CHICAGO (AP) - United Airlines made the largest bankruptcy filing in aviation history Monday, saying it was the only way to keep the world's No. 2 airline flying after two years of heavy losses.

The Chapter 11 filing also was one of the top 10 ever as measured by assets. The suburban Chicago-based company has lost $4 billion in the last two years due to a slumping economy, flawed business strategies and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It faced debt payments of $875 million later this week.

"Reorganization under Chapter 11 is the only way at this point to build on what we've accomplished, to secure United's long-term future and to ensure that United can continue to meet the needs of our customers while remaining a major player in the global airline industry," United CEO Glenn Tilton told employees on a company hotline.

"Our flight operations will continue as usual in the United States and around the world," he said.

Tilton said he expects the bankruptcy process to be completed within 18 months.

At a bankruptcy hearing at 7 a.m., Chief Judge Eugene R. Wedoff issued orders allowing United to keep operating until another hearing Monday when he is to issue further orders allowing the airline to continue its operations.

United said it obtained $1.5 billion in financing from several banks to continue operating. The airline said it has $800 million in cash on hand.

The airline has promised to keep flying while it sheds costs under the auspices of a bankruptcy judge and overhauls its business plan to try to become profitable again.

United operates about 1,700 flights a day, or about 20 percent of all U.S. flights. It has the most extensive worldwide route structure of any airline.

The bankruptcy filing will come at a steep price for the 83,000 employees who own 55 percent of the company. A bankruptcy court judge is almost certain to order wage and job cuts and could dissolve the employee stock ownership plan.

The carrier's stock, which reached $100 a share in 1997, closed at 93 cents Friday on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites).

The bankruptcy restructuring also is likely to result in fewer flights. Experts say frequent-flier miles and basic fare levels are likely to be retained for the short term, although fare hikes are likely over the longer haul.

A spokesman for United's pilots union urged passengers Sunday not to abandon the airline during a bankruptcy filing.

"This is going to be painful for the stockholders and the employees, but the airline's going to keep flying and we're going to come out of this stronger," pilot Herb Hunter said. "The passengers shouldn't notice any difference."

Airline consultant Robert Mann said the company will have to keep the morale of United's workers from falling too low.

"It's certainly demoralizing to employees, and the risk is that it will somehow translate into less friendly service — in effect getting customers in the middle of an emotional problem," said Mann, of R.W. Mann & Co. in Port Washington, N.Y.

On pace to lose an industry-record $2.5 billion this year, United had pinned its last hopes of avoiding bankruptcy on getting federal backing for $1.8 billion of a $2 billion loan that banks wouldn't otherwise provide. But the Air Transportation Stabilization Board, created last year to help the airline industry recover after Sept. 11, rejected United's request on Wednesday.

The linchpin to United's proposal was $5.2 billion in labor cutbacks by 2008, but the three-member federal panel said the airline's business plan was financially unsound and a loan guarantee would have risked U.S. taxpayers picking up the tab.

United has struggled even more than other airlines during the industry's worst-ever slump. The carrier already had lost about $1 billion since mid-2000 by the time of the attacks because of labor turmoil, the industry's highest costs and several failed strategies, including a costly and time-consuming bid to acquire US Airways — itself now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

United cut service and laid off nearly 20,000 workers after the terrorist attacks, but it hasn't come close to making up for revenue lost from the drop-off in business travel.

United's filing dwarfs all other airline bankruptcies. The previous largest was by Continental Airlines in 1990. United listed almost $25.4 billion in assets as of Sept. 30 — more than twice Continental's when it filed.

It also is one of the 10 largest bankruptcies in U.S. history — a list topped by the recent failures WorldCom and Enron. It is the 11th time a major U.S. airline has filed for bankruptcy since deregulation in 1978, including TWA three times.

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