United Looks to NASCAR for Ground Crew Training

UAL Corp., which emerged from bankruptcy earlier this year, plans to schedule more flights with fewer aircraft to lift United Airlines "out of the ditch," a top executive said.

Chief Operating Officer Peter McDonald said in a speech Tuesday night at Northwestern University in Evanston that the company has hired NASCAR pit crews to train ramp workers in order to reduce turnaround time at airports. He said improving aircraft turnaround time - refueling, cleaning and loading and unloading planes on layover - will add 125 flights to the schedule without putting more planes in the air.

Increasing efficiency is part of the company's plan to return to profitability after being forced into bankruptcy by outfall from 9/11, surging growth of low-cost carriers, high labor costs and ever-rising fuel prices.

Ray Neidl, an aviation analyst with Calyon Securities (USA) Inc., said United's move is a step in the right direction.

"It's good that they are doing these things," Neidl said. "The unit-cost structure has to come down a little bit if they want to be competitive."

The key to its strategy, McDonald said, is United's "most important asset" - its people.

"Our competition tends to think of their service as a commodity, that people purchase on price alone," he said. "We don't."

McDonald said the airline's employees were central in the company's emergence from bankruptcy, making "immense personal sacrifices" and ultimately improving operations and service.

McDonald said the airline has shaved nearly $7 billion a year in costs and increased productivity since filing Chapter 11 in 2002, but that the sink-or-swim environment, with two major carriers operating under bankruptcy protection, continues today.

"Exit was a major step for us, but nobody gave us a get-out-of- bankruptcy-free card."

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