UAL - United Continental

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United Continental Holdings, Inc. (UAL) (formerly UAL Corporation) is a publicly traded airline holding company headquartered in the Willis Tower in Chicago. UCH owns and operates United Airlines, Inc. The company is the successor of UAL Corporation, which agreed to change its name to United Continental Holdings in May 2010, when a merger agreement was reached between United and Continental Airlines. Its stock trades under the UAL symbol. To effect the merger, Continental shareholders received 1.05 shares of UAL stock for each Continental share, effectively meaning Continental was acquired by UAL Corporation; at the time of closing, it was estimated that United shareholders owned 55% of the merged entity and Continental shareholders owned 45%. The company or its subsidiary airlines also have several other subsidiaries. Once completely combined, United became the world's largest airline, as measured by revenue passenger miles. United is a founding member of the Star Alliance.

UCH has major operations at Chicago–O'Hare, Denver, Guam, Houston–Intercontinental, Los Angeles, Newark (New Jersey), San Francisco, Tokyo–Narita and Washington–Dulles. UCH's United Air Lines, Inc. controls several key air rights, including being one of only two American carriers authorized to serve Asia from Tokyo-Narita (the other being Delta Air Lines). Additionally, UCH's United is the largest U.S. carrier to the People’s Republic of China and maintains a large operation throughout Asia.

UCH uses Continental's operating certificate and United's repair station certificate, having been approved by the FAA on November 30, 2011.

 

Computer glitches at UAL this morning

• United Continental — United suffered a computer glitch that temporarily delayed thousands of United Airlines passengers on flights worldwide. The airline does say the problem has now been resolved.

 

UAL reporting Q3 ER after market close today:


United Airlines (UAL) reports third-quarter earnings after the market close today. The carrier's conference call takes place on Tuesday. Here's a look at what to expect.

Estimates: Earnings per share of $3.06, down 32% and potentially marking the third consecutive quarter of declines for the company. Revenue is expected to fall 4% to $10.3 billion.

United said last week that consolidated unit revenue, an important metric that gauges revenue as it relates to an airline's supply of seats and distance traveled, would fall 5.5%-6.0% during the third quarter. That estimate was better than an earlier forecast for a 5.5%-7.5% drop and was helped by a strong September.

Stock: Shares fell 0.1% in late afternoon trade in the stock market today. Delta Air Lines (DAL), which reported third-quarter results last week, retreated 1.7%. American Airlines (AAL), which reports Thursday, was off 0.7%.

Why It Matters: With oil prices rising, the cheap-fuel tailwind that kept airlines' profits aloft last year is fading. As with other airlines, Wall Street will be looking to see whether United can tighten flight-capacity growth and continue to improve unit revenue in the fourth quarter and next year.

Fare cuts, expansion and the stronger dollar have hurt unit revenue. But Delta has said that rising oil prices in the fourth quarter could prompt the airline industry to pass costs onto travelers — bad news for passengers but better news for unit revenue.

Rising oil prices could help United in other ways.

Raymond James analyst Savanthi Syth wrote last week that "we expect abating competitive pressures and a bullish view on energy benefiting United's Houston hub to have a positive impact on (passenger unit revenue), as well as increased conviction in United's ability to narrow its margin gap relative to peers over the next couple of years."