Hi it's Glenn, and it's Friday the 2nd of December, and I'm calling from O'Hare.

During my trip to Europe this week, I had the opportunity to meet with a number of your colleagues at Heathrow and Frankfurt.

We discussed the progress that we are making with the company, certainly in our international markets, but also at home in the U.S. --

and we discussed our ambition to improve our customer experience and our operations worldwide.

While I was in London, I spent time with Brandon O'Reilly, United's manager of operations for Europe and Latin America, and we talked with the British Airport Authority about future improvements that are planned for United's facilities and the customer experience at Heathrow. Brandon and I also had a productive meeting in Germany with Dr. Wilhelm Bender, the CEO of Frankfurt Airport, on these same topics.

An important element of any trip is the time that I get to spend with our key customers. I joined Marcel Fuchs, our sales manager for Europe, for several meetings with our customers in London and in Frankfurt.

We also met with members of the British American Business Institute in London, which is the approximate equivalent of a U.K./U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

This was particularly worthwhile, because many of the members are also United Premier customers, and we have excellent progress to report to them.

I was asked to speak to the Aviation Club of the U.K. in London. And I used this occasion to report on the progress that we are making with the company, and to point out some misinformation about United in Chapter 11, and the Chapter 11 experience in general.

Previous speakers had made the point that bankruptcy was somehow a “safe harbor” for U.S. companies that protects them from the realities of the marketplace.

The facts, of course, tell a very different story. Consider, of the 166 airlines that have actually filed for Chapter 11 since the late 70s, only two U.S. passenger carriers and one cargo carrier have successfully restructured and been able to exit as viable businesses.

During my remarks, I highlighted two important developments in the regulatory environment that have been receiving a lot of attention in Europe this week.

The European commission and U.S. negotiators have agreed on the text of a new bilateral transatlantic open market aviation agreement, and the U.S. Department of Transportation has proposed a new policy to relax the tight restrictions on foreign investment in U.S. airlines.

Together, these events may signal a new direction for international aviation policy, that could ultimately free our industry to compete just as other global businesses do -- such as telecommunications, financial services and energy.

In my remarks to the Aviation Club, I shared United's perspective that anything that distorts the free marketplace should be removed -- even if it is a benefit to United. Thus we have an encouragement for true global competition. And all companies should be free to compete on the merits of their work.

In Europe, regulation is the biggest form of government subsidy, and nowhere is that more apparent than at Heathrow, where British Air's protected transatlantic services provide 70 percent of the company's profits.

On Wednesday, I was in Frankfurt for meetings with Wolfgang Mayrhuber, the chief executive officer of Lufthansa, and Jann Albrecht, the CEO of STAR .

We discussed how we can continue to leverage the connectivity of our combined worldwide networks, an advantage that is so important to all of our customers.

Throughout these meetings, with United employees and customers, business leaders, our European business partners and government officials, I delivered the same message that many of you have been hearing in employee meetings, such as those this week with John Tague and Larry De Shon in Chicago.

United, today, is a fundamentally better company with sustainable improvements throughout the business…dramatically lower costs… revenue performance that is outpacing the industry…and one of the best operational performance records in the industry.

We have accomplished this by balancing the interests of our three key stakeholders – our customers, our employees and our investors.

We make decisions today based on what's good for United, with our focus on our customers.

We've earned the right to compete, both in the U.S. and in a rapidly growing global market.

We understand that there is more work for us to do, but we're confident in our ability to meet the challenges, whatever they may be in the future.

That's all for now.  I'll be talking to you again soon. Until then, stay focused on our customers and on one other, as one company…and stay united.