United Airlines Reports Second-Quarter 2017 Performance

CHICAGO, July 18, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines (UAL) today announced its second-quarter 2017 financial results. 

• UAL reported second-quarter net income of $818 million, diluted earnings per share of $2.66, pre-tax earnings of $1.3 billion and pre-tax margin of 12.7 percent.
• Excluding special charges, UAL reported second-quarter net income of $846 million, diluted earnings per share of $2.75, pre-tax earnings of $1.3 billion and pre-tax margin of 13.2 percent.
• Second-quarter diluted earnings per share increased nearly 50 percent year-over-year; excluding special charges, second-quarter diluted earnings per share increased over 5 percent year-over-year.
• Delivered the top airline operation among major competitors, including the best completion, on-time arrival and departure performance in the second quarter.

Oscar Munoz, chief executive officer of United Airlines, said, "The positive financial and operational performance this past quarter demonstrates that United is firmly on the right path. From investing in our products and our people, redoubling our focus on the customer experience, closing the margin gap with our peers and delivering strong returns to our investors, we have made important progress and moved United decisively forward. No single quarter constitutes a trend and we still have much further to go before we fully realize the potential of this airline and exceed the expectations of our customers. But, we also know that one success begets another and the strong financial and operating performance we posted this quarter adds to the momentum that all of us here at United are determined to build upon."

Second-Quarter Revenue

For the second quarter of 2017, revenue was $10.0 billion, an increase of $604 million or 6.4 percent year-over-year. Second-quarter 2017 consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) was up 2.1 percent and consolidated yield increased 2.0 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016. Cargo revenue was $254 million in the second quarter of 2017, an increase of 22.1 percent year-over-year due primarily to higher volumes across the system.

Scott Kirby, president of United Airlines, said, "Second quarter performance was outstanding both financially and operationally. We are incredibly proud that the United team delivered the best operational performance among major competitors during one of our busiest quarters. This impressive quarterly performance was a strong finish to the first half of the year."

Second-Quarter Costs

Operating expense was $8.6 billion in the second quarter, up 3.2 percent year-over-year. Excluding special charges, operating expense was $8.6 billion, an 8.3 percent increase year-over-year. Consolidated unit cost per available seat mile (CASM) decreased 1.0 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016 due largely to lower special charges in 2017, partially offset by higher labor and fuel expense. Second-quarter consolidated CASM, excluding special charges, third-party business expenses, fuel and profit sharing, increased 3.1 percent year-over-year, driven mainly by higher labor expense.

Liquidity and Capital Allocation

UAL generated $1.6 billion in operating cash flow and ended the quarter with $6.6 billion in unrestricted liquidity, including $2.0 billion of undrawn commitments under its revolving credit facility. The company's capital expenditures were $1.1 billion in the second quarter. Including assets acquired through the issuance of debt and airport construction financing and excluding fully reimbursable projects, the company invested $1.2 billion during the second quarter in adjusted capital expenditures. Free cash flow, measured as operating cash flow less adjusted capital expenditures, was $314 million for the second quarter. The company contributed $160 million to its pension plans and made debt and capital lease principal payments of $238 million in the second quarter. In the quarter, UAL purchased $0.4 billion of its common shares at an average price of $74.39 per share. As of June 30, 2017, the company had approximately $1.1 billion remaining to purchase shares under its existing share repurchase authority.

For the 12 months ended June 30, 2017, the company's pre-tax income was $3.8 billion and return on invested capital (ROIC) was 17.0 percent.

Andrew Levy, executive vice president and chief financial officer of United Airlines, said, "We are delivering on our commitments to our shareholders. Our margin performance and growth in earnings per share in the quarter demonstrate we are moving in the right direction. We expect our pre-tax margin in the third quarter to be between 12.5 and 14.5 percent."

Fleet Updates

In the second quarter, UAL took delivery of six Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, one used Airbus A319 aircraft and ten Embraer E175 aircraft. UAL announced it will take delivery of four additional Boeing 777-300ER aircraft in 2018. The 777-300ER aircraft feature the company's all-new United Polaris business class, with custom-designed, exclusive-to-United seats and new amenity kits. In addition, the company purchased four Airbus A320 aircraft and three Boeing 757-200 aircraft that it currently operates off lease in the second quarter. With regards to future deliveries, UAL deferred four Airbus A350 aircraft out of 2018 and accelerated 12 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft into 2019 and two 787-10 aircraft within 2019. The company also converted 100 of its current Boeing 737 MAX aircraft orders into Boeing 737 MAX 10 aircraft and expects to take delivery of the aircraft starting in late 2020.

For more information on UAL's third-quarter 2017 guidance, please visit ir.united.com for the company's investor update.

