United Airlines in a Thursday earnings announcement
expressed disappointment with its industry-lagging third-quarter revenue
performance. The carrier attributed the lag to incorrect revenue management
assumptions, fleet issues and competitive pressure in some markets. Management
claimed all are being addressed.
Conspicuously missing from executive commentary was any
update on quarterly corporate revenues as competitors including Delta and US
Airways again touted growth in the segment.
Declaring a "need to accelerate revenue growth,"
CEO Jeff Smisek attributed United's third-quarter underperformance to, among
other things, faulty revenue management. In short, United claimed it biased its
systems to sell too many low-yield, advance purchase bookings at the expense of
close-in, high-yield bookings. The former type generally is considered
leisure-oriented while the latter generally comes from the business side.
United chief revenue officer Jim Compton said the airline
"underestimated close-in booking demand," and as such, "our
yield mix was lower than it should have been." He said the carrier is
making adjustments to "capture more" high-yield business bookings,
though it "will take some time to see the full effect."
Smisek also cited as revenue growth inhibitors United's
failure to fully optimize its fleet and heightened competition on some routes,
especially transpacific ones.
While United provided no guidance on corporate revenue, the
carrier in recent quarters has lagged its largest corporate competitor, Delta.
For its second quarter, which ended in June, United reported
corporate revenue growth of 2 percent year over year, "fairly consistent
with first-quarter growth," Compton had said in July. That paled in
comparison to the double-digit percentage corporate revenue growth rates Delta
consistently has posted.
Wall Street senses that United has ceded corporate share to
competitors. Just this week Cowen and Company analyst Helane Becker and JP
Morgan analyst Jamie Baker separately made references to United either losing
share or its need to recapture share from competitors.
"Your largest New York competitor, which is a polite
way of saying United, is having a rough go of things," Baker said to Delta
management during an earnings call this week.
Baker revisited the issue Thursday with United management,
pointing to a "structural change" in the area, especially as
"the facilities at LaGuardia and JFK are no longer third-world in
quality." Delta in recent years has made investments and expanded flights
at those airports while United competes for corporate business from its hub in
nearby Newark.
"As you think of your revenue forecast for 2014, are
you modeling for share recapture here in New York?" asked Baker.
"And, if so, doesn't that fly in face of the fact that east of the river
things are better and we don't need to schlep to Newark in order to get a good
product in a way that clearly we had to back in 2005?"
Compton said, "We are really focused on the share that
we have there and maintaining that share premium, which we've done a really
terrific job of doing over the course of the last couple of years. Do we think
there's opportunity to grow it? Yes."
He suggested more emphasis on the quality of its corporate
clients, if not quantity. "Our corporate programs are actually running at
the highest what I would call efficiency rate that we've seen since the
merger," Compton said. That means when United provides discounts to
corporate clients in exchange for their traffic, those clients "are
delivering on it."
"We have the advantage of the only true connecting hub
in New York, where if there's lower-yielding corporate traffic that doesn't
really make sense or a corporation that's not going to manage their traffic
really well, we have the opportunity to always balance the flow traffic over
Newark, with, for instance, higher-yield flow from Europe into the U.S. as well
as using our partnership with Lufthansa," Compton explained, referring to
United's joint venture with the German carrier.
Competitors Report Corporate Gains
Delta on Tuesday reported a 10 percent corporate revenue
growth rate for the three months ending Sept. 30. President Ed Bastian noted a
"continuing rising tide for corporate travel" in general, but also
said Delta's "year on year on year" corporate revenue growth
represents "a considerable amount of share shift."
US Airways president Scott Kirby said the carrier's
corporate sales growth during the quarter "like Delta's has been
strong." Yet, the airline acknowledges that it does not have the global
network and strong business hubs to compete at the level of Delta and United.
Addressing that is a major reason for its proposed merger with American
Airlines.
"There's a large set of corporate accounts for whom we
can't really meet their needs because we don't have a ubiquitous network,"
Kirby said on Wednesday.
In the meantime, "we've been successful within our
niche," he said. That niche includes growth in transatlantic corporate
revenue, which Kirby said was up 22 percent year over year during the quarter,
though he acknowledged a low historical base.
Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines CFO Tammy Romo on Thursday
said business traffic during the third quarter "showed signs of
strength."
She noted business traveler mix improved to "about 35
percent" from 30 percent in this year's second quarter. "Corporate
sales also increased year over year, actually rather dramatically, and, so, a
lot of encouraging signs across the board," she said, without quantifying
corporate sales growth.