United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:UAL) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Linda Jojo : Hi, Helane. This is Linda Jojo. I think the way to think about these vouchers is it’s a more customer-friendly way and a more efficient way for our operations to deliver to them what they would already get. So this is more about letting our agents be able to serve other aspects of the disruption versus this piece and making it much easier for our customers to actually receive them.

Gerry Laderman : Helane, just as a reminder, that kind of cost, which improves customer experience is also in our guidance.

Operator: Our next question comes from Sheila Kahyaoglu from Jefferies.

Sheila Kahyaoglu : I wanted to ask about margins that you guys alluded to in the opening remarks. Just great performance. Obviously, domestic margins in Q2 return to 2019 levels, while international remained above 2019 levels. I guess on a comparative basis, can you let us — give us an idea of the delta between the two today and how you think about it longer term? Does it reach equilibrium? Is there international runway from here?

Andrew Nocella : I’m not going to give you the exact number. I’m going to say they are well above domestic margins, and we expect for this cycle for them to remain well above domestic margins. So look, our domestic margins are very solid, too. So I don’t want to say anything too negative about that. I think international is just performing really well because of the structural change that happened during the pandemic.

Operator: We will now switch to the media portion of the call. [Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Alison Sider from The Wall Street Journal.

Alison Sider: Scott, could you say anything about what crossed you to take that private flight during the operational problems at Newark, like what was so urgent? And then if you’ve had any kind of conversations or feedback or consequences from the Board since then?

Scott Kirby : It was a mistake. And the best thing I learned at the Air Force Academy was to say no excuses sir or no excuses ma’am in this case and move forward, and that’s we’ll do here.

Operator: Our next question comes from Mary Schlangenstein from Bloomberg.

Mary Schlangenstein : Can you guys put a full dollar value on the cost of the Newark disruptions like a dollar value of lost revenue or the cost? And are you also providing figures at this point in terms of how you’re adjusting the flight if you’re cutting flights by 5% or you’re cutting 30 flights a day or whatever. Can you provide more specifics on that?

Gerry Laderman : Let me just talk about the financial impact first. So as I mentioned earlier, that disruption effectively cost us 1 point of margin in the second quarter.

Andrew Nocella : In regards to the flights, our summer schedule normally is about 435 flights per day. In August, we expect our schedule to be well below 400, somewhere in the — I think, the 390 range.

Operator: Our next question comes from Leslie Josephs from CNBC.

Leslie Josephs: Can you just repeat a bit on Newark, you were going from 435 planes per day to 390? I just go over like the two in the firm and the cut and does it go into September? And then broadly, just considering all the weather that we’ve had in Newark, are you considering pulling back from that hub this year, next year and then maybe over the coming five years, how do you see Newark in your strategy?

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