Airline to make more capacity cuts
United Airlines has announced a $323m net loss for the second quarter of 2009.
The Chicago-based carrier said passenger revenue for the three months to the end of June had fallen 17.2% compared with the same quarter in 2008.
To reduce costs it said it planned to cut 7% from its international capacity for the last four months of 2009.
No details of which routes will be affected were given.
United said its revenue from domestic flights had dropped 26% during the three months, from Pacific routes by 37.7%, from Atlantic services by 22% and from Latin America service by 45%.
It said it was continuing to control costs with non-fuel unit costs per available seat mile (CASM) down by 1.2% year-on-year despite a 10.8% cut in capacity over the last 12 months.
Glenn Tilton, United's chairman and ceo, said: "This is a resilient industry, and we are a resilient company.
"While there is much outside our control - including the state of the economy and the price of oil - we are focused and executing against those things we can control.
"We're running a good airline, with industry-leading cost control and best-in-class operational performance."
Kathryn Mikells, United's senior vp and chief financial officer, said: "We are taking aggressive actions to position United for recovery, including reducing our international capacity by an additional 7% later this year, implementing industry-leading unit cost reductions, and bolstering our liquidity."
United was boosted by a decision last week by the US Department of Transportation to grant anti-trust immunity to Continental Airlines for a transatlantic joint venture with fellow Star Alliance members, among them United and Lufthansa.
United also launched a programme this week to end card transactions by selected agents in the US which is strongly opposed by many in the travel industry.
www.united.com