Good day, and welcome to the United Airlines Holdings 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. We do not expect any technical difficulties. However, if you experience any technical difficulties during the meeting, please call the technical support number posted on the virtual meeting website. In the event we lose audio or webcast connection and we are unable to provide any updates, please wait 10 minutes for a resolution. Please refer to the company's investor relations website for updates. Today's annual meeting conference is being recorded and will be available for replay by those who are not able to attend and for later reference by attendees. If you do not consent to this recording, please disconnect immediately.
If during this meeting any statements are made concerning any projected financial or other forward-looking information, the company refers you to the company's Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and other reports filed with the SEC for a discussion of risks and other important factors that could cause its actual results to differ materially from the company's current expectations. Except as required by law, we do not undertake to update these statements. In addition, please refer to the company's investor relations website for a reconciliation of any financial measures that the company uses which were not prepared in accordance with GAAP. At this time, I'd like to turn the meeting over to Ted Philip, Chairman of the Board.
Hello, and thank you for joining us. I'm Ted Philip, and I'm honored to serve as Chairman of United Airlines Holdings, Board of Directors. Together with my fellow directors, I want to welcome you to our 2025 virtual annual meeting of stockholders. Before I move to today's agenda, I want to take a moment to emphasize how important safety is to the company and the board. Scott and the management team are committed to ensuring United has a strong safety record and view safety as a foundation to the company's success. Similarly, the board views its oversight of safety as one of its main priorities, and we make it a point to discuss the company's safety programs continuously, including at all of our board meetings. United's safety culture is strong and will not be taken for granted. Now I'll briefly go through an overview of today's meeting.
To start things off, our Chief Executive Officer, Scott Kirby, will update you on the company's strategies and highlights from 2024. Once he is done, our Corporate Secretary, Anna Ha, will conduct the formal business portion of our meeting. After that is complete, we'll have a live question-and-answer session that will include Scott and our President, Brett Hart. Before I hand it over to Scott, I'd like to take a moment and acknowledge our other directors who are in attendance. We have Roz Brewer, Michelle Freyre, Matt Friend, Barney Harford, Michele Hooper, Walter Isaacson, Richie Johnson, Scott Kirby, Captain Brian Noyes, Ed Shapiro, Laysha Ward, and Jim Whitehurst. On behalf of the Board of Directors, we'd like to thank you for your interest and continued confidence in United and the opportunity to serve United as directors on your behalf. Now I'll turn it over to Scott for his remarks.
Thank you, Ted, and congratulations on being number one in the first Wall Street Journal Directors ranking. Thanks to all of you for joining us today. On behalf of the entire United team, I'm happy to welcome you to our 2025 annual stockholders meeting. At United, we've seen tremendous growth since the pandemic, but more than that, we've become the leading airline around the globe with brand loyal customers, employees, and our shareholders being rewarded for that hard work. We've built an airline that our employees are proud to work for and our customers are excited to fly with, an airline that is safe, innovative, and cares for our customers and people. We're going to continue building an airline that is more resilient than any in history, one that can withstand potential economic downturns. We did this by focusing on three lessons we learned from the pandemic.
Number one, carry more cash on the balance sheet. We're now carrying three times as much cash on the balance sheet as we had before COVID, and that just gives us more runway to deal with times of stress and figure it out without having to make short-term decisions. Second, be the industry leader in terms of profitability. We've now moved into a leadership position here in the U.S. and around the globe. Third, we needed to return our balance sheet to pre-COVID levels and then better. We've done that and will continue to pay down debt and further strengthen the balance sheet. Focusing on those three things and preparing in advance is what gives us the financial wherewithal to deal with short-term challenges while always staying focused on the long term.
Additionally, it allowed us to implement a share repurchase program for the first time since the pandemic, demonstrating our confidence in the trajectory of the business and returning value to all of you. It also allowed our employees to confidently build the best airline in the world that our brand loyal customers are choosing to fly. We've proven that United Next is the right strategy. It's been embraced by our people and is producing strong results in good times and even more impressively in tough times. United has never been in a stronger competitive position. Customers are benefiting, our employees are benefiting, and our shareholders will also continue to benefit from the value that's being created. In the last year, our investments in our business, people, and products allowed our operation to perform at its best.
