United reports $1.1 billion full-year 2013 profit

Business Class, United Airlines by Alan Light / Flickr

CHICAGO—United Airlines reported Friday full-year 2013 net income of $1.084 billion, an increase of 84 percent year-over-year, or $2.84 per diluted share, excluding $513 million of special charges.

Including special charges, UAL reported full-year 2013 net income of $571 million, or $1.53 per diluted share. UAL reported fourth-quarter 2013 net income of $298 million, or $0.78 per diluted share, excluding $158 million of special charges. Including special charges, UAL reported fourth-quarter 2013 net income of $140 million, or $0.37 per diluted share.

UAL earned a 10.0 percent return on invested capital in 2013.
UAL generated $38.3 billion of revenue in 2013, an increase of 3.0 percent year-over-year.
United’s consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (PRASM) increased 3.1 percent in 2013 compared to 2012.

Full-year 2013 consolidated unit costs (CASM), holding fuel rate and profit sharing constant and excluding special charges and third-party business expense, increased 3.8 percent year-over-year on a consolidated capacity reduction of 1.4 percent. Full-year 2013 consolidated CASM increased 1.2 percent year-over-year.

UAL ended 2013 with $6.1 billion in unrestricted liquidity.

Employees earned $190 million in profit sharing for full-year 2013, which will be distributed on Feb. 14.

For the 10th consecutive year, readers of Global Traveler magazine voted United’s MileagePlus program the Best Frequent-Flyer program.

“We significantly improved our operations, customer service and financial results in 2013 thanks to the outstanding work of the United team,” said Jeff Smisek, UAL’s chairman, president and chief executive officer. “Our goals for 2014 are to provide even more reliable operations, great customer service and materially better financial performance.”

Revenue and capacity
For the fourth quarter of 2013, total revenue was $9.3 billion, an increase of 7.2 percent year-over-year. Fourth-quarter consolidated passenger revenue increased 5.9 percent to $8.0 billion, compared to the same period in 2012. Other revenue in the fourth quarter increased 22.2 percent year-over-year to $1.1 billion, in large part due to an agreement to sell jet fuel to a third party.

Ancillary revenue per passenger in the fourth quarter increased 15 percent year-over-year to nearly $21 per passenger. Fourth-quarter cargo revenue decreased 9.5 percent versus the fourth quarter of 2012 to $220 million.

Consolidated revenue passenger miles increased 2.7 percent on a consolidated capacity (available seat miles) increase of 2.6 percent year-over-year for the fourth quarter, resulting in a fourth-quarter consolidated load factor of 82.4 percent.

Fourth-quarter 2013 consolidated PRASM increased 3.2 percent compared to the same period in 2012. Consolidated yield for the fourth quarter of 2013 increased 3.0 percent year-over-year.

“Our employees delivered improved operational performance in 2013, and our customer satisfaction scores increased throughout the year,” said Jim Compton, UAL’s vice chairman and chief revenue officer. “We are growing our revenue by building on the strengths of our leading route network and leveraging the investments we’ve made in our fleet, product and technology.” (United)