quarterly figures
United Airlines is gaining momentum again
At United Airlines, business has recovered a bit. Photo: Silas Stein/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Although the Corona crisis is still affecting air traffic, the US airline United Airlines is able to significantly reduce its quarterly loss.
US carrier United Airlines trimmed its fourth-quarter loss significantly despite problems over the new Omicron virus variant.
The bottom line was a minus of 646 million dollars (569 million euros), as United announced after the US stock market closed. In the same period of the previous year, the company was in the red at $ 1.9 billion due to the large burdens caused by the corona pandemic.
In the meantime, travel has picked up again and business has recovered somewhat. Revenue rose about 140 percent year-on-year to $8.2 billion in the final quarter, beating analysts’ expectations. However, the proceeds are still almost a quarter below the level of 2019 – before the Corona crisis. According to United, the pandemic is likely to continue to burden air traffic for the time being.
“While Omicron is dampening demand in the short term, we remain optimistic about spring,” said United CEO Scott Kirby, according to the press release. After the summer, however, the situation should ease up. United seems to have overcome the worst: In the past year as a whole, the airline increased sales by more than 60 percent to $24.6 billion. The loss fell to $2.0 billion from $7.1 billion a year earlier.