The United Airlines Holdings forecast a four-fold jump in full-year profit for this year, and reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street estimates on robust travel demand.
The Chicago-based carrier saw an adjusted profit of $10 to $12 per share for 2023, up from $2.52 per share last year. According to a Refinitiv survey, that is well above analysts' estimates of $6.54 a share.
The U.S. carriers enjoy the strongest travel demand since the start of the COVID epidemic, boosted by a reopening of closed borders, a strong U.S. dollar and rising corporate travel.
While a worsening of the economic outlook has sparked concerns about consumer spending, airlines say travel demand remains strong and exceeds the pace of flight capacity growth, keeping ticket prices high.
United posted a fourth-quarter profit of $2.46 per share, surpassing analysts' expectations for $2.10, according to Refinitiv data.
Rival Delta Air Lines said last week that the industry is expected to see tens of billions of dollars of incremental demand over the next few years as passenger revenue and global gross domestic product return to pre-pandemic trend.
Before the pandemic, passenger revenues accounted for 1% of the global GDP.
The first quarter, United said, is expected to report a profit of 50 cents to $1 per share. Analysts are estimating a profit of 25 cents a share for the quarter.