United Airlines Raises Full Year 2019 Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share Guidance

CHICAGO, Oct. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines (UAL) today announced that it has achieved third quarter diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $3.99 and adjusted diluted EPS² of $4.07, and raised its full year 2019 adjusted diluted EPS¹ guidance, with a new range of $11.25 to $12.25.

"Thanks to the outstanding efforts of our employees, United extended our streak of expanding pre-tax margin on a quarterly basis. It provides us further confidence to raise our full year 2019 adjusted diluted EPS guidance, putting us ahead of pace to achieve our goal of $11 to $13 in adjusted diluted EPS by the end of 2020," said Oscar Munoz, CEO of United Airlines. "While headwinds affected the sector as a whole this quarter, United's team once again demonstrated a robust ability to overcome adverse cost pressure, managing to continue growing our network while investing in winning our customers' loyalty through smart enhancements to the United experience."

• Reported third quarter net income of $1.0 billion, diluted earnings per share of $3.99, pre-tax earnings of $1.3 billion and pre-tax margin of 11.9 percent, expanding pre-tax margin 2.3 points versus the third quarter of 2018.
• Reported third quarter adjusted net income of $1.0 billion, adjusted diluted EPS of $4.07, adjusted pre-tax earnings of $1.4 billion and adjusted pre-tax margin of 12.1 percent, expanding adjusted pre-tax margin 2.5 points versus the third quarter of 2018.²
• Consolidated third quarter passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) increased 1.7 percent year-over-year.
• Consolidated third quarter unit cost per available seat mile (CASM) decreased 0.9 percent year-over-year.
• Consolidated third quarter CASM, excluding special charges, third party business expenses, fuel and profit sharing, increased 2.1 percent year-over-year.
• Repurchased $363 million of its common shares in the third quarter of 2019 at an average purchase price of $88.22 per share.
• Raised $1.2 billion in Enhanced Equipment Trust Certificates at a record low blended interest rate of 2.8% in connection with the financing of certain aircraft.

For more information on UAL's fourth quarter and full year 2019 guidance, please visit ir.united.com for the company's investor update.

Third Quarter 2019 Highlights
Customer Experience

• Announced MileagePlus award miles never expire, giving members a lifetime to use miles on flights, experiences, hotels and more.
• Announced partnership with CLEAR which includes a free or discounted CLEAR membership for U.S. based MileagePlus members.
• MileagePlus members between the ages of 18 to 22 receive a 10% discount on domestic flights when booked through the United mobile app by Dec. 31, 2019.
• Announced improvements to United PassPlus, the airline's prepaid program that offers discounts, fixed fares and amenities to both individual and corporate customers.
• Customers are now provided three inflight snack options on domestic flights regardless of departure time, including the Stroopwafel.
• Customers can now pre pay for bags as soon as their ticket is issued. Previously customers had to wait until check-in to pay for their bags.
• MileagePlus loyalty program was awarded Favorite Frequent-Flyer Program for the fourth time by Trazee Awards and the United Explorer Card from Chase was awarded Favorite Credit Card for the second consecutive year.

Operations

• Achieved No. 1 in on-time departures in all hubs where United faces large hub competitors: Denver, Chicago and Los Angeles.
• Completed introduction of ConnectionSaver to all of seven domestic hubs, saving over 35,000 connections in the quarter.

Employees

• Honored with being recognized by search site indeed.com as a "Top 50 Workplace" for 2019.
• Recognized for fourth consecutive year as a top-scoring company and best place to work for disability and inclusion with a perfect score of 100% on the 2019 Disability Equality Index.
• Expects to hire about 8,000 people by the end of 2019.

Network

• Announced 12 new and expanded international routes from Chicago, Denver, New York/Newark and San Francisco including Nice, France; Palermo, Italy; and Curacao.
• Announced nonstop service to Tokyo Haneda with routes from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York/Newark and Washington, D.C., beginning March 28, 2020.
• Resumed daily nonstop service between New York/Newark and Delhi and Mumbai on September 6.

Fleet

• Launched Boeing 767-300ER ultra-premium United Polaris business class configuration on all flights between New York/Newark and London-Heathrow starting Sept. 15, 2019.
• Took delivery of six used Airbus A319 aircraft and nine new Embraer E175 aircraft.

