Investing.com – United Airlines stock (NASDAQ:UAL) traded 2.2% higher in Wednesday’s premarket as the carrier reported a narrower loss with the CEO Scott Kirby (NYSE:KEX) saying “the headwinds we’ve faced are turning to tailwinds”.
According to Reuters, United expects revenue in the current quarter to recover to up to 75% of 2019. The airline’s total operating revenue in the fourth quarter of 2019 was $10.88 billion.
The airline said premium leisure travel is making a comeback and with the most profitable transatlantic route opening up, more planes will fly internationally. Reaching pre-pandemic levels on those routes will take time, though: fourth-quarter capacity is seen down around 23% compared to the same period in 2019.
For comparison, United aims to make 3,500 domestic flights daily in December, representing 91% of its domestic capacity compared to 2019.
Airlines have been the worst hit in the pandemic for some obvious and other not-so-obvious reasons as travel restrictions, testing requirements and their patchy and ad-hoc implementation in various countries have kept passengers away and hurt travel and business plans.
The emergence of the Delta variant in the third quarter made matters worse, slowing an incipient recovery in domestic travel.
Total operating revenue during July-September was $7.75 billion, more than three times a year ago but still 32% off the same quarter in 2019. Nonetheless, it topped estimates. Adjusted loss narrowed to $329 million from $2.37 billion in the September quarter of last year.