United Continental Loss Widens for Q1
‘Historic’ Weather Conditions Blamed
A United jet in Los Angeles
United Continental Holdings announced financial results for the first quarter of 2014.
The Chicago-based carrier reported a loss of $609 million, compared with a loss of $417 million in Q1 2013. Revenue was $8.7 billion, a decrease of 0.3% from the same period of last year
United blamed $200 million of the loss on “historic severe weather.
The airline said that passenger revenue per available seat mile, or Prasm, was down 2%, with weather conditions contributing 1.5 percentage points to the decline.
“This quarter’s financial performance is well below what we can and should achieve,” said Jeff Smisek, the company’s CEO, in a statement Thursday. “We are taking the appropriate steps with our operations, network, service and product to deliver significantly better financial results.”
Other factors that contributed to the loss include the company’s ongoing struggle to complete the integration of its two carriers, United and Continental.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