Community

• Launched Crowdrise fundraising campaign for those affected by Hurricane Dorian.
• Operated a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crewed exclusively by women to the largest airshow in the world, EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, to symbolize the airline's commitment to supporting women in aviation.

Investor Day

On March 5, 2020 United will host an investor event in New York. More details will be provided at a later date.

Earnings Call

UAL will hold a conference call to discuss its third-quarter 2019 financial results and its financial and operational outlook for fourth-quarter and full-year 2019 on Wednesday, October 16, 2019, at 9:30 a.m. Central time /10:30 a.m. Eastern time. A live, listen-only webcast of the conference call will be available at ir.united.com. The webcast will be available for replay within 24 hours of the conference call and then archived on the website for three months.

Every customer. Every flight. Every day.

In 2019, United is focusing more than ever on its commitment to its customers, looking at every aspect of its business to ensure that the carrier keeps customers' best interests at the heart of its service. In addition to today's announcement, this year United:

• Announced that MileagePlus award miles will never expire
• Gave Economy customers a choice of complimentary snacks on domestic flights
• Made DIRECTV free for every customer on more than 200 aircraft
• Released a new version of the award-winning, most downloaded app in the airline industry
• Launched a new tool called ConnectionSaver, dedicated to improving the experience for customers with connecting flights
• Partnered with CLEAR on free or discounted memberships for MileagePlus members
• Announced PlusPoints, new upgrade benefits for MileagePlus Premier members
• And introduced products in its amenity kits made exclusively for the airline by luxury skincare line Sunday Riley

About United

United's shared purpose is "Connecting People. Uniting the World." We are more focused than ever on our commitment to customers through a series of innovations and improvements designed to help build a great experience: Every customer. Every flight. Every day. Together, United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 4,900 flights a day to 358 airports across five continents. In 2018, United and United Express operated more than 1.7 million flights carrying more than 158 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, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. United operates 788 mainline aircraft and the airline's United Express carriers operate 560 regional aircraft. United is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to 195 countries via 26 member airlines. For more information, visit united.com, follow @United on Twitter and Instagram or connect on Facebook. The common stock of United's parent, United Airlines Holdings, Inc., is traded on the Nasdaq 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," "estimates," "forecast," "guidance," "outlook," "goals," "targets" 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 execute our strategic operating plan, including our growth, revenue-generating and cost-control initiatives; 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); risks of doing business globally, including instability and political developments that may impact our operations in certain countries; demand for travel and the impact that global economic and political conditions have on customer travel patterns; our capacity decisions and the capacity decisions of our competitors; competitive pressures on pricing and on demand; changes in aircraft fuel prices; disruptions in our supply of aircraft fuel; our ability to cost-effectively hedge against increases in the price of aircraft fuel, if we decide to do so; the effects of any technology failures or cybersecurity breaches; disruptions to services provided by third-party service providers; potential reputational or other impact from adverse events involving our aircraft or operations, the aircraft or operations of our regional carriers or our code share partners or the aircraft or operations of another airline; our ability to attract and retain customers; the effects of any terrorist attacks, international hostilities or other security events, or the fear of such events; the mandatory grounding of aircraft in our fleet; disruptions to our regional network; the impact of regulatory, investigative and legal proceedings and legal compliance risks; the success of our investments in other airlines, including in other parts of the world; industry consolidation or changes in airline alliances; 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; costs associated with any modification or termination of our aircraft orders; disruptions in the availability of aircraft, parts or support from our suppliers; 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; labor costs; an outbreak of a disease that affects travel demand or travel behavior; the impact of any management changes; extended interruptions or disruptions in service at major airports where we operate; U.S. or foreign governmental legislation, regulation and other actions (including Open Skies agreements, environmental regulations and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union); the seasonality of the airline industry; weather conditions; the costs and availability of aviation and other insurance; the costs and availability of financing; our ability to maintain adequate liquidity; our ability to comply with the terms of our various financing arrangements; our ability to realize the full value of our intangible assets and long-lived assets; 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, 2018, our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2019, 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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On January 1, 2019, United Airlines Holdings, Inc. ("UAL") adopted Accounting Standards Update No. 2016-02, Leases ("Topic 842"). As such, certain previously reported 2018 figures are adjusted in this report on a basis consistent with Topic 842.