A couple of weeks ago, Delta reported its financial results for 2024, and forecasted that 2025 would be the company’s best year in history. Well, now United has revealed its results for 2024, and has issued a similar forecast. It’s interesting to look at some of the details of the carrier’s performance.
Continue reading: United Airlines Expects 2025 To Be Most Profitable Year Ever
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
It'll be exciting to see how generous the profit-sharing will surely be for their frontline staff, like agents, flight attendants, etc.!!!!!! United Rising!!!!!
j/k(?)
Nope apparently the flight attendants received 5% profit sharing while the company is it getting record profits. How embarrassing
Stating these are the best of times, that they don't make money on flying passengers, and that you would need amnesia to invest long term, while also saying United should invest long term in their FAs is wild.
@ Sel, D. -- American flight attendants got pay raises, despite American's margins being much worse. Delta's flight attendants are paid much better. Do you think United shouldn't be willing to negotiate a new contract for flight attendants, despite pilots getting massively lucrative new contracts? Do you think that will help make United the best airline in the history of aviation?
it's almost like AFA negotiated what they currently have... how embarrassing for AFA...
I would like to see United’s earnings adjusted (hypothetically) for the additional labor costs it will incur when they finally settle with the AFA. Therein continues to be the ‘apples to oranges’ when people compare Delta’s earnings to United’s with Delta F/As already getting paid on the ground and in the air with superior pay schedules. Time will tell. Any prognosticators out there who’d like to take a stab at what the ‘adjusted income’ post-settlement might look like? Where is Tim Dunn?
first, AA and UA should be making as much as DL; AA and UA both fly more ASMs than DL.
Scott Kirby gets a huge amount of credit for addressing the revenue shortfalls that caused UA to underperform DL.
UA is doing very well on passenger revenue; AA has yet to fix its problems.
that said, costs are very different. UA is not playing in the same league as DL or AA in terms of costs. It is important to note that UA has the most open labor contracts among the big 4 which means its labor costs are most likely to increase. Even in profit sharing, DL will pay out twice as much profit sharing as UA will. The difference in labor costs between DL and UA is very likely $1 billion/year plus one-time settlement costs for UA that will exceed $500 million. $1 billion difference in labor costs is not insignificant.
In terms of irregular items that impacted the bottom line, DL’s CrowdStrike event was the most costly in the industry far more than what the MAX 9 grounding cost UAL or ALK.
In terms of fleet and revenue growth, UA is not getting aircraft at anywhere near the rate they expected and also need to retire aircraft which they are doing - as I said they would; according to UA’s latest fleet plan, they are retiring at least 25 A320CEO aircraft according to their latest fleet plan. They expect to receive less than 10 787s and are not planning to retire any widebodies. AA will possibly receive more new 787s in 2025 than UA but less narrowbodies. UA’s total fleet will grow by about 60 aircraft in 2025 with AA and DL adding 15-20. DL is receiving more widebodies than either AA or UA but is using a fairly significant percentage of its new deliveries to retire 767s and is using its Airbus narrowbodies to retire 757s and A320s.
AA and DL simply have younger and more efficient aircraft and that advantage will grow relative to UA.
UA's stock price puts it in line with its earnings with DL; their net profits pretty closely are aligned to their market cap relative to DL.
Consequently, UA stock is not expected to grow as fast as DL's in 2025 which is also expecting a record 2025.
DL and UA are clearly leading the industry but there is no realistic models that show that UA will overtake DL in terms of overall net profitability and a good reason is because of the DL/Amex relationship which AA is now going to replicate to a degree with Citi. UA is years from getting a lucrative credit card contract.
btw, DL has loaded schedules to TLV again. UA?
It’s almost like United can come to an agreement any time they want and give their flight attendants a contract.
How shtty of United
United execs said in their earnings call today that they expect significant headwinds on their costs when they settle with all of their labor groups. Delta paid those costs quite some time ago. American is catching up. Southwest also is now paying those costs even without the revenue bump that they need
What he means by that is if the situation in Israel stabilizes, or if Russian airspace were to reopen, United would likely benefit from that more than other US airlines. Meanwhile if we see less international trade (like if we see widespread tariffs), that could be bad for international demand. Only time will tell how this plays out.
