United Airlines' business demand outlook "is really pretty amazing right now," chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella said during a Wednesday morning earnings call, noting early January business travel revenue increased "high single digits" year over year.
If the trend continues, "you'll see growth for the last two weeks of January for business up 12 percent, 13 percent, 14 percent" he said. "The further you push this math into February and March, the stronger it potentially goes. It's still early in the year, but we're off to a great start from a business point of view."
He noted, however, that last year's business travel volume at this point in the year looked strong, too, "but those numbers quickly trailed off to be up just very low single digits [year over year] in February and March."
United executives didn't talk on the call about how business demand and revenue finished out the year in the fourth quarter, but Nocella added that premium cabins outperformed the main cabin.
"Premium cabin revenue was up 12 percent year over year on 7 percent more capacity" for the fourth quarter, he said, "while main cabin revenue was up 1 percent on 6 percent more capacity. … For the year, premium revenue increased approximately 11 percent [compared with 2024], while standard and basic economy revenue was down approximately 5 percent."
Fourth-quarter loyalty revenue increased 10 percent year over year and was up 9 percent for the full year versus 2024, according to United.
MileagePlus Leadership Change
Nocella also said that United has hired Jarad Fisher as the new head of MileagePlus, the carrier's loyalty program. In an internal memo viewed by BTN, Nocella noted that Fisher would start Feb. 2 and report directly to him as VP and president of the program. Fisher previously headed up Apple Card and formerly served as director of Delta Air Lines' SkyMiles loyalty program and co-brand partnership.
Fisher will focus on "maximizing customer loyalty and our credit card portfolio," according to the memo.
The program's current CEO, Richard Nunn, and COO Luc Bondar "will depart United in the coming weeks."
Further, the memo noted that United has tapped former American Airlines chief commercial officer Vasu Raja as a consultant. Raja for the next six months will head up the carrier's Kinective Media platform, with that team reporting to him.
"Vasu will work to further build our technology stack, refine our data sources and advance our targeted marketing capabilities," according to the memo, which noted Raja will report to Nocella.
Raja famously left American in June 2024 a little over a year after the carrier launched a revamped corporate travel strategy and push toward New Distribution Capability that included pulling content from the EDIFACT system. American then did an about-face on that strategy, returned content to the EDIFACT channel and worked to regain the corporate market share it lost during that period. The prior strategy had cost American about $1.5 billion in losses in 2024.
United Q4, Full-Year 2025 Metrics
United reported fourth-quarter passenger revenue of $13.9 billion, up 4.9 percent year over year. Total Q4 revenue was $15.4 billion, up 4.8 percent for the period. That figure also was the highest quarterly revenue in United history, according to the carrier.
Full-year 2025 passenger revenue was more than $53.4 billion, a 3.1 percent increase compared with 2024, while full-year revenue was $59 billion compared with $57.1 billion a year prior.
Fourth-quarter net income was more than $1 billion, a 6 percent increase year over year, while full-year net income was nearly $3.4 billion, up 6.5 percent compared with 2024.
The government shutdown had a $250 million effect on pre-tax earnings in the fourth quarter, according to United.
Capacity for the fourth quarter increased 6.5 percent year over year and was up 6.1 percent for full-year 2025 versus 2024. The average fuel price for the quarter was $2.49 per gallon and $2.44 per gallon for the full year.
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