United Airlines has seemed to struggle. After a number of high profile incidents, the FAA if auditing safety practices. They’re unable to open up flights to new cities, and have had to defer already-announced service.
And winter is always a struggle to begin with. Delta barely eked out a profit. They’ve been expected to be the only U.S. carrier to do so.
United has estimated an impact of $200 million from the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX 9. Without that they actually would have made money in the quarter. Costs were lower than expected, revenue was higher than expected and they lost $164 million which was better than last year even with the MAX 9 grounding during the quarter.
Boeing 737 Factory
Things are looking up, but they’re not able to grow like they want. Boeing production has slowed. Airbus has had its own challenges. They originally planned to inaugurate about 100 aircraft in 2024, but that’s now down significantly – to 61 narrowbodies and 5 widebodies this year.
- The Boeing 737 MAX 10 has been out of United’s fleet plans for now. It’s still not certified. They’ve converted some MAX 10s to MAX 9s for 2025 – 2027 delivery and may convert more.
- They’re leasing 35 new Airbus A321neos with CFM engines to be delivered in 2026 and 2027.
United Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9, credit: United
Still, their overall capacity is up 9.1% year-over-year and revenue up even more at 9.7%. These results – thought perhaps just a one-off – seemingly put United closer into Delta performance than perhaps many realized. They’ve had Boeing bad luck, though they also still face challenges at their Newark hub that aren’t as severe for Delta out of other New York city airports and don’t have as strong-performing hubs as Delta’s midcontinent operations.
Fake news!
@ Garu — Premium Polairs and route network!
Inb4 Tim Dunn explains why United is actually severely underperforming because he needs to pump his Delta and Southwest stock (which he admitted to owning in 2021)
UAL did do well considering the constraints on them but they aren’t coming close to narrowing the gap w/ DAL for 2024 based on the guidance that each carrier has provided.
UAL is guiding AT BEST for a $3.3 billion profit while DAL’s will be at least $1 billion more than that.
The best news from UAL is that its growth is going to be slower so its balance sheet stress is lower. They burned (used) cash and took on debt in 2023 because their spending was so much higher than their cash flow. They still are expecting to spend over $6 billion on new airplanes but that might be closer to the cash they generate so they won’t be stressing their balance sheet as much. Wall Street likes less financial risk.
DAL is expecting $4-5 billion in free cash flow so will continue to improve its balance sheet even after effectively paying cash for its new aircraft which will include 14 widebodies, the most for any US carrier, indicating alot if international growth is in DAL’s near-term future.
And UAL’s domestic revenues are still $4 billion/year less than DAL’s – and likely a similar amount for AAL as has been the case. DAL’s 2023 total revenue for the year was about $4 billion more than UAL’s. UAL won’t close the gap in earnings with DAL until it closes the gap in domestic revenue. Based on the number of aircraft that UAL is having to retire and the slow pace of aircraft deliveries, even w/ the newly added A321NEO deliveries for 2026-2027, UAL will not be growing near as fast as UAL thought and many people expected.
United NEXT just won’t happen like they sold it.
DAL will be able to grow its presence in international markets much faster than UAL can grow its domestic presence.
Tim
Check yourself:
UAL will not be growing near as fast as UAL
Oh, now I get it. Sorry!
Isn’t United constrained from opening up new routes anyway since they can’t do the whole maintenance thing correctly? If so that would lower the need for new planes.
United is becoming an ANTI-AMERICAN carrier. They did not stick to their word of supporting AMERICAN industry by being the launch customer of the Max 10. Instead, they turn their backs on AMERICAN industry and choose to spend their $$ somewhere else.
Tell me, how in the world can you consider yourself “America’s Flag Carrier” when you are buying EUROPEAN built aircraft? What an embarassing leadership.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with Boeing aircraft. People believe whatever they read on the news these days.
Timmy boy pumping DL as usual. And this time using funny numbers.
The fact of the matter is that UA has already caught up with DL. Excluding the refinery gimmick at DL, their revenue was 12.6 billion while UA’s was 12.5 billion, and that’s despite the MAX 9 grounding. Without the grounding, UA would have been bigger than DL. For the rest of the year, UA will be far larger than DL since the first quarter is by far the weakest at UA because of its international focus and because UA will receive far more planes than DL.
