United Airlines Q4 Profit Down 52 Percent

United Airlines reported fourth quarter 2016 net income of USD$397 million, a 52 percent fall from 2015.

Pre-tax income for the quarter to end December, 2016 was USD$884 million, a 2.3 percent drop from the prior year. Fourth quarter revenue eased up 0.2 percent at USD$9.05 billion.

For the full year United’s net income was USD$2.26 billion, down from USD$7.34 billion in 2015. The marked difference was mainly due to a one-off accounting gain in 2015.

Total operating revenue for the year was USD$36.56 billion in 2016, down from USD$37.86 billion.

Mainline CASM (cost per available seat mile) excluding special charges was 6.3 percent higher for Q4. For the full year CASM came in 4.2 percent higher than the previous year.

“We saw meaningful improvement in the pricing and demand environment in the quarter," United president Scott Kirby said. "Looking forward, we anticipate first-quarter consolidated unit revenues to be approximately flat, marking the fourth straight quarter of sequential quarter-over-quarter improvement."