United Airlines Reports First-Quarter 2018 Performance

CHICAGO, April 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines (UAL) today announced its first-quarter 2018 financial results. 

• UAL reported first-quarter net income of $147 million, diluted earnings per share of $0.52, pre-tax earnings of $184 million and pre-tax margin of 2.0 percent.
• Excluding special charges and mark-to-market adjustments, UAL reported first-quarter net income of $143 million, diluted earnings per share of $0.50, pre-tax earnings of $179 million and pre-tax margin of 2.0 percent.
• UAL has repurchased $747 million of its common shares year-to-date through April 16, 2018, representing approximately 4 percent of its shares outstanding as of year-end 2017.
• Consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) increased 2.7 percent year-over-year.
• Consolidated total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM) increased 3.4 percent year-over-year.
• Consolidated unit cost per available seat mile (CASM) increased 4.3 percent year-over-year.
• First-quarter consolidated CASM, excluding special charges, third-party business expenses, fuel and profit sharing, increased 0.6 percent year-over-year.
• UAL now expects full-year 2018 diluted earnings per share, excluding special charges and mark-to-market adjustments, to be $7.00 to $8.50¹.

"The exceptional operational performance United's employees delivered over the past quarter is impressive.  Even more so when we consider United achieved the best departure performance among our largest competitors despite four nor'easters and other weather disruptions." said Oscar Munoz, chief executive officer of United Airlines. "With our first-quarter financial results and our increased confidence in the outlook for the remainder of the year, we are tightening our adjusted EPS guidance range for the full year to $7.00 to $8.50. We continue to execute our strategy to strengthen and grow our domestic network, drive asset efficiency and productivity, while also continuing our focus on our customers."

For more information on UAL's second-quarter 2018 guidance, please visit ir.united.com for the company's investor update.

First-Quarter Highlights

Operations and Employees

• Ranked first among our largest competitors in on-time departures and second among the same group in fewest cancelled flights.
• Introduced and began training our team on United's new customer service decision framework, the core4, which focuses on the principles of being safe, caring, dependable and efficient.
• Ranked number one among global carriers in Newsweek's 2017 Global 500 Green Rankings, one of the most recognized environmental performance assessments of the world's largest publicly traded companies.
• Announced new global partnership with the Special Olympics.
• Flew hundreds of Team USA Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2018 athletes – along with coaches and family members – to PyeongChang, South Korea, continuing the 38-year relationship between United and the United States Olympic Committee.

Customer Experience

• Announced United Premium Plus that will provide more space, comfort and amenities on select international flights starting later this year.
• Expanded menu selections for our Snack Shop and Bistro on Board and launched a new menu for customers flying from Canada to the U.S.
• Announced that consumers can now earn and use United MileagePlus award miles at participating BP retail stations.
• Eliminated charges for customers' second checked bag on all routes from North America to China and Hong Kong.

Network and Fleet

• Launched two new international routes from Houston to Sydney and Denver to London.
• Announced new service between six domestic hubs and eight destinations in California, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, Virginia and Wisconsin.
• As part of our joint venture relationship, Air New Zealand announced new nonstop service between Auckland and Chicago beginning this fall.
• Announced year-round service between San Francisco and Auckland beginning April 2019.
• Awarded tentative authority by the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin offering daily nonstop service between Houston and Havana, Cuba.
• Took delivery of six new aircraft: four Boeing 787-9s and two Boeing 777-300ERs.
• Announced newest aircraft type, the Boeing 737 MAX 9, to be introduced in domestic flight schedules starting in June.
• Entered into an agreement to purchase 20 used Airbus A319 aircraft with expected delivery dates scheduled in 2020 and 2021.

Earnings Call

UAL will hold a conference call to discuss first-quarter 2018 financial results on Wednesday, April 18, 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.

About United

United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 4,600 flights a day to 354 airports across five continents. In 2017, United and United Express operated more than 1.6 million flights carrying more than 148 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 750 mainline aircraft and the airline's United Express carriers operate 545 regional aircraft. The airline is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to 191 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".

¹ Excludes special charges and mark-to-market impact of equity investments, the nature of which are not determinable at this time. Accordingly, UAL is not providing earnings guidance on a GAAP basis.

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" 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: 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); economic and political instability and other risks of doing business globally, including 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; competitive pressures on pricing and on demand; demand for transportation in the markets in which we operate; our capacity decisions and the capacity decisions of our competitors; the effects of any hostilities, act of war or terrorist attack; the effects of any technology failures or cybersecurity breaches; the impact of regulatory, investigative and legal proceedings and legal compliance risks; disruptions to our regional network; 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; potential reputational or other impact from adverse events in our operations, the operations of our regional carriers or the operations of our code share partners; our ability to attract and retain customers; 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; the impact of any management changes; 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 any fuel or currency hedging programs; 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; an outbreak of a disease that affects travel demand or travel behavior; U.S. or foreign governmental legislation, regulation and other actions (including Open Skies agreements and environmental regulations); industry consolidation or changes in airline alliances; our ability to comply with the terms of our various financing arrangements; the costs and availability of financing; our ability to maintain adequate liquidity; the costs and availability of aviation and other insurance; weather conditions; our ability to utilize our net operating losses to offset future taxable income; the impact of changes in tax laws; the success of our investments in airlines in other parts of the world; 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, 2017, 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, 2018, United Continental Holdings, Inc. ("UAL") adopted Accounting Standards Update No. 2014-09 (Topic 606), Revenue from Contracts with Customers, and Accounting Standards Update No. 2017-07, Improving the Presentation of Net Periodic Pension Cost and Net Periodic Postretirement Benefit Cost. As such, certain previously reported 2017 figures are adjusted in this report on a basis consistent with the new standards. See the Current Report on Form 8-K filed by UAL with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 1, 2018 for additional information.