February 20, 2006 - DEN Continuous Improvement

HHi, it's Glenn and it's the 20th of February, and I am calling from Chicago.  Today, I am joined on the call by John Tague, our executive vice president for Marketing, Sales and Revenue, to discuss some of the very important work going on at our hub in Denver.

We have talked in recent weeks on the call about the future for United - and about what will be required to fully realize our potential.  Our success will be driven by each of us in our work to continue to make improvements across every aspect of our business, starting with the service that we provide to our customers every day.

We continue to move decisively, staking out a competitive position that is distinctly our own…and that plays to our strengths.  Our focus is to know what is important to our customers and to meet those needs better than our competitors.

Denver is an excellent example of how well this approach is working for us.  We have answered challenges presented to us - protecting and growing our franchise and making our operation more customer focused and more competitive.

So with that, I'll turn the call over to John.  John, over to you.

Thanks, Glenn.

Our efforts at United today are all about realizing our full potential.  As Glenn has often said,  "If you do the work, you earn the right to compete and win.”

Cost competitiveness is fundamental for United.  Our commitment to continuous improvement in all of our work, when combined with industry-leading revenue performance, allows us to pursue new opportunities to serve our customers, while improving our bottom line.  Often we can do this by simply making better use of our existing assets.

That"s what's happening in Denver, where we are aggressively expanding capacity, serving new destinations and competing for every customer – capitalizing on opportunities that make for a stronger, more competitive United.

Last week we announced that improvements in efficiency are enabling us to add 32 new flights a day at our Denver hub – an increase of 7 percent by June of 2006, over our current level.

Over the last year we have expanded international flights in Denver, introducing new services to Mexico and Canada.

We are introducing more explus flights on United Express, bringing this distinct and market-leading product to new destinations, and additional flights in existing markets.  Ted, having just turned two, is also expanding in Denver.

By June of 2006 we will have 455 daily departures from Denver.  That"s more flights to more markets from Denver than we've had in a very very long time.

You all know what a competitive market we face in Denver…head-to-head with Frontier and now Southwest.  But over the last three years, United and the team in Denver have shown time and time again that we have what it takes to win in the marketplace.

We are reaching out to our customer base with new marketing and advertising initiatives, designed specifically for Denver travelers.  We began a hard-hitting campaign in January.  In fact in some ads we called Southwest out by name, and focused on United's superior service.  With more non-stop flights to more places than any other airline in Denver, we are the leader and we will work hard to maintain that position, while continuing to be price competitive for every customer.

Recently, we initiated a powerful year-long promotion for our customers flying in and out of Denver.  This promotion rewards passengers for trips taken, in addition to miles flown.  The response has been very, very favorable.

Through it all, our employees are undertaking new challenges, working to shorten turn times, to improve our products, to provide better service to our customers.  That’s not easy.  But the competitive outcome we see in Denver is a tangible and direct result of that focus and the hard work.

This success isn’t limited to Denver by any means.  We're taking action like this across the system.  In doing so, we are winning back market share from our network competitors as we work to expand our revenue leadership position.

This is the United that we’ve all talked about so much:  Building on our many accomplishments, yet always reaching for more.  A confident airline that protects and strengthens its network, focuses on its customers and wins.

Back to you, Glenn.

Thanks very much, John.  That's great stuff and it's very well put. 

The commitment that we are making to customers in Denver – to our customers and to those that are not yet ours, but that we want to be ours – and the success we are having against other airlines have us very well positioned going forward. 

Denver is one important example of the work being done across our system.  As John has said, we now have the opportunity to take the company forward to a new competitive level, and everyone in the company intends to do precisely that.

That’s all for now on this call.  We’ll be talking with you again soon.  Until then, stay focused on our customers, on one another and stay united.