United expects surge in first-quarter unit revenue

United Airlines expects first-quarter consolidated passenger RASM to rise 16%-17% year-over-year to 11.44-11.54 cents, while mainline unit revenue should surge 16.5%-17.5% to 10.5-10.59 cents, parent company UAL Corp. said yesterday in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It said lower capacity and revenue resulting from the February storms in the eastern US boosted consolidated RASM growth by 0.4 point. First-quarter mainline unit cost excluding fuel, profit sharing and "certain accounting charges" will increase 4.5%-5.5% to 8.36-8.44 cents, it said. Consolidated CASM excluding the aforementioned items will be up 4%-5% to 8.87-8.96 cents. The February storms resulted in a 1-point increase in CASM growth. First-quarter consolidated capacity will fall an estimated 3.4% from the year-ago quarter to 32.92 billion ASMs, while consolidated RPMs will increase 1.7%-2.7% to 26.25-26.51 billion.