Year over year, revenue at DL grew 7% vs 9.6% at UA, so UA grew more than DL.
When it comes to EPS, UA is far far far undervalued when compared to DL. EPS outlook for second quarter at DL 2.2/2.5, while at UA 3.75/4.25. Outlook for the whole year at DL 6/7, while at UA 9/11.
Wherever you look there’s no color. UA is beating the much-pumped DL. The only advantage DL has is the lower fuel costs coming from owning a refinery.
UNITED rising
It’s a reliable operation filling domestic gaps and great global connectivity to use your elite benefits on own metal
Between a cohort of disaffected Delta elites who have had it with Skymiles devals and crowding and AA / WN not as reliable it’s become a tier 1 choice across its network vs 10 years ago when reliability was inconsistent.
The mileage program is too close to Delta for comfort but still areas of clear value above 3 cents per mile vs nearly none on Skymiles.
Food delivery is abysmal in Polaris wine good.
Crews upbeat fewer bad apples
Biggest extra legroom cabins by far for late bookers
Tim, UA has already caught up to DL.
Look at how much DL outperformed UA before the pandemic. Those days are over, UA is a new beast.
@Brian
A321neo’s are assembled in Alabama so they are American-built
So much bad luck for United Airlines. In a matter of a month Too much nonsense has been all over the media. Who’d think that a wheel would fall off of an airliner on take-off? It’s kinda funny actually!
as usual, the UA koolaid is so strong some can’t or won’t read actual financial statements to see that UA is still substantially behind DL in earnings – for 2023 and projected for 2024.
UA IS doing a very good job in passenger and cargo revenue. It is generating passenger revenue as good as or better than DL. UA generates as much more international revenue as DL does domestically. UA leads the industry in cargo revenue because of its larger international operation.
If it were simply about passenger and cargo revenue, UA would be on par with DL.
But DL’s much higher profits are due to two things which UA can’t match – its SkyMiles and Amex revenue – and its MRO revenue – along w/ its refinery.
DL consistently spends about $1 billion per year less than UA and yet DL generates about the same passenger and cargo revenue – which is the activity that is dependent on burning fuel. DL pays less for jet fuel every quarter – even beat WN’s fuel hedging in 2023 in getting lower costs per gallon – while burning less fuel because of DL’s fuel efficiency which is about 6% better than UA’s – the direct result of UA”s heavier use of small RJs and 777-200/ERs which are the least fuel efficient widebodies in the US airline widebody fleet.
As for higher revenue, it all comes from DL’s Amex and SkyMiles revenue. Of course, Gary doesn’t want to highlight that difference because it 1. proves that all of the talk that he and other bloggers have written about DL hurting its own future by its SM changes and 2. because Amex is simply able to share a higher percentage of revenue with DL and 3. the domestic market is where an airline gets the benefit of a credit card program and DL’s network plus Amex’ higher value card spend and higher interchange fees deliver a much higher amount of revenue than any other airline can generate.
as for DL’s network, Cranky Flier just did a series this week comparing DL’s revenue performance across its hubs and LGA and BOS are at the top of the list with LAX performing better than MSP and SLC. The notion that DL monopolizes its interior markets and loses money on the coasts is simply false and contrary to what actual data shows. Even if SEA is a lower performing hub from a revenue standpoint, DL undoubtedly still makes money – because they cannot lose money in a hub competing w/ a much smaller airline if they want to stay out of trouble w/ the feds and AS only made a 2% margin in 2023, 1/3 of what DL made on its system. DL doesn’t subsidize any hubs but accepts lower earnings – probably in line with what AS makes – in SEA. DL is doing very well in LAX, BOS and NYC.
And MRO revenue is depressed for DL because of parts shortages but will still give DL a huge future revenue advantage. The only engine that DL doesn’t have rights for is the GE engine on the 787.
Even though UAL stock is getting a nice bump this morning, it is still underperforming DAL stock year to date and over the past year. UAL used cash and took on debt to buy airplanes in 2023 and would have done it again in 2024 to an even larger degree if they had received the number of airplanes they had on order. UA’s much slower growth means much less balance sheet stress in the future and Wall Street likes that.
UAL as a company is worth less than half of what DAL is worth and DAL is the world’s largest airline by market cap.
