The travel disruption at Newar Liberty International Airport earlier this year spent $228 million on United in the second quarter, and the airline expects Fallout to dampen its third quarter results as well.
However, United said Newark bookings are now nearing normal, with travel demand being widely covered in early July.
“United saw a six-point acceleration in demand and a double digital acceleration in business demand compared to the second quarter,” the Chicago company said on July 16th that it released its second quarter financial results. “Airlines attribute this to low geopolitical and macroeconomic uncertainty.”
That assessment comes a week after competitor airlines similarly reported a cute outlook than was expected given President Donald Trump's recent tariff concerns.
United made $973 million in profits in the second quarter, down 26% year-on-year.
The pre-tax profit margin for the second quarter was 8.2%. That figure would have been 1.2 points higher due to widespread delays and cancellations in Newark earlier this year. These disruptions caused by air traffic congestion and breakdowns in air traffic control (ATC) equipment “driving customer bookaways,” United said.
The airline responded by using dots to trim Newark flights. United say Newark operations have been improved and Newark Flight's “reservation volume” has been “normalized.” Still, United expects Newark troubles will be lower than its third-quarter adjusted profit margin by nearly 1 percentage point otherwise.
At the beginning of 2025, United had forecast annual adjusted revenues to be 11.50-13.50 per share. Then on April 15 amid a high level of stock market uncertainty caused by Trump's tariffs, United warned that in the event of a recession, revenues likely would be $7-9 per share.
On July 16th, United again revised their forecast and hit a midfielder. Currently, annual adjusted earnings are expected between $9-$11 per share.
