United Airlines with a loss – but expects a travel boom in the summer

CHICAGO (dpa-AFX) – The US airline United Airlines started the financial year with deep red figures, but is expecting a strong comeback. In the three months to the end of March, the bottom line was a loss of 1.4 billion dollars (1.3 billion euros), as United announced on Wednesday after the US stock market closed. The minus was thus in the same order of magnitude as a year ago.

Like the entire industry, the airline suffered in the past quarter from the fact that the corona crisis – especially due to the omicron virus variant that was rampant at the beginning of the year – slowed down air traffic. At $7.6 billion, the proceeds were more than twice as high as in the same period last year. However, they were still 21 percent below the comparative value of 2019, i.e. before the pandemic.

However, United expects business to recover strongly towards the summer. Demand is booming so much that in the current quarter not only a return to profitability but even record sales are to be expected. That was well received on Wall Street, and the stock initially rose by more than seven percent in the after-hours trading. In the past month, the course had already risen by twelve percent./hbr/DP/he