United Airlines' Creditors Approve Reorganization Plan

United Airlines says its creditors have voted to approve its reorganization plan, an important step in the airline's bid to come out of bankruptcy in early 2006.

Elk Grove Village-based UAL Corp., United's parent company, will ask U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff in Chicago to approve the plan. A hearing is set for Jan. 18.

"These results validate our efforts to develop an exit plan that is in the best interests of all of our stakeholders and maintains our strong momentum toward emerging from Chapter 11 in February," United CEO Glenn Tilton said in a statement Friday.

United's stay in bankruptcy was complicated by soaring fuel prices, difficulties in obtaining two rounds of labor cuts and its failure to secure a federal loan guarantee.

It has undergone extensive restructuring, including $7 billion in yearly cost reductions from renegotiated airplane leases, new labor contracts, some 20,000 job cuts and the elimination of pension obligations.

"We are a vastly different airline than we were in 2002," Chief Financial Officer Jake Brace said in an interview in September.

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