United Airlines next year will accelerate its seasonal approach to capacity controls, particularly on its transatlantic routes, executives said during the company's third-quarter earnings call on Thursday.
The carrier's chief revenue officer, Jim Compton, noted that as part of United's network optimization plans, it would "increase seasonal sculpting of capacity" with larger variances in the number of flights in peak summer traveling periods versus winter months with lower demand. The biggest seasonal shift will be on transatlantic routes, he said, with such July 2015 capacity anticipated at 40 percent more than in February 2015.
"This was an internal process that started a long time ago and required a lot of coordination in terms of utilization of the aircraft crews, stations and handling the schedule," Compton said. "We're confident where we're at, and we're right on the timeline for the execution to go well."
The airline also is in the process of returning its Chicago, Houston and Denver hubs to a banked structure: having flights arrive and depart around the same time, rather than spread throughout the day. Its next step in that process will be a "phased re-banking" in Houston late this year, according to executives.
United's net income for the third quarter was $924 million, compared with $379 million in the third quarter of 2013. Adjusted for special items, including a $95 million loss from fuel hedges settling in future periods, its income was $1.1 billion, the highest-ever quarterly profit reported by the airline.
Consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile increased 3.9 percent year over year during the quarter, and yield increased 4.1 percent. Capacity increased 0.5 percent, and United's load factor declined 0.1 percentage points to 85.8 percent.