United posts higher-than-expected revenue after travel demand rebounds

United on Tuesday reported higher-than-expected revenue as travelers returned in the summer, despite a hit from the delta variant. The airline didn’t give a timeline for when it would return to profitability. United posted net income of $473m thanks to a boost from $1.13b in federal payroll aid. Its Q3 sales totaled $7.75b compared with Wall Street analysts’ expectations for $7.64b and down 32% from the same quarter in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic began. It posted a per-share adjusted loss of $1.02, better than the $1.67 analysts expected. That loss strips out the benefit of federal aid. United shares were up more than 1.7% in postmarket trading after United reported its earnings. United said it expects its Q4 capacity to be down 23% compared with 2019 and that its sales for the last three months of the year would be down 25% to 30% from the same period two years ago, when it brought in $11.38b. <br/>