United Airlines sets lofty goals to instill confidence among its investors

A beleaguered United Airlines has outlined ambitious goals for its investors that entails an annual cost cutting scheme of USD2 billion and a pledge to begin returning cash to shareholders by 2015.

After battling operational, revenue and cost challenges during the last couple of years, United has no choice but to crystallise a plan to improve its performance in the medium term. Its target of rewarding shareholders is likely to be a competitive response to Delta Air Lines, who recently outlined plans to return USD1 billion to its shareholders during the next three years.

Additionally, United believes it can increase pre-tax earnings by two to four times during the next four years. Taken together it is tall order for a company that is still trying to deliver on its merger synergy targets. Now that United has declared those goals, the challenge is to deliver a successful execution, something that sceptics might have a right to be weary of.