Wednesday, April 23, 2008

UAL POSTS HUGE Q1 LOSS

The parent company of United Airlines posted a loss of $537 million for the first quarter citing a 51% increase in fuel costs as a major reason for the loss.

From The New York Times:

United, based in Chicago, plans to reduce employment by 1,100 by the end of the year, as airlines begin a new round of layoffs. United increased the number of planes it plans to shed to 30, from an earlier estimate of 15 to 20, in hopes of constraining capacity and driving fares up further.

At United, first-quarter fares rose more than 11 percent over the year-ago period, as the carrier reduced domestic capacity by about 6 percent. That sent revenue up 7.7 percent to $4.71 billion for the quarter.

But a $534 million increase in fuel costs, to $1.58 billion for the quarter, led to a loss. The company has $2.9 billion of unrestricted cash and short-term investments, a slimmer cushion than the $3.6 billion it held Dec. 31, 2007.

Of the planned employee cuts, 500 would be managers and 600 union-represented workers, Glenn Tilton, United’s chief executive, said in a recorded message to his workers. “In this extraordinary environment, we recognize the pace of change needs to accelerate,” he said.

United hopes to merge with another airline — Continental Airlines and US Airways are leading candidates — in order to compete against the proposed combination of Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines. Tuesday, in his message to workers, Mr. Tilton called industry consolidation “one of the changes required to address the gap between where we stand today and profitability and sustainability.”

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