We carried a company record number of customers, delivered record revenue, and strengthened our position in the market. We continue to explore how we can improve our customers' travel experience, employing innovative programs and solutions that have transformed the industry and created strong preference for the United brands. I'd like to highlight some of the ways we've executed on that vision. Our people, committed to training and employing the next generation of world-class aviation professionals, is vital for the success of our airline. In 2024, we continue to make investments in our training, our employees, and our facilities. We expanded our flight training center at our Denver hub, so it's the largest of its kind in the world, began work on a new in-flight training center near our Washington, D.C. hub, and hired more than 10,000 people across the airline.
Our operational performance continues to improve while maintaining our high safety standards. In December's busy holiday travel period, we recorded our three busiest days in company history in terms of customer care. We also set on-time performance records for various months throughout the year. Our network. In 2024, we achieved new milestones in our networking capacity, setting a company record for the most customers carried in a year and announcing the largest international expansion in the airline's history. Our fleet. We continue to see our fleet transform as a result of our United Next strategy. In 2024, we surpassed 300 new and retrofit aircraft featuring United's signature interior with bigger bins, seatback screens at every seat, and Bluetooth connectivity. Our technology. Our technology continues to differentiate United from our competitors. We launched an industry-leading agreement with SpaceX to bring Starlink Wi-Fi service to MileagePlus members for free.
We also added new features to the United app, allowing customers to choose and be automatically rebooked into their preferred seat and introduced in-app Spanish translation. The entire United team is proud of what we're building and is passionate about becoming the world's biggest and best airline. Thank you for your continued support of United. With that, I'll turn it to Anna for the official business of the meeting.
Thank you, Scott, and welcome, everyone. I will walk us through the formal meeting, and then, as Ted said earlier, we will conduct a Q&A session. This meeting is now officially called to order, and it is being conducted in conformity with the laws of Delaware and the company's charter and bylaws. First, let's attend to a few administrative matters related to the meeting. On your screen, as well as on the virtual meeting website, you should see the agenda for the meeting. This is the order of items that we will be covering today. Now, consistent with the company's bylaws, the directors appointed Broadridge Financial Solutions as our inspector of election for this meeting, including any adjournment.
I have been advised by Broadridge that a quorum is present, with over 85% of the company's common stock entitled to vote at this meeting represented virtually on this web portal or by proxy. This means the meeting is duly constituted and will proceed today. Holders of Class Pilot MEC Junior Preferred Stock and Class IAM Junior Preferred Stock, or other classes of stock eligible to vote at this meeting, are also present today, either virtually or by proxy. You should also see on the virtual meeting website the rules of conduct for the meeting, which is available in the document section of the virtual meeting website. The rules of conduct also govern the Q&A session. We ask that you please read and follow the procedures set forth in the rules of conduct.
Beginning on or around April 10th, 2025, the notice of this annual meeting, the proxy statement, the proxy card, and the 2024 annual report were provided to the company stockholders of record as of March 24th, 2025. These are available for inspection on the annual meeting website. We have received from Broadridge a signed affidavit attesting to this mailing. As a result, the meeting is being held pursuant to proper notice. We have three management items and one stockholder proposal on the agenda today. These items were all described in the proxy statement for today's meeting. If you have already voted by proxy, your vote has been received, and you do not need to vote again now.
If you have not yet voted, or if you want to change your vote, stockholders who logged in using their control number may vote during this meeting by clicking on the voting link on the virtual meeting website and following the instructions there. I will introduce each of the management items, and the stockholder proponent or his representative will present the stockholder proposal. If any stockholder would like to make a comment regarding a proposal, please submit your comment through the web portal. The polls will close, and we will announce the preliminary voting results and adjourn the formal business portion of the meeting. We will begin our general question-and-answer session. We plan to take questions during the Q&A session. Similar questions may be combined so that we may answer questions on a variety of topics due to time constraints.
