As Southwest continues to show improvement in customer and more importantly, from a business standpoint, profit numbers, the same cannot be said for their competitor United Airlines who on Thursday reported a first-quarter loss of $417 million.
That staggering number adds up to be $1.26 per share, and marked a consecutive quarterly loss for United, the nation's largest airline (though they will be become second when the merger between US Airways and American gets federal approval), which struggled in 2012 as it melded operations with its merger partner, Continental Airlines.
The loss in money explains the company raising its changing-ticket fee on domestic flights from $150 to $200.
The world's biggest airline in scheduled passenger miles flown bragged about its outstanding record of getting passengers to their destinations on time, with 81 percent of domestic and international mainline flights arriving within 14 minutes of the scheduled time last year.
"Our co-workers pulled together in the first quarter to significantly improve our operational performance and customer service despite challenging weather,'' and full planes, Jeff Smisek, United's CEO, said in a statement. "Although this was a difficult quarter financially, I'm very proud of our team," according to USA Today.
For the full-calendar year of 2012, United lost $723 million. The number can be attributed to fliers apparently being turned off by glitches that occurred when it merged their reservations-system with merged airline Continental.
Last spring, there were problems when United switched to Continental's reservations system, causing long wait times for customers.
However, with the claim that those "glitches" are behind them, United is trying to stand out from the crowd and one way they are doing that is by being the only US carrier to fly, the now, fit-to-return- Boeing Dreamliner.
The fuel-saving jet was grounded in January over concerns about its battery system, but fixes have been made by Boeing and has been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration to return to the air.
The news has resulted in United, which has six of the planes, putting the plane back on its roster, scheduling a 787 flight from Houston to Denver on May 31 and a route from Denver to Tokyo on June 10.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
