United Reports August 2018 Operational Performance

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Sep 10, 2018, 16:15 ET

CHICAGO, Sept. 10, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines (UAL) today reported August 2018 operational results.

UAL's August 2018 consolidated traffic (revenue passenger miles) increased 7.8 percent and consolidated capacity (available seat miles) increased 5.4 percent versus August 2017. UAL's August 2018 consolidated load factor increased 2.0 points compared to August 2017.

August Highlights

Announced several new international routes including year-round nonstop service between Washington Dulles and Tel Aviv, daily, year-round service between San Francisco and Amsterdam, and nonstop seasonal summer service between Newark/New York and Naples, Italy and Newark/New York and Prague, all subject to government approval.
Finished in the top-tier among largest competitors in on-time departure and completion performance.
As part of a previously announced $8 million commitment, announced a $1 million grant to the San Francisco Immigrant Legal & Education Network.
United's MileagePlus loyalty program awarded Favorite Frequent-Flyer program at the annual Trazee Awards.
Debuted United Corporate Preferred, the industry's newest corporate travel program designed to offer top travel benefits to the airline's most loyal business customers.

About United

United Airlines and United Express operate approximately 4,600 flights a day to 357 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 757 mainline aircraft and the airline's United Express carriers operate 551 regional aircraft. The airline is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides service to 193 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 Nasdaq under the symbol "UAL".

Preliminary Operational Results

		August						Year-to-Date
		2018		2017		Change		2018		2017		Change
REVENUE PASSENGER MILES (000)
	Domestic	12,627,585		11,474,838		10.0	%	88,811,891		82,810,385		7.2	%
	Mainline	10,440,562		9,667,919		8.0	%	72,636,506		68,304,971		6.3	%
	Regional	2,187,023		1,806,919		21.0	%	16,175,385		14,505,414		11.5	%
	International	9,366,097		8,920,114		5.0	%	65,978,504		63,065,426		4.6	%
	Atlantic	4,429,314		4,033,026		9.8	%	27,101,443		24,381,385		11.2	%
	Pacific	3,071,430		3,137,243		(2.1)	%	23,203,686		23,035,961		0.7	%
	Latin	1,865,353		1,749,845		6.6	%	15,673,375		15,648,080		0.2	%
	Mainline	1,785,720		1,685,704		5.9	%	15,052,808		15,060,517		(0.1)	%
	Regional	79,633		64,141		24.2	%	620,567		587,563		5.6	%
	Consolidated	21,993,682		20,394,952		7.8	%	154,790,395		145,875,811		6.1	%

AVAILABLE SEAT MILES (000)
	Domestic	14,433,343		13,443,106		7.4	%	103,008,109		96,757,336		6.5	%
	Mainline	11,847,956		11,217,255		5.6	%	83,638,823		79,119,993		5.7	%
	Regional	2,585,387		2,225,851		16.2	%	19,369,286		17,637,343		9.8	%
	International	10,768,676		10,459,670		3.0	%	80,631,828		79,185,424		1.8	%
	Atlantic	4,978,684		4,801,308		3.7	%	33,244,915		31,928,945		4.1	%
	Pacific	3,587,632		3,628,052		(1.1)	%	28,845,116		28,569,999		1.0	%
	Latin	2,202,360		2,030,310		8.5	%	18,541,797		18,686,480		(0.8)	%
	Mainline	2,099,721		1,954,655		7.4	%	17,724,170		17,884,020		(0.9)	%
	Regional	102,639		75,655		35.7	%	817,627		802,460		1.9	%
	Consolidated	25,202,019		23,902,776		5.4	%	183,639,937		175,942,760		4.4	%

PASSENGER LOAD FACTOR
	Domestic	87.5	%	85.4	%	2.1 pts		86.2	%	85.6	%	0.6 pts
	Mainline	88.1	%	86.2	%	1.9 pts		86.8	%	86.3	%	0.5 pts
	Regional	84.6	%	81.2	%	3.4 pts		83.5	%	82.2	%	1.3 pts
	International	87.0	%	85.3	%	1.7 pts		81.8	%	79.6	%	2.2 pts
	Atlantic	89.0	%	84.0	%	5.0 pts		81.5	%	76.4	%	5.1 pts
	Pacific	85.6	%	86.5	%	(0.9) pts		80.4	%	80.6	%	(0.2) pts
	Latin	84.7	%	86.2	%	(1.5) pts		84.5	%	83.7	%	0.8 pts
	Mainline	85.0	%	86.2	%	(1.2) pts		84.9	%	84.2	%	0.7 pts
	Regional	77.6	%	84.8	%	(7.2) pts		75.9	%	73.2	%	2.7 pts
	Consolidated	87.3	%	85.3	%	2.0 pts		84.3	%	82.9	%	1.4 pts

ONBOARD PASSENGERS (000)
	Mainline	10,821		10,071		7.4	%	76,321		72,630		5.1	%
	Regional	4,002		3,386		18.2	%	29,475		26,371		11.8	%
	Consolidated	14,823		13,457		10.2	%	105,796		99,001		6.9	%

CARGO REVENUE TON MILES (000)
	Total	279,627		270,465		3.4	%	2,245,419		2,124,940		5.7	%

OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE
	Mainline Departure Performance¹	59.9	%	63.0	%	(3.1) pts
	Mainline Completion Factor	98.8	%	95.9	%	2.9 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 fiscal year ended December 31, 2017 for the definitions 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," "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.

SOURCE United Airlines