CHICAGO-
* Full-year diluted earnings per share of
* Fourth quarter diluted earnings per share of
* Delivered best quarterly on-time arrival performance in company history2
*
United's diversified revenue strategy proved, once again, to be a critical, differentiated, competitive advantage. United's premium cabin saw an increase in revenue of 16% for the quarter year-over-year, while its Basic Economy offering again saw a substantial revenue increase of 20% for the quarter year-over-year.
United also benefited from cost convergence across the industry. This cost convergence resulted in a stronger relationship between United's unit costs and unit revenue performance. Combined with durable demand for travel and an increasing preference for United's reliable operational performance and premium offerings, the company delivered on its initial full year 2023 earnings per share guidance despite a wide range of headwinds.
'Our plans really came together in 2023, and I want to thank the United team for all of the hard work it took to get us there,' said
Fourth-Quarter Financial Results
Capacity up 14.7% compared to fourth-quarter 2022.
Total operating revenue of
TRASM4 down 4.2% compared to fourth-quarter 2022.
CASM4 down 0.1%, and CASM-ex1,4 up 4.9%, compared to fourth-quarter 2022.
Pre-tax income of
Net income of
Diluted earnings per share of
Average fuel price per gallon of
Full-Year Financial Results
Net income of
Pre-tax income of
Diluted earnings per share of
Ending available liquidity3 of
Total debt and finance lease obligations of
Adjusted net debt1 to adjusted EBITDAR1 of 2.9x, consistent with the guidance provided at the start of the year.
Key Highlights
Announced orders for 110 more aircraft for delivery beginning in 2028 - another significant milestone in the company's United Next growth strategy.
Took delivery and flew the first revenue flight of the airline's first A321neo. The new aircraft is achieving the highest customer survey results in the entire fleet.
United pilots represented by the
Accrued
Opened five new
Announced significant updates to
Celebrated the graduation of
Launched the
Opened an expanded and newly renovated global
Customer Experience
The United mobile app was named the Best Airline App by
Became the first airline to launch Live Activities for iPhone, giving customers real-time access to their boarding pass, gate and seat number, and countdown clock to departure time, hosting 65 million sessions in 2023.
In the fourth quarter, United announced the largest overhaul since 2016 of United Polaris - the airline's international business class - debuting new in-airport and onboard amenities from Therabody and
United launched WILMA in the fourth quarter, a new boarding process that enables a smoother and faster boarding process.
Best fourth quarter CSAT in the company's history.2
United was recognized in Forbes' first-ever best customer service list in the fourth quarter, which honored top brands for excelling in high-quality service.
Throughout the year, saved 713,000 customer connections through Connection Saver, ensuring more customers made their flights.
Became the first
Customers who were extremely likely to recommend United to family and friends increased by 4% year over year.
Two thirds of United's travelers in 2023 used the mobile app to manage their day-of travel, from re-booking options, bag tracking information and hotel vouchers when eligible.
Operations
During the last two weeks of December, United operated its busiest travel period in history, flying 8.2 million customers - an average of 483,000 each day.
In the fourth quarter, the airline achieved its best-ever on-time performance2 for express and consolidated flying, and second-best quarter for mainline flying.
The fourth quarter set the record for the lowest quarterly misconnect rate.2
United carried the largest number of passengers ever in a year at 165 million, and achieved the highest seat factor ever for the year at 86.4%.
Network
In the fourth quarter, United announced the largest international winter schedule expansion in the airline's history, with the addition of 50 daily flights and new routes between
United announced its largest-ever international summer 2024 schedule in the fourth quarter, including the first and only non-stop flight between
Re-introduced daily service to
Operated the largest-ever fourth quarter schedule by available seat miles from
Became the world's largest airline by available seat miles for the full year of 2023.
Flew the largest domestic schedule in company history (by available seat miles, excluding
Flew the largest international schedule among
Launched three new international destinations including
For the full fiscal year, United had the greatest increase in-seat capacity year over year compared to the four other largest
Communities
United hosted Fantasy Flight events across 12 stations in the fourth quarter, where 770 employees volunteered to provide a unique event for children across the world, including Hawaiian residents impacted by wildfires, those terminally ill, or those suffering from serious medical conditions.
United, alongside MileagePlus members, donated more than 106 million miles to non-profit charities across the globe in 2023 via the Miles on a Mission? program.
Welcomed nine new corporate participants to its
United collaborated with
In 2023, United received SAF-blended fuel deliveries at
In 2023, approximately 5,600 employees volunteered over 59,000 hours at nonprofits organizations in communities around the world.
