United Airlines will turn a profit next year, says GEO Glenn Tipton.
“The next chapter of our lives is to make good on the investment that our employees have made and to compete with the financial resilience that we’ve created for ourselves,” he said in a newspaper interview.
Recent labor agreements are saving the company $700 million but other strategies will be employed to cope with rising fuel prices, Mr Tilton told The Chicago Tribune.
The carrier needs $2 billion to $2.5 billion to emerge from bankruptcy.
Mr Tilton said the airline is talking to four potential lenders. “We find ourselves in a position to be selective in securing the financing that is most appropriate and properly priced for exit financing,” he said.
In other good news for United, it was on schedule to be the first domestic airline to receive approval from regulators to install wireless networks on its planes.
The Wi-Fi service, however, is at least a year away. But sometime in mid-to-late 2006, passengers should be able to check e-mail, send instant messages and surf the Web while airborne.
Report by David Wilkening