UA will simply grow slower which means much less chance to disrupt the domestic market and take share from other airlines which is what UA was counting on. DL is aggressively growing international and will receive two dozen widebodies in 2024 and 2025 followed by even more in 2026 and 2027 meaning that DL is far more likely to eat into UA’s dominance of international travel than UA will eat into DL’s dominance of the domestic market.
And when you factor in the extra non-transportation revenue which DL gets but which UA simply won’t, UA will still be in the number 2 position in revenue and earnings but far below Ryanair and Indigo in market cap because both airlines are able to grow w/o stressing their balance sheets near as much as United will do.
and UA was #5 in the most recent DOT on-time report behind WN – 5% behind DL. While UA is improving over what it was several years ago, it is still well behind DL.
Facts, not opinions validate what I have been saying for years about DL’s leadership in the industry.
UA outperformed DL on PRASM growth in 4Q in NYC and LAX and domestic aggregate according to Cranky
https://crankyflier.com/2024/04/11/americans-revenue-performance-sinks/
Not that revenue in a city is necessarily an indicator of profit for either airline
I’d also add that while LGA and BOS have highest PRASM for Delta by a slight margin over ATL, DTW that’s an incomplete indication of profitability.
Volume x revenue per unit – costs = profit
PRASM only tells us one part of that 3 part equation
A high volume hub with low costs and middle tier revenue per unit like ATL or DTW can drive a much larger % of total profit than a middle to low volume focus city with high costs and high revenue per unit.
ATL volume is multiples of LGA or BOS.
And UA’s capacity at EWR is down substantially and was in the 4th quarter because UA had to bring its schedule in line w/ what the airport can handle.
and you are right that profit is the final metric that matters but, once again, DL leads at the system and global region level which is as far as gets publicly reported.
As I noted above, the reasons why DL leads in profits is its non-transportation revenue. UA does a very good job of making money on its transportation enterprise but DL simply goes well beyond that and has structural advantages that UA can’t match.
@A220, LUV is currently interesting if you believe it to be a cyclical stock in a cyclical industry. They’re 30+% above cyclical low, but 100+% off of their 2021 high.
Jake
LUV is significantly undervalued but they also are not producing profits anywhere in line with what they used to do which is why the stock is so depressed even though they have the best balance sheet among US airlines.
And, I know it blows the narrative of some people but I have written about United twice this year and had a buy rating for two months.
and UAL stock will continue to appreciate if its growth slows and it does not add debt; it is reporting good operational statistics and is a solid #2 performer on profits among US airlines. Investors just rate balance sheet strength and the prospect of that continuing more than the higher profits that UAL is generating which is why LUV has a higher market cap than UAL right now – but that could change by the time all of the industry reports their earnings and guidance.
@Tim, good points, but cyclical stocks usually move up/down ahead of shifts in earnings trends. UAL is cyclical as well and I see that it has significant headroom as well. The issue there is the previous bankruptcy and resulting perception as lower quality stock, and confidence it can overtake its previous highs. Let’s see how things progress over the next two years
All airline stocks move heavily w/ the price of oil and macroeconomic news including the perception of consumer weakness and reduced travel demand.
UAL is unique in that it launched into its very costly growth plan during covid and so has not seen the improvement in stock price because of paying down debt which Delta and American are doing. AA is simply not reporting decent earnings – but let’s see what their guidance looks like when they report. They have to turn their weaker revenue generation compared to DL and UA around.
UAL could be worth alot more if they spent $6 billion/year on capex instead of potential $9-10 billion which they would have been spending if Boeing delivered planes on time.
Investors don’t like airline growth plans that are much faster than GDP growth which is what UAL committed to; they are now happy that UA’s growth is slowing.
DL and UA are still growing at faster than above average rates. DL just happens to be doing it more cost-efficiently because they are still reactivating previously parked aircraft during the pandemic and inducting used aircraft purchases. The A330-900 is quite a bit cheaper to acquire than the 787-9 and DL uses it for what it does best – 12-13 hour flights – and leaves the longer routes to A350s. The A350-1000s will be the most cost efficient widebodies in the US carrier fleet and they will create a marked advantage for DL. DL just uses capital more efficiently than most other airlines and more in line w/ the upper half of other large industrial companies.
