After recording my 800 call to you this morning, I read an opinion column in the Wall Street Journal by Holman Jenkins, the same columnist who wrote a similar piece about two years ago titled, “Kill United.” This time, his piece is called, “Send United to the Great Hangar in the Sky.” If nothing else, Mr. Jenkins is at least consistent.

Mr. Jenkins, of course, has company in his wish that United should go away -- namely, those who would benefit from our demise and those who have yet to face up to the depth of restructuring necessary for the survival of the US network carriers. We have not given Mr. Jenkins and others the satisfaction they sought two years ago, and we have no intention of doing so today.

Simply said, we will continue to do the work necessary to make United a finance-able, viable and, importantly, sustainable enterprise. This is what I talk about on the call today and what will continue to confound our critics and competitors.

Thanks, Glenn

It's Wednesday, it's the 25th of May, and I'm placing the call from Chicago. Everything that we have been doing over the past two-and-a-half years has been about making our company more competitive -- making United a more competitive company once again, in an industry that has changed dramatically and is going to continue to face extraordinary challenges.

The recent decisions in court and the labor negotiations have been very tough, both on a professional level for everyone here at United, and on a personal level for our employees and our retirees. That said, they've been necessary for our future as a viable, sustainable company to make United financeable, such that we can exit bankruptcy able to compete and to succeed in an increasingly difficult marketplace.

As I have frequently said, we're going to have to be an airline that gives our customers the travel and the services that they want and they deserve. But we are also going to have to be a company that is able to attract investment and provide the employees of United with competitive jobs and benefits, including replacement retirement plans that reflect the current realities.

Yesterday, members of the executive team and I updated our board of directors, discussing United's progress along with our restructuring activities. As we told the board, we are tracking well against our goals to manage costs. And in every area of our work where we are not yet competitive, we'll continue to lower expenses and improve productivity to meet or exceed those in our industry who are more competitive.

Yesterday, Judy Bishop, our vice president of Worldwide Reservations, who is also heading up our general and administrative cost reduction team, talked to the board about some of that work, cutting corporate and administrative overhead at headquarters and throughout the organization. Judy and her team are moving rapidly on improvements that will eliminate redundant work, gain efficiencies from shared services and, where necessary, outsource non-core work.

As we also told the board, our revenue performance remains strong. As we outlined on a recent call, our decision to focus on international flying while optimizing the domestic network is delivering positive results.. and on the cargo side of the business, we continue to outperform against our plan.

On the restructuring front, the agreement with the PBGC, approved in court two weeks ago, was clearly one of our most difficult, but most necessary, steps toward exit from Chapter 11. And, in addition to the consensual agreements that we reached with four of our unions earlier this year, last week, we reached a tentative agreement with AMFA, and we'll have the results of the ratification vote at the end of the month.

We're still in discussions with the IAM. Last week, Judge Wedoff gave us more time to work toward a consensual agreement with this group as well. As I meet and I talk with employees around the company, it's clear to me that the vast majority of our people at the company want to see the work and the contributions that they made to United over the last two-and-a-half years result in a successful company going forward.

A recent meeting with all of our airport general managers and with two groups of returning pilots, along with feedback that I regularly receive around the system, leaves me with no doubt that, as hard as this has been, our people want, in the end, a winning company. The question we all hear most is, "Are we building the right foundation for our future?" Yesterday, we told the board that the executive team and I believe that the answer is yes. While the industry environment is tougher than ever, I can say with confidence that our ability to compete improves every day.

That's all for now. Until the next time on the call, stay United.