MondayOctober 28,

2002

Employees stood together last Friday to show their support of United�s updated business plan, which the company filed last Wednesday with the Air Transportation Stabiliza-tion Board (ATSB). Within five hours, more than 2,900 employees in Main-tenance and Engineering submitted letters to the three ATSB board members and to President Bush in response to the United Grassroots Network Call to Action.

�Thanks to everyone who responded quickly to the Grass-roots effort,� says Ron Utecht, senior vice president-Maintenance and Engineering. �You have helped tremendously by expressing your support of United�s filing to the ATSB. It shows that whenever a

need arises, we can stand together and be heard as the United family.�

The deadline for submitting letters was extended today. Employees may submit letters to DCAGV until Nov 1. Look for the special banner on the SkyNet home page for more information.

United has applied to the ATSB for a federal loan guarantee of $1.8 billion for the $2 billion in private financing the company is seeking to meet its current liquidity needs.

The updated business plan includes labor cost reductions of $5.8 billion over the next five and one half years, which are the result of the historic agreement between management and the coalition of six United labor unions.

Throughout Maintenance, Engi-neering and beyond, United�s employees are focused on safety. Supervisors and manag-ers are conducting observations to acknowledge safe behaviors and to correct at-risk behavior.

�Some important behaviors observed by most organizations relate to maintaining correct lift-ing techniques, body mechanics and postures,� says Corporate Safety Representative Claire Florio. �These are contributing factors to a majority of our employees� injuries in Main-

Maintenance Employees Stand Together to Help United

Volunteers are needed to help the United Grassroots Network with future activities. Interested employees should send an e-mail with their contact information to christine.sinagra@ual.com.

Back to Basicstenance and Engineering. We encourage all employees, includ-ing supervisors, managers and general managers, to familiarize themselves with the correct behaviors.�

They can do that by viewing the video �Back to Basics� - #N093. Although the setting of the video is the ramp, the principles apply to all areas. The video can be ordered from SFOED through Unimatic DIS*3020. It will be co-mailed to the requester. (This is not a new video. It has been available for some time.)

Change in CFM56-3

Engine Build Philosophy

saves $32M in Nine Months

In a concerted effort to save cash while maintaining its indus-try-leading CFM56-3 safety and reliability, the basic approach used to repair CFM56-3 engines, which power United�s Boeing 737 fleet, was changed at the beginning of 2002.

�We changed our build philoso-phy,� says Byron May, manager-CFM56 Engineering, �from build-ing CFM56-3 engines for long-term cost savings over many years to instead focusing on immediate cost reduction, where

see Change on back

Every day NewsReal reports company and industry news. Summarized below are some stories from the past week:

More information on each of these topics is available in the NewsReal Archive in SkyNet.

SFOPR produces The Plane Press and SFOGS prints it. Send feedback, questions or story ideas to Christine Stern, SFOPR, via e-mail: christine.stern@united.com, E-note or phone: U634-5980.

Company Newspossible. From January to Sep-tember of this year, we have saved $32 million in CFM56-3 engine material costs during shop visits compared to costs for the same number of visits in 2001.�

�Prior to this year,� he continues, �we repaired CFM56-3 engines based on the idea that the lowest total engine cost per flying hour was achieved by building engines for maximum time-on-wing (TOW) and spreading out the time between engine shop visits. This approach does provide low cost over a five- to ten-year period, but it increases material costs at each visit to the Engine Shop.�

United has made CFM56-3 engine hardware improvements over the last few years that have resulted in significant increases in engine performance longevity. Many times when a CFM56 engine visits the shop to replace life-limited parts, there is substantial engine performance remaining. In these instances, CFM Engineer-ing, Production and Inspection carefully tailor engine repair work scopes to take advantage of this

Open Enrollment for2003 Begins TodayMonday, October 28

United�s annual Open Enrollment period for employees on the U.S. payroll begins today and continues through Tuesday, Nov. 26.

State Street Bank Appointed Investment Manager for UAL’s ESOPFriday, October 25

After careful consideration, the ESOP Committee appointed State Street Bank and Trust to manage the invest-ments of the ESOP. The committee made this appointment to further ensure that all decisions regarding management of the ESOP�s assets are being made independently and will continue to reflect the best interests of plan participants. The committee is composed of six members: three appointed by ALPA, two by the IAM and one by the company. See today�s NewsReal for the ESOP Q&A.

United Names Pete McDonald Executive Vice President of OperationsFriday, October 25

United last Friday announced the appointment of Pete McDonald as executive vice president of operations. In his new position, which is effective immediately, McDonald will lead all divi-sions responsible for United�s opera-tions: Maintenance and Engineering, Flight Operations, Onboard Service, System Operations Control, Airport Operations, Information Services and Safety. McDonald most recently served as the airline�s senior vice president of airport operations. McDon-ald joined United in 1969 as a ramp serviceman.

A new safety web site built spe-cially for Maintenance and Engi-neering is now available on SkyNet. Line Maintenance Automation cre-ated this site as a helpful tool for the division�s employees. The page hosts links to resources used daily throughout the maintenance operation.

The site contains links to tools such as: MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet); OIS (Occupational Injury Reporting System); the SHEC form for Safety, Health and Envi-ronmental Concerns; databases

New Safety Site Customized for Maintenance Now on SkyNet

like BBS (Behavior Based Safety), the Chemical Database and SIRCA (Safety Incident Root Cause Analy-sis); and safety pages provided by line stations, United�s maintenance centers and Corporate Safety.

To view the Safety Site, AMTs (Aviation Maintenance Technicians) can login to the SkyNet home page and click on �Safety� under the �Business Tools� section.

Everyone else may login to the SkyNet home page and click on �Divisions� then �Maintenance and Engineering� then �Safety.�

performance �green-time.�

Each engine passes a full test cell acceptance run, so all neces-sary performance criteria are met. In addition, each engine is closely monitored on-wing every day to assure that safety and reliability are not impacted.

�United�s CFM56-3 engine in-flight shut down rate of 0.003 per 1000 flight hours continues to lead the industry,� May says, �as does our rejected takeoff rate of 0.004.

�The next shop visit for engines built with a shorter TOW expecta-tion will be more expensive, but these shop visits will be in 2004 and beyond. By maximizing the performance green-time of our CFM56-3 engines today, signifi-cant cost reductions have been achieved when our airline needs it most.�

continued from front

Change