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United Airlines reported “strong evidence” of the accumulated demand for air travel and positioned itself to take advantage of the recovery of commercial and international flights.
The carrier said Monday it was “already moving” to capitalize on the rising demand from countries where vaccinated travelers are welcome and noted recently announced international flights to Greece, Iceland and Croatia, which are subject to the government approval.
In a statement accompanying the release of first-quarter earnings, the company said these “opportunistic steps” helped position it “to return to positive net income, even if international demand for business and long haul only returns around 35% of 2019 levels ”.
Scott Kirby, chief executive, said: “We have shifted our focus to the next milestone on the horizon and now see a clear path to profitability. We are encouraged by the strong evidence of the accumulated demand for air travel and our ability continues to make it coincide with agility ”.
United reported a 60% drop in total revenue to $ 3.222 billion in the first three months of 2021, which was just 38 million below the average forecast among analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. Its reported net loss was $ 1.363 billion, compared to a loss of $ 1.7 billion the previous year and Wall Street forecasts a loss of $ 1.662 billion.
The company said the capacity of its network during the first quarter fell by 54% compared to the same three-month period in 2019. It has forecast that capacity during the current quarter will be approximately 45% lower than second quarter of 2019. Total revenue per mile of available seats, a popular industry metric, is expected to be 20% lower this quarter compared to two years ago.
Shares of United fell about 2% in after-hours trading.
With a growing number of Americans receiving vaccines, the number of airline passengers has recovered to the highest levels since the pandemic shattered air travel a year ago.
United is responding to some of these encouraging trends and earlier this month said it planned to do so. start hiring pilots back in May in an effort to meet growing demand. The airline said so last week pagaria a portion of taxpayer money he borrowed during the heyday of the coronavirus pandemic after conducting a $ 9 billion fundraiser in bond and loan markets.
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