During the year, United transported nearly 313 million pounds of cargo, including approximately 9.6 million pounds of medical shipments and 264,000 pounds of military shipments.
Earnings Call
UAL will hold a conference call to discuss fourth quarter and full-year 2023 financial results, as well as its financial and operational outlook for first-quarter 2024 and beyond, on
Outlook
This press release should be read in conjunction with the company's Investor Update issued in connection with this quarterly earnings announcement, which provides additional information on the company's business outlook (including certain financial and operational guidance) and is furnished with this press release to the
The company's business outlook is subject to risks and uncertainties applicable to all forward-looking statements as described elsewhere in this press release. Please see the section entitled 'Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements.'
About United
At United, Good Leads The Way. With
Website Information
We routinely post important news and information regarding United on our corporate website, www.united.com, and our investor relations website, ir.united.com. We use our investor relations website as a primary channel for disclosing key information to our investors, including the timing of future investor conferences and earnings calls, press releases and other information about financial performance, reports filed or furnished with the
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release and the related attachments and Investor Update (as well as the oral statements made with respect to information contained in this release and the attachments) contain certain 'forward-looking statements,' within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, relating to, among other things, goals, plans and projections regarding the company's financial position, results of operations, market position, capacity, fleet, announced routes (which may be subject to government approval), product development, ESG-related strategy initiatives and business strategy. Such forward-looking statements are based on historical performance and current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about the company's future financial results, goals, plans, commitments, strategies and objectives and involve inherent risks, assumptions and uncertainties, known or unknown, including internal or external factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, that are difficult to predict, may be beyond the company's control and could cause the company's future financial results, goals, plans, commitments, strategies and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, the statements. Words such as 'should,' 'could,' 'would,' 'will,' 'may,' 'expects,' 'plans,' 'intends,' 'anticipates,' 'indicates,' 'remains,' 'believes,' 'estimates,' 'projects,' 'forecast,' 'guidance,' 'outlook,' 'goals,' 'targets,' 'pledge,' 'confident,' 'optimistic,' 'dedicated,' 'positioned,' 'on track' and other words and terms of similar meaning and expression are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such terms. All statements, other than those that relate solely to historical facts, are forward-looking statements.
Additionally, forward-looking statements include conditional statements and statements that identify uncertainties or trends, discuss the possible future effects of known trends or uncertainties, or that indicate that the future effects of known trends or uncertainties cannot be predicted, guaranteed or assured. All forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to us on the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except as required by applicable law or regulation.
Our actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking statements due to numerous factors including, without limitation, the following: execution risks associated with our strategic operating plan; changes in our network strategy or other factors outside our control resulting in less economic aircraft orders, costs related to modification or termination of aircraft orders or entry into aircraft orders on less favorable terms, as well as any inability to accept or integrate new aircraft into our fleet as planned, including as a result of any mandatory groundings of aircraft; any failure to effectively manage, and receive anticipated benefits and returns from, acquisitions, divestitures, investments, joint ventures and other portfolio actions, or related exposures to unknown liabilities or other issues or underperformance as compared to our expectations; adverse publicity, harm to our brand, reduced travel demand, potential tort liability and operational restrictions as a result of an accident, catastrophe or incident involving us, our regional carriers, our codeshare partners or another airline; the highly competitive nature of the global airline industry and susceptibility of the industry to price discounting and changes in capacity, including as a result of alliances, joint business arrangements or other consolidations; our reliance on a limited number of suppliers to source a majority of our aircraft, engines and certain parts, and the impact of any failure to obtain timely deliveries, additional equipment or support from any of these suppliers; disruptions to our regional network and
Non-GAAP Financial Information:
In discussing financial results and guidance, the company refers to financial measures that are not in accordance with
Because the non-GAAP financial measures are not calculated in accordance with GAAP, they should not be considered superior to and are not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the related GAAP financial measures presented in the press release and may not be the same as or comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies due to possible differences in method and in the items being adjusted. We encourage investors to review our financial statements and publicly-filed reports in their entirety and not to rely on any single financial measure.
Please refer to the tables accompanying this release for a description of the non-GAAP adjustments and reconciliations of the historical non-GAAP financial measures used to the most comparable GAAP financial measure and related disclosures.
STATEMENTS OF CONSOLIDATED OPERATIONS (UNAUDITED): See full release at:
https://www.united.com/en/aw/newsroom/announcements/cision-125313
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