Hi, it's Glenn, and it's Wednesday, the 21st of September, and I am calling from Los Angeles.

I am in Los Angeles today to meet with political leaders from the city, business associates, and to also take the opportunity to talk with some of our employees at LAX.

I will be speaking to members of the Town Hall of Los Angeles, a group of local civic and business leaders.

In my remarks, I will be talking about the airline industry and our place in it today.

One week ago, Delta and Northwest filed for the protection of the court. In 2002, when we filed for Chapter 11 protection, Northwest had one of the lowest cost structures and Delta had one of the strongest balance sheets of the major network carriers... while we were losing some $3 billion a year.

Today, our company is in a very different competitive position.

We have lowered our costs, improved our revenue performance and delivered better operational results and better customer service.

And we'll continue to move relentlessly forward... to an exit from Chapter 11 on our target date of the 1st of February and to a competitive future for United.

Our progress is in sharp contrast to those who are just now confronting the work that we have already done.

Our monthly operating results, which we announced today, make clear the progress that we have made together.

Our operating profit for the month was $80 million... which, excluding the $125 million increase in fuel expense, which we're all too familiar with, was $217 million better than last year.

Including fuel expense, however, our results were still $92 million better than last year... and that is even with a 43 percent increase in the cost of fuel this August over last year. We have managed a respectable operating profit.

Excluding our largely non-cash reorganization expenses, United earned a net profit of $52 million in August.

When we reflect on August a year ago, and make a comparison:

• Our mainline passenger unit revenue increased 9 percent.
• Mainline unit costs, excluding fuel, decreased by 5 percent, despite 6 percent lower capacity.

And, we ended August with a cash balance of $2.8 billion, which includes $917 million in restricted cash... and we met the requirements, again, of our debtor-in-possession lending facility.

We have clearly demonstrated that we can, and we will, confront every issue that we have to face... working methodically, with our actions and our decisions based on fact... to build a much more competitive United with a solid financial foundation.

In my remarks today, I'll talk about government actions that are required to address the negative impact of U.S. policy on domestic airlines trying to compete with global carriers.

In this call, however, I want to keep the focus on the actions of our company.

Next week, we will meet with our Board of Directors. I'd like to give you just a brief preview of the discussions that we'll have in that meeting about what we will be focusing on now as we are completing our restructuring and moving forward.

To create value and growth in the future, we need to strengthen the core of our company... the foundation on which we can build a much more competitive enterprise that will be capable of not only dealing with unforeseen issues, and we know there will be those, but seizing growth opportunities in the future as well.

The core areas of focus we will discuss with the board are distinct but they are interdependent. 

The first is the customer value proposition, or put simply, what United will offer to our customers and the experience they should expect from us that will differentiate us from the experience of others. 

Second, our operations' reliability and delivery of service to our customers against our key metrics.

Third, our employee commitment... most importantly, what we should expect from being part of United as one company, and what is expected of us to deliver the customer experience we promise and the performance to which we are all now committed. 

Going forward, we will leverage our core strengths and make sure that we are in the strongest position possible to take advantage of, and make choices about, opportunities as the industry continues to change and evolve. 

We have shown that, working together, as one company, we can build a truly winning United. 

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