United Reports November 2017 Operational Performance

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Dec 07, 2017, 15:15 ET

CHICAGO, Dec. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines (UAL) today reported November 2017 operational results.

UAL's November 2017 consolidated traffic (revenue passenger miles) increased 5.1 percent and consolidated capacity (available seat miles) increased 5.1 percent versus November 2016. UAL's November 2017 consolidated load factor was flat compared to November 2016.

For the month of November, UAL had the fewest cancelations of any month in the company's history and set a new record with its best ever on-time arrival rate. Additionally, UAL achieved an all-time company record for on-time departures.

The company now expects fourth-quarter consolidated passenger unit revenue to be down 2.0 percent to flat compared to the fourth quarter of 2016.

About United

United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 4,500 flights a day to 337 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 751 mainline aircraft and the airline's United Express carriers operate 489 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".

		Preliminary Operational Results
		November			Year-to-Date
		2017	2016	Change	2017	2016	Change

REVENUE PASSENGER MILES (000)
	Domestic	10,284,451	9,565,841	7.5%	113,788,397	108,780,065	4.6%
	Mainline	8,414,435	7,705,031	9.2%	93,734,002	87,442,280	7.2%
	Regional	1,870,016	1,860,810	0.5%	20,054,395	21,337,785	(6.0%)
	International	6,736,201	6,623,715	1.7%	84,396,997	83,933,369	0.6%
	Atlantic	2,459,110	2,334,085	5.4%	33,575,589	33,378,022	0.6%
	Pacific	2,651,756	2,738,444	(3.2%)	31,010,551	31,160,166	(0.5%)
	Latin	1,625,335	1,551,186	4.8%	19,810,857	19,395,181	2.1%
	Mainline	1,555,059	1,476,770	5.3%	19,032,647	18,553,408	2.6%
	Regional	70,276	74,416	(5.6%)	778,210	841,773	(7.6%)
	Consolidated	17,020,652	16,189,556	5.1%	198,185,394	192,713,434	2.8%

AVAILABLE SEAT MILES (000)
	Domestic	11,936,101	11,233,503	6.3%	133,372,492	127,384,340	4.7%
	Mainline	9,706,089	9,024,065	7.6%	109,035,519	101,983,163	6.9%
	Regional	2,230,012	2,209,438	0.9%	24,336,973	25,401,177	(4.2%)
	International	8,867,120	8,566,289	3.5%	107,050,550	105,023,588	1.9%
	Atlantic	3,312,838	3,131,075	5.8%	43,954,274	43,910,263	0.1%
	Pacific	3,502,771	3,554,585	(1.5%)	39,171,150	37,916,995	3.3%
	Latin	2,051,511	1,880,629	9.1%	23,925,126	23,196,330	3.1%
	Mainline	1,956,738	1,776,219	10.2%	22,861,773	22,023,596	3.8%
	Regional	94,773	104,410	(9.2%)	1,063,353	1,172,734	(9.3%)
	Consolidated	20,803,221	19,799,792	5.1%	240,423,042	232,407,928	3.4%

PASSENGER LOAD FACTOR
	Domestic	86.2%	85.2%	1.0 pt	85.3%	85.4%	(0.1) pts
	Mainline	86.7%	85.4%	1.3 pts	86.0%	85.7%	0.3 pts
	Regional	83.9%	84.2%	(0.3) pts	82.4%	84.0%	(1.6) pts
	International	76.0%	77.3%	(1.3) pts	78.8%	79.9%	(1.1) pts
	Atlantic	74.2%	74.5%	(0.3) pts	76.4%	76.0%	0.4 pts
	Pacific	75.7%	77.0%	(1.3) pts	79.2%	82.2%	(3.0) pts
	Latin	79.2%	82.5%	(3.3) pts	82.8%	83.6%	(0.8) pts
	Mainline	79.5%	83.1%	(3.6) pts	83.3%	84.2%	(0.9) pts
	Regional	74.2%	71.3%	2.9 pts	73.2%	71.8%	1.4 pts
	Consolidated	81.8%	81.8%	0.0 pts	82.4%	82.9%	(0.5) pts

ONBOARD PASSENGERS (000)
	Mainline	8,788	8,222	6.9%	99,011	92,468	7.1%
	Regional	3,417	3,401	0.5%	36,614	38,794	(5.6%)
	Consolidated	12,205	11,623	5.0%	135,625	131,262	3.3%

CARGO REVENUE TON MILES (000)
	Total	300,195	256,982	16.8%	3,014,572	2,546,641	18.4%

OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE
	Mainline Departure Performance¹	76.5%	68.8%	7.7 pts
	Mainline Completion Factor	99.9%	99.7%	0.2 pts

¹Based on mainline scheduled flights departing by or before scheduled departure time

Note: See Part II, Item 6 Selected Financial Data of the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 for the definition of these statistics

Safe Harbor Statement

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); economic and political instability and other risks of doing business globally; 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; 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.

SOURCE United Airlines