As much as some have argued otherwise, Scott Kirby just said on UA’s earnings call that the FAA IS exercising its authority to prevent UA from growing further by not allowing at least 3 MAX9s to be added to UA’s operating certificate.
UA’s high growth rate was financially and operationally risky.
Boeing is slowing UA’s growth rate to levels that are financially healthier while the FAA is putting a cap on UA’s growth that will allow it to return to a safer operation.
Way to create a strawman and argue with him, Tim.
Is your life really this boring that you spend all day in the comments?
Max,
stating actual, confirmable facts is not arguing or creating a strawman.
DL is so much more profitable than any other US airline because of its non-transportation revenue.
UA simply is not going to match what DL does because UA cannot generate the profits from passenger revenue to offset what DL gets from non-transportation revenue.
And I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall when you read CF’s statement that DL is a premium carrier and its RASM at LAX which is higher than MSP and LAX is because of DL’s strength and size.
Data doesn’t lie.
Well Timmy boy, let’s see who´s the one who doesn’t know how to read financials.
Q1 earnings before taxes were 380 million at DL and -79 million at UA. Now, without the grounding of the Max 9 the number would have been roughly 120 million for UA. So, the real difference was just 260 million more at DL. Now Timmy boy, look carefully at the financials and unless you’re blind you can clearly see that DL has 350 million less in fuel expenses. So Timmy boy, it’s pretty clear. Without the gimmick of the fuel advantage coming from owning a refinery, UA would have made more money than DL. And that is in the weakest quarter for UA.
End of story Timmy. All that Amex card and premium domestic talk is just plain shit. There is one and only one difference. The games DL plays with the refinery.
As to operational risk, DL is as operationally risky as UA is. The only reason the FAA is being tough with UA and looking the other way with the other airlines is that Kirby has been the only CEO to publicly criticize the FAA for screwing up ATC. That’s it. Buttigieg is a politician.
marco,
you do realize that UA also tried to buy a refinery but didn’t succeed so it wasn’t a gimmick for them then?
none of which changes that UAL is guiding to a profit of about $3.4 billion in 2024 while DAL is guiding to over $1 billion more.
As hard as it is for you to accept, DAL was more profitable in the first quarter and will be throughout 2024 just as it was in 2023.
I’m not sure why some of you work so hard to argue points which even UAL management doesn’t try to make.
Tim, even with reduced delivery rates, UA will take on almost 70 planes this year and 100 next year, including a significant number of 787s.
How many will DL acquire?
Also, UA is still the largest carrier in NYC over the last 12 months, even taking into account the reductions from last summer and after the slot waiver program. UA is upgauging flights at a significant rate, so the lead will continue, all with the power of the best east coast hub behind it.
Mark,
you can read the planned aircraft acquisitions for each airline in their guidance and you know the answer.
The number of aircraft doesn’t matter; how much each airline continues to grow revenue does matter.
I’m not sure why it is so hard for the UA fan club to admit that UA is the 2nd largest US airline by revenue and profits.
I do know why – because some people are so committed to needing to win that they can’t admit that they aren’t.
UA is improving dramatically; there is no doubt about and I have never denied it.
UAL execs themselves know they are in second place and have plans in place to grow.
DAL execs talk a whole lot less about their plans at a granular level but they have managed to keep their lead.
And, for the record, DL is receiving far more widebodies than UA not just in the next year but likely for several years to come. In case you missed it, Boeing is not just delayed in getting MAXs out the door but also 787s.
And you also can’t seem to admit that UAL’s size in NYC is limited by the size of EWR while DAL and every other large airline at JFK and LGA are limited by FAA constraints that will be fixed.
DL is operating 18% more flights from NYC than UA right now and that lead will only grow.
And, more significantly, DL will start adding flights from JFK to Asia (both east and south) and, on top of DL’s flights to GRU, GIG and EZE allows DL to significantly cut or possibly eliminate UA’s advantage in international markets.
Can’t you and the others just accept that UA has plenty of strengths but DL is not sitting still and will grow if there is a profitable opportunity to grow -which is the only way that UA will grow?
Put your instruments back in your pants and accept that two really can succeed; for right now, DL is ahead in most financial metrics and, as much as Gary or anyone else wants to believe, that isn’t changing any time soon.
Tim
You flatter me with how often you desire to be in the room with me.
