Originally Posted by
sinoflyer
"
United Upgraded On Solid Outlook"
According to this analysis, UA is upgraded from "underperform" to "neutral." I think you can interpret it two ways: 1) UA's March-May performance (or the lack thereof) was expected, and perhaps it was better than expectations; 2) the "neutral" recommendation suggests that the jury is still out on UA's long-term prospects. I believe there's an element of truth in both.
Mind you, UA had stated earlier that they deliberately reduced bookings (via pricing, etc.) in advance of the March 3 cutover, so the reduced PRASM is in some ways exactly what UA had planned.
first, I would put little faith in such "research" - i've seen how its created. some idiot in a cubicle cuts and pastes some crap and posts it to drive traffic. no analysis in the piece.
Second, the "we cut traffic" line is a rather odd fairy tale UA invented. Their traffic numbers went up, not down (so that is not evidence they gave up bookings, instead they are selling all they can) and then their involentary bump numbers went dramatically up - and lead all carriers. So more tickets sold more bumps does not equal forgoing sales. it was just something they made up to try to cover their bad performance. No excuse this month.
