January 9, 2007 – United Wins China Route Case

Hi, it's Glenn, it's Tuesday, the ninth of January, and I am calling today from Chicago.  I am pleased to report that this morning I got a call from Department of Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, informing me that United was successful in its bid for the next available route to China.  The capital-to-capital service that we proposed, providing non-stop service between Washington, D.C., and Beijing, was selected over proposals from Northwest, American and Continental.

I thanked Secretary Peters for the fair and thorough review process that put customers first.  The big winners today are indeed our customers and the more than 8 million residents of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, who will, for the first time, have non-stop service to China's capital.

Winning this highly competitive route demonstrates what we can do when we build on our strengths and work together as one company.  United is the world's largest transpacific passenger carrier, and we've been serving China for 20 years.  Leveraging that strength with the outpouring of support from you our employees, including all of our unions, our customers, and government and business leaders, proved to be a winning combination.  I want to extend my thanks to all of you for supporting this route and for putting our customers first.

We will serve this route from Dulles, where we are improving the lobby experience and ensuring faster boarding, as we discussed last week on the call with Graham Atkinson.  Dulles has been performing well for us, and continues to be an excellent international gateway.  From Dulles, we can provide customers with 35 online connections.  And customers departing from Dulles to Beijing have a network of 16 online connections through our code-share alliances with Air China and Shanghai Airlines.

The new route closes a critical service gap, connecting the capital of the United States, the largest economy in the world, with the capital of China, the fastest-growing economy in the world.  We look forward to being the bridge that connects the commerce, the governments and the cultures of China and the United States and enables diplomacy during a time when people-to-people and culture-to-culture contact has perhaps never been more important in our world.

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.