Kinda creepy but so you since you have no friends or life except your made up comment fantasy world…
I know AA’s strengths and weaknesses. I also am well aware of what cranky can see with his data and what he can’t. And I’m also aware what a fired delta employee named Tim Dunn (ok… Fake name) can see too vs someone with real data.
Cranky did some interesting work and it’s always funny how much you are dying to be around me 😉
Keep trolling
Get a life, creep
in other words, you attack me because you can’t accept that I was right all along.
Delta does very well from a revenue standpoint at 3 of its 4 coastal hubs – which is completely counter to what you and many others have said.
Even in SEA, DL likely makes profits about as good as AS which is not a very profitable airline right now.
And the connection with UA is simply that people including you are quick to tell us the faults with DL – as you think they exist – but never seem to be able to tell us UA’s weaknesses which are clearly as long as DL’s – because UA makes less than DL.
SO, no, I have no interest in being in a room with you. I would have loved to see the reaction when CF accurately wrote that DL is a premium airline and its NYC, BOS and LAX hubs are very strong revenue performers.
and as much as UA is making big strides, DL intentionally slowed its international expansion until 2024 because that is when it believed that international demand would return. Obviously, large parts of the world started to recover earlier than DL expected but DL has a whole lot of international capacity coming online.
As much as UA fans want to talk about how many domestic airplanes that they expect to receive, they don’t talk about either the amount of airplanes that they will retire – meaning that they are going to have to use some of those aircraft to replace older aircraft – and they don’t talk about the amount of international capacity that other carriers, mostly Delta is getting.
As hard as it is for some to accept, DL and UA are moving to have more similar route systems – DL will become more international as UA becomes more domestic – but DL’s gains as an international carrier will likely come faster than UA’s moves to become more domestic. and UA has to overcome AA and WN and other domestic carriers while it is basically DL and UA that will be growing international capacity even when large foreign carriers are considered.
If you and others could learn to debate and discuss facts and ideas instead of people, airline social media would make huge steps forward
Tim, if DL has 18% more flights than UA in NYC yet still carries less passengers, that speaks to the fact that DL uses RJs much more than UA does and that UA provides a more desirable mainline product to more passengers, all while allowing most of them to make connections through the day all around the world.
Also, my point about airline fleet growth was in response to your point about how limited UA’s growth will be. You made it sound like UA’s growth plan is a bust. I was pointing out that, even with the delivery delays, UA is bringing on 170 planes in two years and an additional 100 the year after that.
Dozens of the deliveries will be 787s, more than the widebody order DL has. Those dozens are the start of 150 787s over the next few years.
And before you say “but UA will be retiring planes”, yes they will, but so will DL, and UA is only retiring 13 Airbuses whole all deliveries carry significantly more passengers.
Brian said “United is becoming an ANTI-AMERICAN carrier. They did not stick to their word of supporting AMERICAN industry by being the launch customer of the Max 10. Instead, they turn their backs on AMERICAN industry and choose to spend their $$ somewhere else. Tell me, how in the world can you consider yourself “America’s Flag Carrier” when you are buying EUROPEAN built aircraft? What an embarassing leadership.”
Didn’t British Airways fly exclusively Boeing wide bodies until they received their first A380 in 2013? Where they anti-British since the wings of all Airbus aircraft are manufactured in the UK Lufthansa was the launch customer for the 737-100 back in 1965, they’ve operated the 747-100, 747-200, 747-200f and have the 747-400 (7) and 757-8I (19) in service. Lufthansa has ordered 34 787-9s (5 units delivered) and has ordered 27 777-9 aircraft. Is Lufthansa, therefore, anti-German and anti-European because they buy a lot of Boeing aircraft?
Frankly, it’s very rare to hear any European national complain when European-based airlines are buying Boeing aircraft. In contrast, quite a few Americans always complain when US-based airlines are buying Airbus aircraft. Same thing with US defence procurement. You expect Europeans to buy American made fighters, tankers and cargo aircraft — which the Europeans do in great numbers –,but you’ll never want to buy European made fighters, tankers and cargo aircraft. Is that because you are exceptional arrogant or rather; that you don’t know that the US military industrial complex is profiting immensely on the massive EU trade deficit in defence products with the US? However, things might start to change. Europeans are waking up and are increasing the national defence budgets. The problem for the US military industrial complex is that Europeans are increasingly calling for “buy-European acts”, especially since the US don’t want to buy European made defence products. Hence, the US could massively lose out partly thanks people like BRIAN and their American first attitude.
