003 as a year in which, despite the many challenges, we ran a successful operation because of the hard work and commitment of you and your colleagues. By remaining focused and doing the best job possible within our control, we successfully met the challenges when events were beyond our control. Had we not stayed on task, our year-end results would not be this good.

I'd like to say that we can relax and take it easy for a while, but in order to keep our competitive edge we must continue to do our best every day. I'm proud to say we've got just the team to consistently deliver the travel experience our customers expect and deserve.

That's all for today. Thanks for listening. Until next week, take care of each other and of our customers.