It is Friday, July 1st and I'm calling from Chicago.

From the day we began our restructuring, we have said that we would do whatever was needed -- and take the time that was required to get it right. On the strength of our hard work, we have today taken an important step toward the completion of our restructuring.

Today, we are filing a motion with the Bankruptcy Court that starts the formal process for our exit from bankruptcy. There is still much work to do and this is an aggressive schedule, but one that is achievable.

In the motion, we establish the timeline for the filing of United's key restructuring documents, which will be the basis for our exit from Chapter 11 this fall. These documents include our disclosure statement and our Plan of Reorganization.

The disclosure statement will ultimately lay out the current state of our business and our financial model for the future.

The Plan of Reorganization -- or the POR -- is the financial document that will ultimately set out how United will handle all the claims and interests of the various parties involved with our Chapter 11 case. These include our lenders, our unsecured creditors -- such as suppliers and airport lease holders -- our stockholders and aircraft providers, among others. It will also eventually detail how equity in the newly restructured United will be distributed to employees and other key constituents post-exit.

Combined, these two documents present the major steps we will take to complete the remaining work.

We informed the Court today that we intend to file our disclosure statement and our POR on or about August 1st .

As is typical in large, complex bankruptcies, substantial details will not be included in the initial filing in August, but will be included in supplements that will be submitted to the Court in the following weeks.

The Court's hearing on the disclosure statement likely would follow in the early part of September. Various parties will have the opportunity to agree or to dispute the Plan of Reorganization as this process moves forward, and ultimately to vote on its fairness and feasibility.

Throughout this time, we will be working closely with the Creditors Committee and our other stakeholders to attempt to reach consensus on these financial issues.

Following a vote confirming our POR, and with the Court's approval, United would exit bankruptcy later in the fall.

Our restructuring team will continue to focus on the specific work that needs to be completed to determine our timeline for exit. But our ability to emerge successfully depends on all of us.

Just as the strong performance of our employees has played a critical role in our success to date, our focus on our customers and on operational and business improvements across the company will continue to drive that success as we move forward.

United today is a vastly different company than it was just two-and-a-half years ago, despite extraordinary challenges.

There is much work ahead, but our emergence from bankruptcy as a far more competitive, effective and sustainable business is now clearly within our grasp -- and I want to thank you for the contribution that you have all made to get us to this point.

For those of you in the United States, happy Fourth of July. That's all for now. I'll be talking to you again very soon. Stay focused on our customers, and on one another, and stay United.