United Airlines reports that they are profitable again. Like other U.S. carriers, they stopped burning cash months ago, but they’re now making money. Yet taxpayers continue to subsidize their operations through September 30. They mark today as the day that profitability starts.

United Airlines, Inc. (“United”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (“UAL” and, together with United, the “Company”), expects to generate positive adjusted pre-tax income1 in the month of July 2021, which would be the first month with positive adjusted pre-tax income1 since January 2020, before the start of the crisis.

The timing is perfect, perhaps a little too perfect, because tomorrow is ‘investor day’ where they’re slated to lay out their new vision and expected to announce a major aircraft over totaling over 200 planes consisting of Boeing 737 MAX, Airbus A321 family, and perhaps Boeing 787s.

United Airlines was the first to really get the seriousness of the pandemic and scale down its operations accordingly. They furloughed almost as many workers as American Airlines did, and cut deeply into management ranks. They’re also though symbolically coming out of pandemic serving alcohol on more flights than competitors and first class meals too.

Some of the tactics they employed to get through the pandemic were downright despicable, such as illegally withholding refunds from customers and devaluing MileagePlus awards when no one was looking. We’ll see what they announce tomorrow about how they plan to make up for these betrayals.