UAL Q3 2021 Earnings

Call Details

• Call Title: United Airlines Holdings, Inc. Q3 2021 Earnings Call
• Date: October 20, 2021 at 2:30 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)

Call Summary

Financial Performance

• United reported pre-tax income of around $600M for Q3 2021 and an adjusted pre-tax loss of around $500M for the quarter.
• Total revenues for Q3 2021 were down 32% versus 2019, while TRASM for the quarter finished down 5% versus 2019.
• Third-quarter CASMx was reported as up 15% versus prior guidance and better than company expectations for the quarter.
• Total cargo revenue in Q3 2021 was up 84% versus 2019 and represented a record third quarter for United Cargo.
• Jerry stated adjusted CAPEX for 2021 is expected to be around $3B after delivery timing changes were pushed into 2022.
• The company disclosed a $375M voluntary pension contribution in Q3 2021 as part of capital deployment activity.

Guidance

• United now expects total revenue in 4Q21 to be down 25% to 30% versus 4Q 2019, with November and December at the top end of the range.
• The company expects capacity in 4Q21 to be down about 23% versus 2019, with domestic capacity down about 13% and international capacity down about 35%.
• By December 2021 the company expects domestic capacity to be down only about 9% as it prepares for the holiday season.
• United currently expects 2022 capacity to be up approximately 5% versus 2019, driven by international capacity expected to be up about 10% versus 2019.
• The company expects most grounded narrow-body jets to return to service by June 2022 and expects the fleet of 52 Pratt & Whitney 777s to return in the first half of 2022.
• Longer-term CASMx targets remain unchanged with an expected CASMx down approximately 4% in 2023 and down approximately 8% in 2026 versus 2019.