Second-Quarter Highlights

Customer Experience

• Implemented the majority of the ten changes announced at the end of April to improve overall customer experience including:
• Increased customer compensation incentives for voluntary denied boarding up to $10,000. 
• Established a customer solutions team to provide agents with creative solutions such as using nearby airports, other airlines or ground transportations to get customers to their final destination.
• Reduced the amount of overbooking, and have seen a 79 percent decrease in involuntary denied boardings in May year-over-year and an 88 percent decrease in June year-over-year.
• Eliminated the red tape on permanently lost bags by adopting a "no questions asked" policy on lost luggage and paying customers $1,500 for the value of the bag and its contents.
• Upgraded all flights between Boston and San Francisco to offer its premium transcontinental business class service, including flat-bed seats and enhanced food. Additionally, upgraded amenities on its premium transcontinental business class service between Newark/New York and San Francisco and Newark/New York and Los Angeles, including new menu offerings and custom bedding from Saks Fifth Avenue.
• Announced the addition of complimentary hot meals and alcoholic beverages for customers traveling in Economy Plus on all premium transcontinental flights.
• Opened a new Global Reception lobby at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) as part of the company's more than half a billion dollar renovation effort to reimagine all customer-facing spaces at LAX.
• During the second quarter, United made enhancements to improve customers' ability to redeem MileagePlus miles.
• Improved customers' ability to redeem miles by increasing the number of domestic flights with Economy Saver Award availability by 40 percent and expect Saver Award bookings over the summer to continue to increase. 
• Announced dynamically priced Everyday Award chart and new Saver Award chart which will be effective November 1.

Network

• The company announced several route and service enhancements including:
• New international service between Newark/New York and Buenos Aires, Argentina, and between Los Angeles and Singapore, the longest nonstop flight to or from the United States. The company also added a second daily flight between Newark/New York and Bogota, Colombia.
• Additional service and upgauged aircraft between San Francisco and 18 destinations, including Seattle, Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon.
• Increased service to Hawaii on 11 routes, offering customers more flights between the mainland and the Hawaiian Islands than any other carrier.
• Announced improvements to the customer experience at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport by offering customers shorter, more convenient connection times and better access to more destinations through "rebanking" of the hub starting in October.

Operations and Employees

• Employees delivered best completion, on-time departure and arrival performance in company history; as a result, United had fewer cancellations than any major competitor.
• Expanded responsibilities for several executive leaders to better serve customers, lead employees and focus on becoming the world's leading airline.
• Employees earned $28 million in bonuses for operational performance.

About United

United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 4,500 flights a day to 338 airports across five continents. In 2016, United and United Express operated more than 1.6 million flights carrying more than 143 million customers. United is proud to have the world's most comprehensive route network, including U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark/New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. United operates 748 mainline aircraft and the airline's United Express carriers operate 475 regional aircraft. The airline is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to more than 190 countries via 28 member airlines. For more information, visit united.com, follow @United on Twitter or connect on Facebook. The common stock of United's parent, United Continental Holdings, Inc., is traded on the NYSE under the symbol "UAL".

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
Certain statements included in this release are forward-looking and thus reflect our current expectations and beliefs with respect to certain current and future events and anticipated financial and operating performance. Such forward-looking statements are and will be subject to many risks and uncertainties relating to our operations and business environment that may cause actual results to differ materially from any future results expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects," "will," "plans," "anticipates," "indicates," "believes," "forecast," "guidance," "outlook," "goals" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Additionally, forward-looking statements include statements that do not relate solely to historical facts, such as statements which identify uncertainties or trends, discuss the possible future effects of current known trends or uncertainties or which indicate that the future effects of known trends or uncertainties cannot be predicted, guaranteed or assured. All forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to us on the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Our actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements due to numerous factors including, without limitation, the following: our ability to comply with the terms of our various financing arrangements; the costs and availability of financing; our ability to maintain adequate liquidity; our ability to execute our operational plans and revenue-generating initiatives, including optimizing our revenue; our ability to control our costs, including realizing benefits from our resource optimization efforts, cost reduction initiatives and fleet replacement programs; costs associated with any modification or termination of our aircraft orders; our ability to utilize our net operating losses; our ability to attract and retain customers; potential reputational or other impact from adverse events in our operations; demand for transportation in the markets in which we operate; an outbreak of a disease that affects travel demand or travel behavior; demand for travel and the impact that global economic and political conditions have on customer travel patterns; excessive taxation and the inability to offset future taxable income; general economic conditions (including interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates, investment or credit market conditions, crude oil prices, costs of aircraft fuel and energy refining capacity in relevant markets); our ability to cost-effectively hedge against increases in the price of aircraft fuel, if we decide to do so; any potential realized or unrealized gains or losses related to fuel or currency hedging programs; economic and political instability and other risks of doing business globally; the effects of any hostilities, act of war or terrorist attack; the ability of other air carriers with whom we have alliances or partnerships to provide the services contemplated by the respective arrangements with such carriers; the effects of any technology failures or cybersecurity breaches; disruptions to our regional network; the costs and availability of aviation and other insurance; industry consolidation or changes in airline alliances; the success of our investments in airlines in other parts of the world; competitive pressures on pricing and on demand; our capacity decisions and the capacity decisions of our competitors; U.S. or foreign governmental legislation, regulation and other actions (including Open Skies agreements and environmental regulations); the impact of regulatory, investigative and legal proceedings and legal compliance risks; the impact of any management changes; labor costs; our ability to maintain satisfactory labor relations and the results of any collective bargaining agreement process with our union groups; any disruptions to operations due to any potential actions by our labor groups; weather conditions; and other risks and uncertainties set forth under Part I, Item 1A., "Risk Factors," of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, as well as other risks and uncertainties set forth from time to time in the reports we file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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