Best Q1 in the last 5 years. Off the chart financial performance. United stopped short of pulling its full-year forecast Tuesday — leaving in place expectations issued in January for adjusted earnings per share of $11.50 to $13.50 — but said in a recession it will earn between $7 per share and $9 per share on an adjusted basis.

Domestic leisure is the worst performing. The LCCs will likely all lose money in 2025.

So we will make $4B this year if no recession and only $2.5B if a recession.

Capacity up 4.9% compared to first-quarter 2024.
Total operating revenue of $13.2 billion, up 5.4% compared to first-quarter 2024.
TRASM up 0.5% compared to first-quarter 2024.
CASM down 3.4%, and CASM-ex1 up 0.3%, compared to first-quarter 2024.
Pre-tax earnings of $0.5 billion, with a pre-tax margin of 3.6%; adjusted pre-tax earnings1 of $0.4 billion, with an adjusted pre-tax margin of 3.0%.
Net income of $0.4 billion; adjusted net income of $0.3 billion.
Diluted earnings per share of $1.16; adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.91.
Average fuel price per gallon of $2.53.
Generated $3.7 billion of operating cash flow.
Generated $2.3 billion of free cash flow.
Ending available liquidity of $18.3 billion.
Total debt, finance lease obligations and other financial liabilities of $27.7 billion at quarter end.
Net leverage of 2.0x.
Year-to-date repurchased approximately $451 million of shares.

 

Only reason it was better then last year was because of the max write off which boeing pays in other ways.

Cutting capacity, aka hiring, 3rd quarter.

 

just shows you how the top 10% own 90% of the wealth while the rest of the country suffers.

in a recession pre covid the numbers would have been opposite. The younger generation is completely screwed by the transfer of wealth that happened during covid…

how does a 7,000 dollar Polaris seat sell better in a “recession” then a basic economy ticket? It’s kind of insane to think about.

 

Maybe. Taking delivery of 70+ more jets this year and only parking 21. Will be easy to add back capacity at a moments notice if a recession doesn't happen.

 

Where did you see that in the earnings release?

 

-Capacity cut of 4% beginning in Q3.
-21 aircraft to be retired earlier than planned
-Ongoing reductions in off-peak flying on lower demand days

I wonder which 21 aircraft will be retired early? I think the 767-300’s will be out fairly soon.

 

A320s. 767s aren't going anywhere soon until and unless the 787 line gets rolling or international/premium demand tanks.

https://sites.google.com/site/united...fleet-tracking

 

8k says it's only the older airbuses. Says 20 less planes than today and bringing on 22 321N by the end of the year too. So basically sounds like little to no movement in the airbus fleets overall but if I had to guess it's putting more of them in IAH, DEN, ORD as they have been since they entered the fleet.

 

Well, there it is. United is more profitable than Delta for the first quarter of 2025. Adjusted Net Income of $302 million vs $288 million. Still expecting earnings for the remainder of 2025 to hold strong. Very impressive results.

 

We’ll see how many of those planes they are going to take if they have to pay tariffs on them.

Delta already said they’d delay Airbus orders instead of paying an extra x% on them.
Boeing imports a ton of parts and materials for their planes too, but they probably don’t have the leverage to do anything but eat the cost themselves.

I’m sure Kirby will be asked about it tomorrow.