Hope that helps.
it depends on who has the airplanes to grow. If United is fully utilizing their international fleet and cannot add new routes other than what they get in Boeing deliveries, other carriers that are receiving more airplanes might benefit more. United might cut some existing routes and add new routes, but it is far from clear that United would be the biggest winner if airspace restrictions change
new presidency allowing more drilling may lower/stabilize gas prices which can lead to better performance of airlines.
Uncle Sam should claw-back a portion of the record profits. Over three years after the U.S. government (taxpayers) rescued the country’s airlines, the bill is this: $62 billion spent, $19 billion repaid or expected to be, a few billion in savings elsewhere, and $1.4 billion in airline stock that remains underwater, according to a Semafor analysis of federal data.
The country would also basically collapse without the airline industry. So much of the country's economy depends on it.
A comparison could also be made for the time UA renegotiates its credit card revenue agreement with Chase. As the last of the US3 to renew this contract with the credit card partner, US is making billions of dollars less revenue than DL.
This will be a major tailwind for UA when the new contract comes up in a couple of years.
The contact was discussed on one of the calls today. There is optimism that the new AFA negotiating team, replacing the fired one, will actually be willing to negotiate.
That bodes well for the flight attendants who have been waiting so long for a new contract.
How on earth do they expect to achieve record profits for this year with significant cost headwinds?? It just doesn't mathematically add up.
And based on their abysmal catering I'm not sure what else they have room to cut in their operational spend...
It's a bit frustrating to see results like this knowing they continue to drag their feet on the FA contract and can't possibly be bothered to provide food fit for human consumption...
I'd still fly UA over American any day but unless they're able to maintain material continued growth in revenue I don't see how they achieve the profit results they're advertising.
Fire your union if they can’t get an agreement and left the last contract with well below industry standard profit sharing.
How embarrassing for AFA that they spent all their time and money getting APFA a contract at AA but forgetting about their own paying membership
Call a spade a spade, AFA screwed their own members, not United.
Somehow getting a different union membership a new contract to AFA than their own AFA contract.
In case you missed it, during the last year, AFA leadership was at the table and negotiating for AA employees, not AFA. Their entire AFA leadership team let United FAs sit and do nothing and now AFA has realized they screwed up with the NMB and yet some have the gall to say it’s United’s fault lol
Tough for United to negotiate with AFA decision makers when they’re all off working for non AFA members for a year
I think it’s interesting that United and Delta don’t seem concerned about events outside of their control. There are many unknowns about the effects of Trump’s domestic and international policies and how they might affect demand for international travel. Both airlines have a large footprint in Los Angeles and it’s unclear how much domestic and international travel will be affected but it will be years before LA returns to “normal “.
In an ironic way it gives me hope about the future when I hear United and Delta talk about their projected record profits, I hope they are right.
Given we are about to enter another maga economy I agree United will see massive profits.
The “MAGA economy” was basically the same as the Obama and Biden economies. Don’t delude yourself into thinking Trump is some kind of wizard, unless you are talking about a “grand” wizard.
It’s clear you’re likely a Thumper and anti-union so I’ll keep this short and sweet
In case you missed it’s been United demanding the non stop concessions meanwhile making record profits. United had no intentions of reaching a deal with the AFA in 2024 or earlier and that’s clear. If United had wanted to they would have made the effort…it’s really that simple.
Unions can only do so much with the Railway Labor Act in case you’re clueless. It took American and Southwest over five years to come to an agreement. It’s looking like things might be moving at an accelerated pace when the plans go into motion for Summer 2025 if no TA is reached soon.Stay tuned 🙂
*Contract
The union has been open to negotiate this entire time it’s been United that has refused and demanded insane concessions in an effort to stall as long as possible. All of this is available to the public online F.Y.I. so let’s not make up stories because you’re anti union.
