(New York) US carrier United Airlines continued to lose money in 2021 and expects the Omicron variant to delay recovery, but is optimistic for the future as spring and summer bookings remain strong.
Posted at 6:38 p.m.
United posted a net loss of $646 million in the fourth quarter, and $1.96 billion for the full year. This is an improvement compared to 2020, when COVID-19 had caused air traffic to fall: the company had then lost 7.07 billion.
Travel has been resuming little by little, with still a few air pockets linked to the Delta variants at the end of the summer or Omicron at the very end of the year.
United’s revenue is still down 43% from 2019 for the full year, at $24.63 billion. But it’s down just 25% in the fourth quarter, to $8.19 billion.
Reported per share and excluding exceptional items, the benchmark on Wall Street, the loss is less significant than expected by analysts.
Looking ahead, “despite short-term volatility, bookings for spring travel and beyond remain strong,” United said in a statement.
The flight schedule at the start of the year has been reduced somewhat to reflect Omicron’s impact on demand. And United are going to increase their capacity a little slower than expected.
The company is maintaining some financial targets for 2023 and 2026, but has revised others downward for 2022.
United expects to offer less capacity this year than in 2019, while it still hoped in October to have capacity up 5%.
The company also expects the cost per available seat kilometer to be higher in 2022 than in 2019, when it was expected to fall.
The group’s share fell 2% in electronic trading following the close of Wall Street.