United Airlines (UAL) stock gained 17% on Wednesday due to a healthy Q1 2024 earnings report. The airline beat analyst estimates on the top and bottom lines despite a $200 million dent in profits due to the grounding of the Boeing (BA) 737 Max 9.
On the top line, United reported revenue of $12.5 billion, 9.7% higher than a year earlier. TRASM (total revenue per available seat mile) increased by 0.6%, with a 6.8% increase in passengers to 39.33 million.
On the bottom line, it lost $50.0 million on an adjusted basis, more than four-fold lower than Q1 2023. Further, it would have made money in the quarter if not for the $200 million impact from the Boeing grounding. Over the trailing 12 months through March 31, its adjusted EBITDA margin was 14.8%, 180 basis points higher than in the same period a year earlier.
I’ll get some of the other good stuff below.
In the meantime, United’s options volume on Wednesday was just under 400,000, more than 5x its 30-day average. It was the