UAL 2.0

United Airlines has exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a viable entity, making them one of only three airlines out of 166 since 1978 to ever successfully pull off this significant feat. I've watched the process closely and intimately for the past 1,150 days, and I still know next to nothing about what actually transpired in the courtrooms and conference rooms. Maybe I never will. I do, however, know a bit about what it was like for the grunts in the "trenches." Someday, someone will have to write a book about the drama, heartache, and tension that have gripped the employees of United for the past four years.

I'm proud of all the United employees who slogged through what will go down in history as one of the largest and most costly bankruptcies in U.S. corporate history. It also resulted in the largest pension default in history, setting an appalling standard for all other domestic airlines to follow.

I hope United's leaders will not squander or take for granted the incredible sacrifices made by their employees over the past four years. United's front-line employees were, in my opinion, not just instrumental in rescuing the company from oblivion, but almost totally responsible for it. We'll see if that fact is remembered at contract time in 2009.

Ah, flying. What a romantic endeavor...