The flight attendants aren’t just waiting on a contract they are not wanting major concessions while the company is making record profits. United pays the lowest. Delta, American, Southwest and soon Alaska pay more. If you’re paying attention they are just trailing Delta in terms of revenue so the concession shop is closed!!!
whether you or anyone likes the truth doesn't make them any less real
UA is generating much stronger revenue because it has far less underperforming capacity but it is not spending the money esp. on labor or to bring its fleet up to similar standards as AA and DL
when their execs said that they will have labor headwinds when they settle w/ labor, I am right as well as Ben and those below that asked how UA's profits would be if they paid their people including FAs new industry standard
I think most people here like the truth; they just don't view you as the holder of it and your bias permeates everything you say so you're just ignored and read with amusement
There's a good reason your claim to fame is in the comments section and that's it.
I like unions, but I think AFA is a joke and if their members were smart, they'd fire them.
AFA was not prepared to negotiate with United in 2024. Their entire strategy was getting a different union a deal first then trying to leverage that to AFA's benefit. It's well known within AFA that they had zero intent to get a United deal before the APFA AA deal was done. If they lied to you as a member to get you riled up, that's on you for not bothering to look into AFA's own strategy. Sure, you probably got a few angry emails from Sarah telling you that United wasn't giving them what they wanted but what she failed to mention was that she wasn't even meeting with United to get a deal. She was meeting with AA. lol
Needless to say, the AFA strategy failed MISERABLY. There's no reason to try to blame United when AFA wasn't even negotiating with them at the NMB or much otherwise (despite being in mediation).
I'm well aware of the RLA. You seem ignorant of the actual FACT that AFA utilized the RLA and the NMB to American's benefit as part of a purposeful strategy rather than to the benefit of their own members.
"In case you missed it’s been United demanding the non stop concessions meanwhile making record profits. United had no intentions of reaching a deal with the AFA in 2024 or earlier and that’s clear. If United had wanted to they would have made the effort…it’s really that simple."
and just wow... the ignorance of low-level United Flight Attendants repeating the nonsense they're emailed from the Union... wow
In case you don't know, Unions ask the world and tell their members they'll get it while blaming the Company... and only let go of the ridiculous contract demands once they're ready to get a deal and negotiate. It's a VERY normal tactic by any union to ask for everything, then use it to say the Company isn't being reasonable. Their own members tend to have very short memories and then forget about everything their union said they "deserve" because the Union always knew they'd never get it but it made for a great email to make their members mad and rile them up while... AFA negotiates for a different union lol
in other words, you too, don't like some one telling you the truth.
If it is true, it doesn't matter who says it.
Kirby has fixed UA's revenue problem but is doing it with costs that are well below the industry standard
LAX is a fairly small amount of either DL or UA's total profits even though it is an important market
I do think many downplay the impact of the fires but there is and will be a strong and wealthy market at LAX.
DL and UA are the strongest and they will be able to withstand challenges better than other airlines.
Well seems AFA Alaska secured higher profit sharing than Delta because Alaska doesn’t treat their flight attendants like trash and it’s due to different management systems. I blame United because they are at fault for not coming to the table in good faith. If they had done that and made realistic requests then the fault would fall on The AFA.
Once again negotiations are transparent simply go online and view what United offered and asked for it’s not reasonable and that is why there has been slow progress.It has been intentional on United’s end to stall.United has just now agreed to start meeting The AFA without a mediator and that’s after nearly 4 years of the contract being amendable . You can make up lies and tell stories all you want but I read every single update and don’t spread lies like you do.
Pay attention and READ nothing that the AFA asked for is unreasonable nor are they asking for the world lmao. If anything, they should have asked for more given how much revenue United is now bringing in. United has asked for many unreasonable concessions during a time of record profits and AFA has said no to it because they know the requests are unreasonable and being used to stall.
You are anti-union and that’s your business but don’t come on here and tell bold lies. You live in delusion and you’re beneath me, Thumper. Take care 🙂
when UA negotiates a new CC contract and gives the revenue estimates, then we can figure out the impact.
not before
So if UA offered a contract that matched DL exactly, that would be ok? Seems like it would be if UA is just barely trailing DL.
Longer delays, missed connections, no more food in 1st class, no more magazine, dirty cabins, indifferent flight attendants, but hey…bigger profits! Woo Hoo!