United Airlines expects to incur loss for 1Q2020, CEO and president forgo base salaries

United Airlines announced (10-Mar-2020) it expects to record a loss for 1Q2020 and is withdrawing its financial guidance for the quarter, due to the continued decline in travel demand resulting from the coronavirus. In order to address the impact of falling demand, United removed 10% of its domestic schedules and 20% of its international schedules in Apr-2020, and expects reductions of at least 20% in May-2020. It will continue to evaluate and cancel frequencies on a rolling 90 day basis, up until signs of recovery in demand. Adjusted CAPEX is expected to be approximately USD4.5 billion for FY2020, and the carrier has spent approximately USD2 billion as CAPEX was front loaded in 2020. Share buybacks were also suspended for the company's existing share repurchase programme. As of 09-Mar-2020, the carrier had USD8 billion in liquidity, following the addition of an incremental USD2 billion in new liquidity from a group of banks via a secured term loan facility. Additionally, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz and president Scott Kirby are each forgoing 100% of their base salaries, effective immediately until at least 30-Jun-2020. [more - original PR]