United Airlines 2008 Annual Report Download - page 147

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Directors and Stockholders of
UAL Corporation
Chicago, Illinois
We have audited the internal control over financial reporting of UAL Corporation and subsidiaries
(the “Company”) as of December 31, 2008, based on criteria established in Internal Control—Integrated
Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. The
Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting
and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the
accompanying Management Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting in Item 9A. Our
responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based
on our audit.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting
Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in
all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial
reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing and evaluating the design and
operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk, and performing such other
procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a
reasonable basis for our opinion.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the
supervision of, the company’s principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing
similar functions, and effected by the company’s board of directors, management, and other personnel to
provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of
financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A
company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain
to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and
dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are
recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally
accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only
in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide
reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or
disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of the inherent limitations of internal control over financial reporting, including the
possibility of collusion or improper management override of controls, material misstatements due to
error or fraud may not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Also, projections of any evaluation of
the effectiveness of the internal control over financial reporting to future periods are subject to the risk
that the controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of
compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over
financial reporting as of December 31, 2008, based on the criteria established in Internal Control—
Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway
Commission.
147