Hi, It's Glenn, and it's November 29th. Over the past few weeks, I have asked some of our leaders to join me on the call to talk specifically about the changes and the improvements that they are responsible for making at United.

Today as I mentioned last week Larry De Shon, the senior vice president of airport operations, has joined me on the call here in Chicago.

Larry has the responsibility for all airport operations and approximately 20,000 employees in the domestic United States and international markets.

In that role, Larry spends a lot of his time traveling throughout the United system. His knowledge of our company, past and present, given the 26 years he has been with United, is extensive.

I think that it's important, that as we plan for our future, to bring in new management talent and to take full advantage of the talent within the company that has both the benefit of experience and the willingness to lead and to embrace change.

The work that Larry is leading that must result in significant improvements requires new thinking, new attitude, a lot of enthusiasm and a willingness to think differently.

These are certainly characteristics that describe Larry De Shon.

And, these are also the traits of any successful company and they must be for United.

So now, Larry over to you.

Thanks, Glenn.

It's great to be part of this current series of communications related to accountability and performance -– because that's what the employees within Airport Operations are totally focused on, and have been for quite a while.

• Over the past two years, our division has increased overall productivity -– as measured by passenger equivalents to staff ratio -– by 33 percent.
• Through the hard work of our people, we've cut expenses by more than 200 million dollars through pure process improvements –- all the while keeping operational performance at industry-leading levels.

We've done this through a combination of sharing best practices among the five hubs and 106 line stations system wide -- applying new technology -- and blending that technology with our employees' skill sets to bring the best of both to bear on reliability and the customer experience.

We have now stepped up to the bigger challenges, including being a key part of the business improvement initiative, or BII, goals.

• Many of you are generally aware of our primary initiative called FIT, which stands for Fix, Improve and Transform.
• Through this comprehensive program, which is currently being piloted by a team in Denver, we are fine-tuning every process -– essentially redesigning the way we work at airports.
• And by the end of 2007, we are committed to realizing at least 150 million dollars in annual cost savings.

Pete McDonald and I recently had the pleasure of seeing first hand the benefits of the Denver team's work to-date:

• On planeside, for example, our crews are currently assigned specific gates and handle both arrival and departures activities. But they are often forced to wait for cargo and baggage to arrive to their flight -- or wait for the next flight to arrive at their assigned gate.
• The FIT team has developed a model for two separate ramp crews –- one for arrivals and another for departures. The idea is to have the arrival team complete its work at one gate and move to the next gate at which an incoming flight is scheduled. The same applies to the defined work of the departure crews.
• Through this new approach, the team is demonstrating the ability to turn a narrow-body in less than 25 minutes – a marked improvement and a concept we will continue to develop.
• In the lobby, I saw the optimal balance of technology and people at work. In this case, the technology was represented by Easy Check-in Units, which allowed our CSRs to spend more time in front of the ECUs doing what they do best -– providing high-level customer service.
• The prototype the FIT team is working on is focused on having the majority of available CSRs out in the lobby –- working to increase utilization of the ECUs and facilitate the flow of passengers.
• And they are doing an incredible job in reducing check-in wait times, including directing those with problems or issues to a special help center, which then greatly speeds the processing time for the other passengers in line, as well.
• I also saw terrific customer interaction and much appreciated support being offered.

You'll be hearing much more about FIT in the coming months, as we start to roll it out to 17 other stations, including the hubs. But it will be done over the course of two years in order to make the processes sustainable for the long term.

Again, when we're done with the roll out, we will have increased productivity and cost-efficiencies to the tune of 150 million dollars -– in addition to the more than 200 million dollars already taken out of the system -– for a total of more than 350 million dollars.

Beyond FIT, we continue to invest in the technology and tools to raise our performance standards and deliver more value to our customers.

• The BART system, which stands for Baggage Alerting and Reporting Tool, is a prime example. Initiated in February and now deployed systemwide, BART is a powerful bar-code scanning and software system that enables our ramp employees to accurately track, in real time, all checked-in luggage -– from the point of check-in to final destination and for all connecting flights.
• In fact, United is the only airline capable of this worldwide, end-to-end tracking.
• BART also has alert and reporting features so our employees can immediately see if a piece of luggage has been misdirected and proactively resolve the problem, saving the company significant money in mishandled baggage costs and customer disservice.
• The results are already showing. In September, United posted the lowest mishandled baggage rate of all seven major carriers, according to the Department of Transportation. This was the lowest rate we have ever reported to the DOT.

But even the most state-of-the-art technology doesn't mean anything without each of us making a personal commitment to deliver real and tangible results.

• Full accountability is absolutely critical to remain focused on day-to-day reliability metrics and continuous improvement over time.
• To that end, our division has had in place for the past 18 months the Performance Index -– a comprehensive metrics-tracking system that covers more than 40 distinct sets of information -– ranging from safety and operating performance -– for both United and United Express -– to baggage and customer service measurements, as well as cabin appearance, other airline handling work and financials.
• Each and every Friday, without fail, I and my leadership team get together and review a 70- to 80-page report, page by page. We see which stations or Express partners are at the top and why; and which ones are lagging, and certainly why.
• We discuss solutions, share ideas from other regions and stations and, if necessary, assign teams to go to a particular station experiencing problems to offer assistance.
• And we track these metrics week-to-week very, very closely –- focusing on days and weeks for improvement turnaround, not months or years. It is definitely team work at its best.

Now back to you, Glenn.

Thanks very much Larry. As I said in my opening comments, understanding the need for change and continuous improvement across United is critical to the future of the company. As Larry has said, making sure that everyone gets to participate and contribute individually is also critical.

There are many such initiatives underway at United today and it's the combination of all of this work that is making us a stronger competitor today. And it's this work that will ensure that we can execute against the business plan of the future. I will be taking to you again soon and I am going to invite somebody to join me on the call then. Until then stay focused and stay united.