If a stockholder would like to ask a question, please submit your question by typing the question into the Ask a Question field on the virtual meeting website and clicking Submit. I now declare the polls open for voting on the items to be presented at this meeting and note for the record that it is May 21, 2025, at 9:13 A.M. We will now present the management item. The first item listed on the agenda is the election of 11 members of the Board of Directors by the common stockholders. The nominees for directors and their biographies appear in our proxy statement on pages 16 through 33. All 11 directors will be elected for one-year terms expiring at the 2026 annual meeting of stockholders.
The following are the directors who have been nominated for election or reelection by the vote of the holders of common stock of the company: Rosalind Brewer, Michelle Freyre, Matthew Friend, Barney Harford, Michele Hooper, Walter Isaacson, Scott Kirby, Edward M. Philip, Edward L. Shapiro, Laysha Ward, and James Whitehurst. The Board of Directors recommends a vote in favor of the election of all director nominees to be elected by the holders of the company's common stock, and with no other nominees, the nominations are closed. In addition to the 11 directors to be elected by the holders of common stock, the holders of junior preferred stock will elect two directors. The director to be elected by the holder of the company's Class Pilot MEC Junior Preferred Stock is Captain Brian Noyes.
The director to be elected by the holder of the company's Class IAM Junior Preferred Stock is Richard Johnson. The second item is the ratification of the appointment of the company's independent registered public accounting firm. The audit committee appointed and the board has ratified the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP to serve as the independent registered public accounting firm for the company for the year 2025 and is presenting a resolution requesting ratification by the stockholders. Jamie Fendley and John Preval, representatives of Ernst & Young LLP, are here today and available to respond to any appropriate questions by our stockholders. The Board of Directors recommends a vote in favor of the ratification of the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year 2025, as noted on page 70 of the company's proxy statement.
The third item is the advisory vote on a resolution to approve the compensation of our named executive officers as disclosed in the company's proxy statement. The Board of Directors recommends a vote in favor of approving on a non-binding advisory basis the compensation of our named executive officers, as noted on page 74 of the company's proxy statement. We will now move to the stockholder proposal to be presented, which will be presented by Ms. Cam Franklin, who represents the stockholder proponent for this item. The full text of the proposal is set forth in the company's proxy statement. Ms. Franklin, at this time, we turn the floor to you to please move your item. We respectfully request that your remarks be related to this proposal. I would also ask that you limit the presentation to three minutes at most.
After three minutes, the operator has been instructed to mute your line. Operator, please open the line for Ms. Franklin.
Good morning. Can you hear me okay? Yes, we can hear you.
Okay. Proposal for support for special shareholder meeting improvement sponsored by John Chevedden. Shareholders ask the Board of Directors to remove the current provision that considers the voice of certain United Airlines shareholders as non-shareholders. Currently, all shares not held for one continuous year are considered non-shareholders if they seek to call for a special shareholder meeting on an important business matter. The current one-year exclusion for all shares held for less than one continuous year makes the current so-called shareholder right to call for a special shareholder meeting useless. There is no point to have useless rights on the books of UAL.
The reason to enable all shareholders to call for a special shareholder meeting is to allow one shareholder or a group of shareholders to quickly acquire UAL shares to equal the challenging 25% share ownership requirement from all shares outstanding to call for a special shareholder meeting when there is an urgent matter to consider in order to potentially incentivize a turnaround of UAL. This is becoming more important given the long-term lackluster UAL stock price. UAL stock was at $95 in 2019 and at only $76 now. The best strategies for turning around a company do not necessarily come from a company's existing shareholders. If UAL finds itself in an emergency situation, UAL shareholders and potential UAL shareholders will not even consider acquiring more shares in order to call for a special shareholder meeting.
If they have to sit on their shares for one year to call for a special shareholder meeting, a one-year holding period makes no sense. An emergency demands a quick response. There is no concern that enabling all shareholders to participate in calling for a special meeting makes it too easy. It is almost unheard of for any special shareholder meeting called for by shareholders to ever occur at any company, although a large number of companies enable all shareholders to participate in calling for a special shareholder meeting. The reason to have this right is that with this right in place, companies like UAL are more likely to engage in productivity with their shareholders because shareholders have an alternative ability to call for a special shareholder meeting.
