United Airlines (UAL) Stock Gains Smaller Q3 Loss; Longer-Term Targets Still on Track
United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL) stock gained 2% after-hours Tuesday after the reported its Q3 results, with EPS coming in at ($1.02), better than the consensus estimate of ($1.29). The company delivered quarterly revenue of $7.8 billion, slightly below the consensus estimate of $7.85 billion, with quarterly capacity decreasing 28% year-over-year.
The company provided its Q4 outlook, expecting total revenue to be down 25%-30% year-over-year, and capacity to be down around 23%.
Despite COVID-19 Delta variant impact on Q3, the company remains on track to achieve the range of longer-term financial targets provided as part of its United Next plan, and to reduce CASM-ex1 below 2019 levels next year.
The company announced plans to increase international capacity by 10% in 2022 (keeping domestic capacity flat to 2019), due to the recovery in premium leisure travel, re-opening of European borders in November, continued rebound of business travel, and early signals of loosening travel restrictions in key Pacific markets.
