United was one of only four airlines and the only major U.S. carrier that improved service in 2004, while performance by most of the 14 largest North American carriers worsened. United moved up in quality rankings from ninth to fourth place, according to the annual Airline Quality Rating (AQR) study released this week by Wichita State University.

This is a credit to all of our employees` hard work. Being the only major carrier shown to improve service demonstrates how hard our employees are working to transform the business during challenging times -- both for United and the industry, says Pete McDonald, executive vice president and chief operating officer. The study also supports our own internal statistics for 2004, which indicated strong operational performance and encouraging customer intent-to-repurchase ratings.

Most notable in 2004 was United`s improvement in the area of involuntary denied boardings, with a rate of 0.49 per 10,000 passengers compared to 0.65 in 2003.

The AQR study is based on statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation and includes analysis of arrival times, baggage handling, denied boardings and customer complaints.