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United Airlines reported a loss for the first three months of the year but forecast a profit for the second quarter, when the peak summer travel season picks up. United joined rival Delta in reporting strong travel demand for the spring and summer, despite some predictions for an economic slowdown. For Q2, United expects adjusted earnings per share of $3.50 to $4 and revenues to rise 14% to 16% from last year, on capacity up 18.5% from last year. Here’s how United performed in the first quarter compared with what Wall Street expected, based on average estimates compiled by Refinitiv: Adjusted loss per share: loss of 63 cents versus an expected 73 cents; Total revenue: $11.43b versus expected $11.42b; For the three months ended March 31, United generated $11.43b in revenue, essentially in line with analysts’ forecasts and up more than 51% from the same period last year. United posted a net loss of $194m, or a loss 59 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.4b, or a loss $4.24 per share, in the first quarter of last year. Adjusting for one-time items, United had a per-share loss of 63 cents, a narrower loss than the 73 cents that analysts polled by Refinitv were expecting, but at the stronger end of a previously stated range of a loss per share between 60 cents and $1. Revenue per available seat mile, a sign of how much money airlines are generating compared with how much they’re flying, was up more than 22% from a year ago. Unit costs were up 4% on the year, but down 0.1% when stripping out fuel. The airline paid $3.33 a gallon for jet fuel, up from $2.88 a gallon in Q1 2022. Executives are likely to face questions about growth constraints during the second and third quarters, when airlines make the bulk of their revenue.<br/>

United Airlines is planning to grow its service to Australia and New Zealand later this year, the carrier’s latest bet that travelers will continue to book international trips. The expansion to 66 weekly flights between the U.S. and the two countries amounts to a 40% increase in flights from last year, the carrier said Tuesday. The schedule also equates to about 75% more seats to those countries than the same season of 2019, United said. The new schedule includes nonstop flights between San Francisco and Christchurch, New Zealand, on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner starting Dec. 1, and from Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand, on a 787-9 on Oct. 28. United is also building up service from both San Francisco and Los Angeles to Brisbane, Australia, and it is using its largest plane to fly between San Francisco and Melbourne, Australia. Airline executives have been upbeat about international travel demand and have been expanding their schedules to cater to the rebound. Delta Air Lines last week forecast second-quarter results ahead of analysts’ estimates and highlighted particular strength for international trips. “On international, we are excited with the momentum we’re seeing and expect record revenues and profitability for the summer travel season,” Delta’s president, Glen Hauenstein, said Thursday on an earnings call. The carrier is growing its international seats by 20% in the quarter ending in June and it has locked in about 75% of its bookings, he added. United Airlines is scheduled to report Q1 results after the market closes Tuesday and will provide another demand forecast ahead of the peak summer travel season.<br/>

The holding company for Avianca Group International Ltd., a Colombian airline that filed for bankruptcy during the pandemic, is planning an initial public offering as revenue roars back. “Without a doubt the IPO makes sense to support the group’s growth,” Avianca’s head of investor relations Maria Cristina Ricardo said in an interview. The plan is for Abra Group Ltd. to sell shares in New York or London in the next 12 to 18 months, she added. Air travel in Latin America has rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, according to data from OAG Aviation. That’s paved the way for a comeback of the industry that saw a string of bankruptcy filings after demand sank in 2020 and regional governments refrained from providing hefty support packages like those offered in the US and Europe. Avianca, the lead airline for Colombia and Ecuador, sought protection from creditors in the US a few months after the pandemic began. Within weeks, two other major carriers in the region, Latam Airlines and Grupo Aeromexico SAB de CV, did the same. The process helped Avianca cut its debt load to $3.1b at the end of 2022 from $5.3b two years earlier, allowing it to better compete with low-cost carriers. The company filled up about 80% of its planes in the fourth quarter, with total operating revenue reaching $1.2b — the best such result since the restructuring, the carrier said.Wall Street has been betting on the firm’s comeback for months. Avianca’s notes due in 2028 have handed investors returns of more than 15% this year, more than almost any company in Latin America, according to a Bloomberg index. They’ve also trounced the return of around 5% on an index of risky airline bonds. Avianca itself is doing pretty well lately,” said Sergey Goncharov, an investor at Vontobel Asset Management in Miami, “driven by overall massive resumption of travel globally, its much leaner capital structure and continuous management effort to streamline operations.” <br/>

An Austrian Airlines plane had to return two hours into a flight from Vienna to New York after five of its eight toilets broke down. About 300 people were onboard Monday’s eight-hour, Boeing 777 flight. The crew decided to turn around after finding a technical problem was preventing the toilets from flushing properly, a spokesperson for the airline told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday. She said the problem had not occurred on Austrian Airlines flights before. The plane had since been fixed and was back in service, the spokesperson added. Affected passengers were rebooked on other flights.<br/>

Air India is to conduct operations with pilot-controlled tow tractors for Airbus A320 manoeuvring at Delhi and Bengaluru airports, as part of a strategy to reduce emissions. The airline had publicly demonstrated the system – known as Taxibot – nearly four years ago, using an A321 (VT-PPH) during a commercial service from Delhi in October 2019. But the carrier says it has agreed with local airport technology consultancy KSU Aviation, which promotes the Taxibot capability, to use the equipment for taxiing operations. It believes using the towbarless vehicles, which the pilot controls as if using the nose-gear, will save up to 15,000t of fuel over the course of three years. “Air India is constantly looking for ways to improve sustainability and manage our carbon footprint,” says chief executive Campbell Wilson. “Deployment of TaxiBots is one more example of our commitment to reduce emissions and fuel consumption.” Wilson adds that the co-operation will enable the carrier to “better assess” the capabilities of the taxiing system, with a view to expanding operations to other airports and Air India divisions. “Air India is undergoing a massive transformation and has adopted sustainable practices,” says KSU Aviation director Ashwani Khanna. “We are committed to partner with like-minded organisations like Air India to leverage modern day technology in reducing carbon footprint and accelerate the pursuit of being net-zero.” Taxibot was originally developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, in collaboration with ground-support equipment specialist TLD.<br/>