Hello. This is Jane Allen with an update for Friday, January 16, 2004.

It's been a busy week, so I'll be covering a lot of ground in today's call. First, I want to let you know about a recall of flight attendants from voluntary furlough. Then I want to share some information with you about ATC delays at ORD, our successes in 2003, and our December Marketrak results. Finally, I want to talk with you about our focus on consistency in 2004.

First, I'd like to begin by sharing some good news. We are recalling early up to 600 flight attendants from voluntary furlough. This recall is necessary because of an increase in aircraft block hours in response to schedule adjustments and an increase in military charters. The recall will be done in two phases, with 250 flight attendants being recalled effective March 15, and up to 350 flight attendants being recalled effective April 15.

In accordance with our Collective Bargaining Agreement, the recall will begin with the most junior flight attendant on voluntary furlough status and continue in reverse seniority order. This early recall is in addition to the scheduled return of 800 voluntarily furloughed flight attendants, with 400 returning on April 1 and another 400 returning on October 1.

Moving on, I'd like to talk with you about the continuing problem of ATC delay at ORD. Why is this happening? The answer is that beginning on November 1, 2003, the number of departures at ORD rose to the highest level in the airport's history, which has caused significant congestion problems. As you are probably aware, the government eliminated slot controls at ORD after the significant capacity reductions by carriers following 9/11. Because ORD is no longer is a slot-constrained airport, carriers can add capacity as they see fit. That's just what American Airlines did on November 1, when the carrier eliminate its St. Louis hub and moved a large amount of additional flying to ORD. In order to protect our market share at our most critical hub, we added some additional flights as well.

The problem has been magnified by the fact that over the past 15 months or so, the arrival and departure rate for aircraft at ORD has been significantly reduced by the FAA, due to changes in land and hold short operations, also known as "LAHSO." The combination of added capacity and reduced arrival rate has had a dramatically negative impact on our on-time dependability at ORD in November and December.

The seriousness of the problem cannot be overstated, not only because of the impact on our ORD operation, but the ripple effect throughout our system. The situation at ORD has dramatically impacted our overall on time performance as well. In order to see improvement in our on-time performance, we must see changes at ORD. The good news is that we have started down this path.

As reported in the January 12th edition of NewsReal, Executive Vice President-Operations Pete McDonald met with the FAA during the first week of January to discuss the situation. Further, the company has taken a number of actions to help with the problem, including the depeaking of our ORD schedule and the addition of block time, both effective on February 1st. While we have taken these unilateral actions to improve the situation, the cooperation of the FAA and other carriers is critical because there is no way that United alone can solve this serious problem. We'll keep you updated as the situation unfolds.

I have terrific news on another topic. Thanks to the hard work of everyone in Onboard Service, we met or exceeded all of our division goals for the year 2003. That's a great achievement in any year, but especially so last year because of the many challenges and distractions we faced. Whether you serve our customers on the front lines, or provide support behind the scenes, thank you for helping us accomplish our mission of contributing to the company's success in 2003.

There was also good news in the December Marketrak results. North America ratings for flight attendants, meals and entertainment were up significantly from November. International ratings for Reservations, Seat Comfort and Entertainment were up significantly as well, while International flight attendant ratings were unchanged from November. Also in December, system wide customer satisfaction, as measured by Definite Intent to Repurchase, was 37.8 percent, up 1.3 points from November.

For the full year 2003, United's system wide Definite Intent to Repurchase finished at goal, with a 37.4 percent rating. Also for the third consecutive year, North America Flight Attendant ratings surpassed the prior year. Thanks to everyone who contributed to these positive results.

On another topic, if we are going to compete successfully in today's marketplace, we must meet the expectations of our core customers. We know that flight attendant service is a key driver of customer satisfaction and that consistency of quality service is a primary factor in attracting and retaining customers. That's why we've included the word "consistent" in our division mission statement: "Onboard Service contributes to our company's success by consistently delivering safe, reliable, attentive service to our customers and colleagues."

As far as the consistency of United's in-flight service, customers have told us they have some basic expectations about their in-flight experience, but their experience often varies from flight to flight. When that happens, and their expectations aren't met, they are less likely to choose United over our competitors the next time they travel.

What exactly do customers expect on their United flights? Well, in United First®, for example, customers want flight attendants to offer them a pre-departure beverage and address them by name, whenever possible. They also expect flight attendants to offer to take their coats, hang them up and return them, as well as offering an initial beverage in a glass after takeoff.

We'll be focusing on these expectations of United First customers, as well as the expectations identified by customers who fly in other classes of service. While these are basic expectations, we realize there may be potential obstacles to providing these basic service elements - such as the difficulty of maneuvering through a steady stream of boarding customers to provide pre-departure beverages to United First customers. We'll discuss those challenges and offer our flight attendants tips on how to handle those situations as we begin communicating more about service consistency. The important thing to remember is that these are issues our customers have indicated make a difference, and things they consistently get from our competitors. We began a series of articles on this important topic in the January 5th edition of Onboard Updates, and you'll be hearing more about consistency in future issues, as well as in other Onboard publications and future messages from me.

Well, that's it for today. Fly safely and thanks for listening.