Karl,
you are right.
European airlines have long been major customers not just of Boeing but other US airframe manufacturers before. There is an American ego that prevents some Americans from understanding that aviation is a global business.
And the airline that has ordered the most Airbus aircraft over the past decade is Delta – and they have been saved a world of heartache. AA has split its orders between Airbus and Boeing for years while United bought hundreds of Airbus aircraft in the past but have been almost exclusively Boeing for over a decade – and are facing major delivery delays and groundings as a result. Airbus is simply building more capable and more reliable aircraft right now. NO one can fault an airline from doing what it is in ITS best interest and letting national interests sort themselves out at another level.
Mark,
it isn’t a surprise that DL flies a higher percentage of RJs at LGA – not because UA has a better product but because the perimeter restriction makes it impossible to serve many of the markets that UA serves in the western US from LGA.
Nobody has ever argued that UA doesn’t have more flights. What you and others don’t want to accept is that UA carries fewer LOCAL NYC passengers because it connects a higher number of passengers THROUGH EWR. CF and the Port Authority boarding statistics don’t show it. LGA is almost entirely local market traffic; JFK and EWR have similar percentages of connecting traffic.
UA still carries more local and total revenue because of a higher percentage of longhaul domestic and international traffic at NYC.
Again, I am amazed at how unwilling UA fans are to take the truth that is accurately theirs and unwilling to admit what UA doesn’t do as well as everyone else. It really is a pathological inability to admit someone else is better AT SOME THINGS.
Specific to NYC, LGA and JFK are limited by the FAA’s flight caps right now but DL has about 25% more slots plus flights at EWR than UA can operate based on EWR’s capacity – which UA tried to exceed with devastating results last summer. DL and UA can and will upgauge in the future. And DL is already growing NYC-Latin America on its own metal and with Latam and has already overtaken AA and UA in the NYC and LAX to Latin America markets.
DL will add flights to Asia in part because the A350 has greater range than the B787 and can fly .
UA announced order after massive order and said they had to do it because delivery slots were selling out and yet other airlines have repeatedly placed large orders after UA and are getting deliveries long before UA will get the majority of its orders.
UA simply placed such large orders because of Scott Kirby’s ego and need to be the largest and because UA received massive credits from Boeing for delays which UA wanted to “cash in” on airplane orders.
DL has never placed orders near as large and yet will be the first airline to hit 1000 mainline aircraft, operates the largest mainline fleet now, and has a younger fleet than UA. DL placed its long-delayed order for A350-1000s and is getting the first copies in 2 1/2 years and got the Rolls Royce engine MRO deal in the process.
Delta simply does not need to retire as many aircraft as quickly as UA does but will still retire aircraft.
and, again, you can’t seem to accept that DL and UA both see the same opportunities and are growing into them. DL simply has a huge headstart in the domestic market while UA has a huge headstart in international markets. Nobody is stopping either from growing other than Boeing’s delivery delays at UA and the FAA’s current safety audit which is keeping UA from adding aircraft to its operating certificate.
DL has a major advantage in non-transportation revenue and fuel cost containment that is not a gimmick but a strategy that UA also tried to pursue – without success. UA pays the most per gallon of any of the big 4 airlines.
You and other UA fans would do well to acknowledge that other people know what UA does well and are happy to give them credit for it but no one is going to let you belittle what other airlines do well or argue that other airlines can’t and won’t also grow.
The world is big enough for more than one to succeed; it is baffling that don’t understand that reality.
You’re such a biased weird creep, tim
Get a life. It’s not attacking you to note delta fired you and found your knowledge useless or to reply with facts when you try to distort EVERYTHING toward your strange delta narrative.
Get outside once in a while. Go play with your buddy Brad
it is mighty early for you to be going off the deep end.
Brad?
Fired?
You filter life through the reality that you want to see at the expense of how it really exists.
Everyone, including me, has to be and is sad for you.
The narratives you have had about Delta have been wrong. Plain and simple.
Delta is at the top of the industry right now because of years of making the right decisions at the right time.
Other airlines including UA have been mismanaged and are making good decisions and are going to succeed.
