By Katherine Hamilton

United Airlines swung to a profit in the first quarter and beat Wall Street's earnings guidance despite falling air-travel demand.

The airline company posted a profit of $387 million, or $1.16 a share, in the three months ended March 31, compared with a loss of $124 million, or 38 cents a share, a year earlier.

Stripping out certain one-time items, adjusted per-share earnings were 91 cents, ahead of the 74 cents forecast by analysts, according to FactSet.

United said in March it expected adjusted earnings per share to be on the low end of its guidance range, which was 75 cents to $1.25. Government-related travel, which makes up to 5% of United's business, fell in half amid federal job cuts. That rippled into domestic leisure travel.

The airline expects to record adjusted earnings per share of $3.25 to $4.25 in the second quarter. It guided for the same full-year estimate had previously shared of $11.50 a share to $13.50 a share, but said that range could fall to $7 to $9 a share in a recessionary environment.

Revenue rose 5.4% to $13.21 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet forecast revenue of $13.23 billion.

In March, the company said it was retiring 21 aircraft, but was trying to hold off on further capacity cuts until after the peak summer travel season.

Delta Air Lines last week withdrew its full-year guidance, citing uncertainty about tariffs. It also said it plans to cap capacity growth in the back half of the year and isn't taking any new aircraft deliveries this year. Budget airline Frontier also withdrew its full-year forecast and said it expects revenue growth to be nine percentage points lower than it previously anticipated.

Write to Katherine Hamilton at katherine.hamilton@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 15, 2025 16:21 ET (20:21 GMT)

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