$UAL (-0.18%) | United Airlines Q3'24 Earnings Highlights:

🔹 Adj EPS: $3.33 (Est. $3.13) 🟢; DOWN from $3.65 YoY

🔹 Revenue: $14.84B (Est. $14.77B) 🟢; UP +2.5% YoY

🔸 Authorized a new $1.5B share repurchase program

Q4 Guidance:

🔹 Adj EPS: $2.50 - $3.00 (Est. $2.75) 🟡

Operational Metrics:

🔹 Capacity (Available Seat Miles): 81.54B; UP +4.1% YoY

🔹 Revenue Passenger Miles: 69.55B; UP +2.7% YoY

🔹 Load Factor: 85.3% (vs. 86.4% YoY) 

🔹 PRASM: 16.63 cents; DOWN -2.4% YoY 

🔹 CASM-ex: 12.26 cents; UP +6.5% YoY 

Segment Revenue:

🔹 Passenger: $13.56B; UP +1.6% YoY

🔹 Cargo: $417M; UP +25% YoY

🔹 Other: $865M; UP +7.9% YoY

Fuel Statistics:

🔹 Fuel Consumed: 1.17B gallons; UP +3.4% YoY

🔹 Average Fuel Price per Gallon: $2.56; DOWN -13% YoY

Share Repurchase Program:

🔸 Board authorized a new $1.5B share repurchase program

🔸 First buyback since suspension in 2020 due to COVID-19

🔸 Limit of $500M in aggregate repurchases through year-end 2024

🔸 Operational Highlights:

— Generated $7.2B of operating cash flow and $3.4B of free cash flow year-to-date

— Demand continues to be strong; Corporate revenues up 13% YoY in September

— Premium revenues up 5% YoY; Basic Economy revenue up 20% YoY

CEO Scott Kirby's Commentary:

🔸 "As predicted, unproductive capacity left the market in mid-August, and we saw a clear inflection point in our revenue trends that propelled United to exceed Q3 expectations."