United Beats Q3 Expectations
United Airlines’s third quarter earnings report showed better-than-expected results as the carrier posted a net profit of $473 million buoyed by $1.13 in federal payroll assistance. Total revenue for the quarter came in at $7.75 billion, beating the $7.64 billion prediction Wall Street had pegged for the airline.
In the fourth quarter, United expects capacity to be off of 2019’s pace by 23%, with revenue down 25-30% from the $11.38 billion in made in gross profits in the final quarter two years ago.
UA dropped operating expenses nearly one-third, by 32.2% from the third quarter of 2019. Much of the savings came from flying fewer people through its Newark hub, saving on compensation payouts to customers from the traumatic experience of being in Newark. United expects 2022 capacity to be up 5% from 2019, despite the expected drop in capacity and revenue for the final quarter of 2021.
The carrier ended the year with a liquidity position of $21 billion which is a combination of cash, cash equivalents, and furniture stored in a Houston warehouse for its never-opening Polaris lounges.
Delta Grows in NYC, Challenging Northeast Alliance
Delta Air Lines on Tuesday announced more than 100 new daily departures from its two hubs in New York at both New York/LGA and New York/JFK for travel this fall compared to summer 2021.
The added capacity will see about 8,000 new seats on the carrier each day next year, which is in no way surprising since slot waivers at NY airports end November 1 for domestic flights. For Delta, it was use them or lose them. But hey, there’s nothing wrong with Delta making this look like proactive growth, and there is definitely a kernel of truth in here that it is in response to the burgeoning alliance between American and JetBlue in NYC, despite the tie-up between the two being in the crosshairs of a DOJ lawsuit.
Added capacity will be focused on key business markets from NYC including increased frequency to Boston, Washington/National, Raleigh-Durham, and Charlotte. Delta will also deploy its fancy new A220 aircraft on key routes from New York, including Chicago/O’Hare, Dallas/Ft. Worth, and Houston/IAH.
While these routes between major cities are not usually funded via government subsidies, Delta did find a big bag of money in its mail slot at DOJ headquarters in DC with a note that said “To: DL NYC Team, Love DOJ Antitrust Division.” Neither Delta nor anyone from the federal government would comment on the record to Cranky Daily about the payment.
United has its aha! Moment
United Airlines is expected to sell its 49.9% stake in ExpressJet Airlines — the regional carrier that it tossed into the trash heap last year as it ended its regional flying agreement with the carrier — if it can find anyone to buy it.
United acquired ExpressJet from SkyWest in 2018 and used it as a regional carrier operating E145s on its behalf. The relationship continued until 2020 when UA consolidated its E145 operations under CommutAir, effectively ending its relationship with its own subsidiary.
Earlier this year, ExpressJet announced its relaunch as an independent carrier that will begin flying later this week out of its new hub in Reno. The new carrier, named aha!, for reasons that escape all logic, will operate to eight cities when it begins flying on Sunday. All eight destinations are small to medium sized airports which aha! deems as “underserved,” which is a nice way of saying no one really wants to go there.
- Air Congo was unveiled by DRC government as the nation’s second national carrier. Air Congo will operate as a JV with Ethiopian Airlines which will give the new airline seven aircraft as part of a new airline starter kit.
- Air New Zealand received $120 million in subsidies from the government to continue to operate cargo flights.
- AirAsia X has asked its creditors to accept a plan where the carrier pays about 0.5% of its $8.1 billion in outstanding debt which is a hell of a deal if you can get it.
- British Airways led the way with three separate fines for misuse of slots at London/Heathrow airport for the time period between March 29, 2020 and September 30, 2021. Other guilty airlines included Air China, CargoJet, and HiFly. All of the carriers will be required to spend their fine at a Heathrow duty free shop on perfume or booze.
- Chair Airlines plans to sit down and announce the debut of A320 operations later this year.
- easyJet will open its first lounge tomorrow at London/Gatwick. Access is limited to all those hordes flying on long-haul, premium class on easyJet… but also anyone willing to pay an hourly fee at check-in.
- Eurowings plans to add an A320neo in the first half of next year and an A321neo in the first half of 2023.
- JetBlue is scheduling its A220 aircraft to operate on transcon routes from Boston to Portland, Salt Lake City, and San Jose.
- Motu Link Airline has been granted an operating license by the French Polynesian government.
- PLAY time will soon begin in the United States after the DOT granted initial approval to PLAY Airline a foreign air carrier permit to operate in the United States.
- Singapore will resume 3x-weekly service to Houston/IAH via Manchester, UK on December 1.
- Smartwings resumed service between Prague and Dubai today. The carrier will operate the route every other day on a B737 MAX aircraft.
Tequila might not be the answer. But it’s worth a shot.