A United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 passenger plane taxis at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. (Photo by Nicolas Economou)
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United Airlines would have made a profit in the primary quarter of 2024 if a door plug hadn’t flown off an Alaska Airlines plane in the midst of January.
Instead, United reported a pretax lack of $164 million, reflecting a $200 million loss from the Federal Aviation Administration’s grounding of the Boeing 737 Max 9, which forced the airline to fly for several weeks Canceling 1000’s of flights. The incident also sparked one FAA investigation Insights into Boeing’s safety practices and an ongoing criminal investigation.
United and Alaska Airlines are the one two U.S. airlines that operate the Max 9. Earlier this month, Alaska announced it had received a $160 million money payment from Boeing to compensate for lost revenue as a consequence of the broken door plug.
United’s first-quarter lack of $164 million is a $92 million improvement in comparison with the identical quarter last yr. During the quarter, the corporate earned a Operating revenue of $12.5 billion, up 9.7% in comparison with the primary quarter of 2023, and $2.8 billion in operating money flow.
Even now that the Max 9 is back within the air, Boeing’s problems proceed to be United’s problems. Delays in certification of the Max 7 and Max 10 have hampered the airline’s longer-term plans to maneuver to larger aircraft. United, which had originally expected 80 Max 10s in 2024, is not going to receive any this yr. Last month, United canceled its Max 10 order and asked Boeing to construct Max 9 planes from 2025 to 2027 as a substitute.
“We have adjusted our fleet plan to better reflect the reality of what manufacturers can deliver,” United CEO Scott Kirby said. “And we will use these aircraft to capitalize on an opportunity that only United offers: to profitably grow our Mid-Continent hubs and expand our highly profitable international network from our best-in-class coastal hubs.”
In addition, United has signed letters of intent to lease 35 latest Airbus A321neos with CFM engines, expected in 2026 and 2027.
Looking forward, United expects a small variety of aircraft originally scheduled to enter service within the second quarter to be moved to the third quarter, which the airline is anticipated to have minimal impact on its capability plans.