With the widespread use of online shareholder meetings, it is much easier for a company to conduct a special shareholder meeting for important business matters, and UAL bylaws need to be updated accordingly. Please vote yes for special shareholder meeting improvement proposal number four. Thank you.
Thank you for presenting the proposal. The Board of Directors has recommended a vote against this item for the reasons set out in its statement in opposition to this item in the company's proxy statement on pages 136 through 139. Any stockholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. I will pause here for a moment to allow anyone who is still voting to submit their vote through the portal. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls closed on the items presented to this meeting. For the record, I note that it is May 21st, 2025, and the time is now 9:20 A.M. The electronic votes and proxies will be held in the records of the inspector of election.
I see that the vote is in, so we can announce the preliminary voting tabulation. These totals are preliminary because the vote is subject to final audit by the inspector of election, but that will not affect the outcome on any matter. Each nominated director has been elected with a for-vote of at least 91%. They will serve until the next annual stockholder meeting and until their successors are elected and qualified, or until his or her earlier resignation, removal from office or death. The ratification of the appointment of the independent auditors has been approved with over 98% of shares voting for the item. Our advisory vote to approve the compensation of our named executive officers on a non-binding advisory basis has been approved with over 86% of shares voting for the item.
For the stockholder proposal, approximately 18% of the votes were cast in favor, 79% were cast against, and 3% abstained. The final voting results of today's meeting will be posted on our investor relations website and will be reported on a Form 8-K that will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days after this meeting. This completes the voting tallies and the formal business of this meeting. The annual stockholder meeting is now adjourned. Okay. We will now turn to the question-and-answer session. Before we begin, I will provide a reminder on the process to be followed. If a stockholder would like to ask a question, please submit your question by typing the question into the "Ask a question" field on the virtual meeting website and clicking submit. The questions will not be visible to other participants.
Note that only appropriate questions relevant to the purposes of the meeting and the company's business will be addressed as set forth in the rules of conduct available on the virtual meeting website. In fairness to everyone who may have a question, we'll limit each stockholder to one question. Similar questions may be combined so that we may answer questions on a variety of topics. We'll now assemble the questions and turn them over to Scott, who will address each question after it is read out loud. Okay. First question that I will read is, "Given changing legal and regulatory environments along with the cascade of companies moving away from activist-driven emissions reduction timelines, would United Airlines be willing to reconsider its net-zero target?
At United, our second biggest expense is fuel price. For us, getting sustainable aviation fuels to be a viable alternative to oil-based fuels is a business imperative. It also happens to be good for the climate and the right thing to do, but at its core, it is a business imperative because that is our second biggest cost of fuel. We're currently exposed to the massive volatility in fuel prices, all the geopolitical events around the globe that impact that, and to be able to have a source of fuel that's made from a feedstock other than oil produced domestically here in the United States would give us a lot more security and certainty on expense. It is good for the climate, but it is also a business necessity and imperative for us. We're going to continue on the path.
We have a long way to go, but we're going to continue on the current path that we're on.
Thank you, Scott. The next question I'll read is, "How will United fare this year in times of market and economic uncertainties?
At our last earnings call, we were somewhat unique amongst other companies in giving two sets of guidance, one for a stable environment, one for a recession environment. I will tell you in the month or so since we had our earnings call, putting Newark aside, there have been obviously some perception issues around Newark that I think have actually, at least I believe and hope, have turned the corner. Putting that impact aside, we've seen at least stable revenue and booking environment. Sort of the macroeconomy appears to us stable to slightly better. I think it's probably actually a little bit better. Too early to call that it's really better, but at a minimum, it's been stable to slightly better. We continue to feel relatively good about the macroeconomy, certainly compared to where we were a month ago.
Great. Thank you, Scott. That concludes our question-and-answer session. If we did not have a chance to address your question, please email it to ualboard@united.com, and we will follow up with responses to appropriate questions. Thank you very much for joining us today. We look forward to your continued support. Hope you and your families continue to stay safe and healthy. Operator, that concludes our meeting.
Thank you. This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.
The host has ended this call. Goodbye.