United Airlines is America’s second largest air carrier and flies more than 20 percent of all U.S. flights. According to the Associated Press, it has the most extensive worldwide route structure of any airline. As an organization, United Airlines is now stuck in the never-never land of the largest airline bankruptcy on record. Whether it ultimately ends up in the bone yard with Eastern and Pan Am, or that much happier place where profits flow depends to a large extent on how well the company communicates during the crisis.

Already, United executives are getting good marks for their performance in crisis.

The Chicago Tribune recently noted that the airline “adroitly handled its first day of bankruptcy” when executives made appearances in four major cities to reassure audiences that the airline is still flying.

Of United CEO Glenn Tilton’s appearance at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport shortly after filing bankruptcy papers, the Trib quoted one crisis communications expert as saying “Their CEO did exactly the right thing this morning. He was at the airport instead of behind his desk. He was talking to his customers and he was talking to his employees. This is exactly what we advise someone to do in this situation.”

We’re here. We’re still flying despite the bankruptcy, and “It’s only going to get better from here,” were Tilton’s words from O’Hare.

Of course, saying that is easy. Doing it is an entirely different matter. “Agonizing” is the word most commonly chosen to describe the changes United must make to return from the bankruptcy purgatory. Most significant among those changes will be “reducing the number of flights, dropping unprofitable routes and slashing employees’ wages,” according to the Associated Press article, which also pointed out that while United has a huge share of domestic and international air travel markets, it also has the industry’s highest costs.

But for any company in United’s situation, saying what you will do, then actually accomplishing it, followed by publicly demonstrating that you’ve done it, are the critical steps. Actions must match promises. United is now only a few days into the bankruptcy, but so far executives seem to be living up to their commitments.

USATODAY.com reported that United is attempting “to hold on to its critical customer base during bankruptcy by eliminating an unpopular $100 standby fee that was set to take effect next month. The fee is reported to have alienated customers, particularly business travelers. By deciding not to implement the fee, United recognizes the “considerable passenger value” in the ability to fly stand by and uses its “considerable network size” to force other airlines to follow suit, according to an airline industry analyst quoted in the article.

Another communications-related point in its favor is that United chose not to wait until the last minute to announce the plan for bankruptcy. “The company warned for weeks that bankruptcy was possible,” said the Chicago Trib article. “On Friday (prior to filing on Tuesday) Tilton made clear in remarks to employees that Chapter 11 was near.”

There can be no question that sharing the bad news — and even the potential for bad news — both publicly and internally with employees provided United executives with a huge measure of credibility among those critical audiences, especially employees. Many executives in a similar situation would have chosen to withhold such information until after the fact. Withholding that information, however, would have been a strong signal that the airline executives did not trust employees to support them through the crisis, which easily could have become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead, United employees now have a “good faith” basis to support further trust in the statements of company executives.

And United’s messages are apparently getting through to potential investors who are expressing faith in the airline's ability to overcome its troubles. According to an article in the Chicago Star-Tribune, shares in United parent company UAL closed unchanged at 93 cents on Monday before the well-publicized bankruptcy was filed. Investors traded more than 57 million shares of the stock that day.

United has a long, long way to go in overcoming its financial problems. Reports say the company has acknowledged losing $20 million to $22 million a day, which is much worse than previously reported. It has lost $4 billion in the past two years, and passenger revenue’s have dropped from $16.9 billion in 2000 to 11.8 billion in 2002.

The best communications strategy cannot assure that United will overcome those problems. Everyone in the company can do their best throughout the anticipated 18 months of the bankruptcy and still fail. But with United’s aggressive crisis communications strategy, the company does assure itself a much better chance of success…and survival.