Wednesday 20th October 2021
Sales tripled
United Airlines on the road to recovery
United Airlines is still in the red, but at least not in the dark red: With the rise in travel, the airline is reducing its losses. Now, however, new adversity threatens.
The US airline United Airlines posted significant business growth in the third quarter thanks to the slow increase in travel traffic. The airline even managed a net profit of 473 million dollars (407 million euros) in the three months to the end of September thanks to extensive government aid, as it announced on Tuesday after the US stock market closed in Chicago. After the trading hours, the share initially rose by around two percent.
Adjusted earnings were negative at $ 329 million. Compared with the massive losses of the previous quarters, this is a clear improvement. United’s sales tripled compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, which was heavily burdened by the Corona crisis, to $ 7.75 billion. The company emphasized, however, that the revenues are still 32 percent below the comparable value of 2019 – before the pandemic paralyzed global air traffic.
In the meantime, operations are gradually picking up speed again, but the high kerosene prices threaten new hardships. United spent over $ 1.7 billion on fuel in the past quarter – more than three times as much as a year ago. Relief is not expected for the time being. The big US rival Delta Air Lines, for example, only warned last week that increased fuel costs were likely to depress profits in the final quarter.