UAL Q1 2023 Earnings

Call Details

• Call Title: United Airlines Holdings, Inc. Q1 2023 Earnings Call
• Date: 2023-04-20 12:00 PM UTC
• Management Team:
  • Kristina Munoz (Director of Investor Relations)
  • Scott Kirby (Chief Executive Officer)
  • Brett Hart (President)
  • Andrew Nocella (Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer)
  • Jerry Laderman (Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer)
  • Toby Enqvist (Chief Operations Officer)
  • Richard Nunn (CEO of MileagePlus)

Call Summary

Financial Performance

• First-quarter top-line revenues were $11.4B, which finished consistent with updated guidance and represented up 51% versus 2022 on a reported basis.
• TRASM was up 22.5% year-over-year for the quarter on a non-GAAP basis as noted on the call.
• The company reported a pre-tax loss of $256M in Q1, which was in line with expectations and at the better end of updated guidance.
• First-quarter fuel price per gallon was $3.33, which was at the lower end of the revised guidance range and about $0.14 higher than the start-of-quarter expectation.
• First-quarter CASMx came in down 0.1% versus Q1 2022, which was slightly better than revised guidance and attributed to operational reliability.
• Operating cash flow in Q1 exceeded $3.0B, the highest quarterly operating cash flow in company history, and free cash flow was over $1.0B.

Guidance

• Full-year adjusted diluted EPS outlook remains $10 to $12 on a non-GAAP basis, presented as the company’s base case under current demand assumptions.
• Second-quarter total revenue is expected to be up 14% to 16% versus Q2 2022 with capacity up approximately 18.5%.
• Second-quarter CASMx is expected to be flat to up 2% versus Q2 2022, with capacity up approximately 18.5% for the same period.
• Second-quarter diluted EPS is expected to be $3.50 to $4.00 assuming a fuel price of $2.80 to $3.00 per gallon (fuel assumption based on April 12th prices).
• The company expects to keep full-year CASMx approximately flat versus 2022 with non-fuel unit costs in H2 2023 declining versus H2 2022.
• The company expects adjusted net debt to adjusted EBITDA to finish 2023 at less than three times.