United Airlines said it hit fourth quarter financial targets despite Omicron-related challenges.
The carrier said it kicked off 2022 with a reduced schedule but forward bookings for spring travel are strong.
Corporate bookings are another matter. Business traffic is "down substantially," even though it had improved "quite a bit" in the fourth quarter last year.
Andrew Nocella, executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said upcoming corporate travel is "TBD."
"The booking curves are a little bit unreliable from where they will be in two or three or four months from now. We'll have to wait a little bit longer than that."
Scott Kirby, CEO, United Airlines, said: ”The United team has been fighting through unprecedented obstacles to, once again, overcome the new and daunting challenges that Covid-19 is bringing to aviation, and I am grateful to each one of them for their commitment to taking care of our customers.
"While Omicron is impacting near term demand, we remain optimistic about the spring and excited about the summer and beyond. We look forward to beginning to return the Pratt & Whitney 777s to service this quarter and getting the full airline back to normal utilisation — as we ramp up along with demand this year. By investing in innovative technology, focusing on process improvements and implementing a transformative United Next strategy, we're poised to emerge as an aviation leader that's more efficient than before and serves our customers better than ever.”
United flagged the "United Next” plan to retrofit 100 per cent of the mainline, narrow body fleet as a highlight of 2021. The strategy should increase premium seats by about 75 per cent.
Further highlights of the past year included the Eco-Skies Alliance programme helping corporate customers reduce their environmental impact by enabling them to pay the additional cost for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
The carrier also launched 14 new destinations including its return to John F. Kennedy International Airport.
In Q4, United announced a partnership with Virgin Australia Group, which is subject to government approval, for connections to cities in Australia including reciprocal earning and benefits for its MileagePlus loyalty programme.
United reported a 23 per cent in capacity in Q4 compared to the same period in 2019. The airline's adjusted net loss for the quarter was $0.5 billion and $4.5 billion for the full year.
The carrier said it expects capacity for Q1 2022 to be down 16 per cent to 18 per cent versus Q1 2019 levels. Total operating revenue is expected to be down between 20 and 25 per cent compared to Q1 2019.