They just are not anywhere close to dethroning DL’s financial and operational leadership of the industry.
Accepting those realities instead of trying to denigrate people that speak those realities will get you far in life.
Your reputation is well known, Tim.
Regardless what fake name you use or whether you call me names like “dearie” or MaxStupid or whatever lol.
You love to pretend like all of your rants on past websites just go away. They don’t and nor does your well-known history despite how hard you try to lie about them or even on sites like this when you get drunk and forget what you’ve admitted to.
And yes. Fired. As you well know. Which is why you use a Nom de Plume here and on your articles
It’s always amusing how you try to deny it, at times. Then admit it when you’re drunk. If you were using your real name and proud of it, there are so many ways you could prove it but you aren’t so you choose to lie about it because lying and distortion are your brand.
Your alternate reality is entertaining but just that, fantasy.
My narratives about delta? Lol. If you’ve ever read a thing I’ve written, you know I think delta is a very well run company but that doesn’t mean they aren’t the leaders in many areas like densifying their cabins or devaluing mileage programs. But I also note that you don’t seem to have any idea where some of their profit advantages are, like non union labor or monopoly hubs which doesn’t take away from a slight revenue premium somewhat attributed to frequency advantages delta has due to slots in NYC and gates in Boston.
You’ll notice I don’t hop on a United or AA article where they’re in a bad light and spend all day defending either to random strangers. All airlines screw up and make stupid decisions just like delta’s recent meltdowns or embarrassing backtrack on mileage changes.
Seriously, quit trolling. You’re a laughing stock.
Go enjoy your day, buddy. Maybe don’t spend your entire day writing paragraphs to everyone in a comments section of a blog. But who are we kidding, you will. Your entire self esteem seems to be built around this fake name you’ve created on the internet
You CAN’T contribute to discussions because you have the wrong information because YOU LIVE IN BIAS – which is just as true about what you think about me.
This isn’t a story about the BAD LIGHT about AA or UA, MAX. the fact that you have read 30 comments and come to that conclusion is beyond frightening.
UA HAS made significant progress – but I also have accurately noted that they are still #2 among US airlines in most financial metrics.
Being #2 is NOT bad.
Alot of UA’s plans were too aggressive, they are being slowed down for multiple reasons, and UA will be stronger as a result.
DL and UA increasingly will be the 2 names that dominate US aviation. 99% of the real discussion – not your personal attacks – is based on how all of that growth for BOTH DL and UA will develop.
And AA and WN and smaller airlines are growing as well – just at a slower pace and with less impressive financials.
again, MAX, focus on facts instead of personal attacks. You have yet to demonstrate you can do it but I will keep hoping for a turnaround for you.
Tim,
You have endless free time on your hands to make up BS. I don’t. Have a great day. Your nonsense is well known to everyone which is why everyone views you as a laughing stock as much as you try to project onto me what every other poster say about you.
Amusing to see you try, but amusing is all it is.
And you’re quite well aware that my comments above about your fantasy bias are not isolated to this article but rather the entire passport plum fantasy world you live in day in and day out.
Have a great day and quit being such a troll. You can’t run from comments you’ve already made on the internet
Max,
for someone that criticizes me for spending time on here, you have managed to post multiple replies too. Apparently your life isn’t THAT busy – or at least you TOO manage to squeeze internet time in w/ all of the other things you do.
and you simply confirm in each post that you come here solely to attack me because you can’t stand to admit that I really do know more than you about the airline industry and that Delta really is in the leadership position in the industry. You are not alone. But it doesn’t change that there are moments when someone else confirms w/ data what I have been saying all along.
and, once again, specific to United, they will grow but they had hoped to gain alot of market share very quickly because of geared turbofan issues which are hurting low cost carriers. UA has managed to find about 3 dozen LEAP-powered A321s which will come over 2 years but that is a far cry from what Boeing won’t be able to deliver.
UA’s domestic growth simply will not happen at the rate they wanted, other airlines will get their planes back in service, and DL is entering a phase of aggressive international growth that will certainly allow them to put more new widebodies in service this year and I expect that will be true for multiple years resulting in as much or more new international capacity, esp. when you consider how much larger the A350-1000 is than the 787-9.
UA is doing well and fixing some of its systemic issues that held it back for years. They just won’t move as fast as they hoped.