It could have been a coincidence but I had more mechanical delays and cancellations in the last few months then I've had in the last 5 years combined.

Mechanicals don't count :confused: The Airline lobby years ago convinced the DOT not to count mechanicals against them as it could "scare" customers away. The numbers we get are worthless. I'm not sure if they include intl but I don't think so. I just used an example. If UA has 100 flights and 99 are delayed but all due to mechanical, well they can say they have a 100% on time rate since only the one flight counts.

UAL stock is up over 1 percent after-hours.

http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/UAL

might be do to this
link for United Reports May 2012 Operational Performance

"Traffic" is not a terribly important metric. It's easy for an airline (any airline) to increase load factor by simply discounting tickets. It says almost nothing about revenue performance.

Actually, in a business that has a perishable and finite product to sell "growth" of lower paying customers might not be a good thing @:-)

Especially when your competition appears to be selling at increasing prices.

We are going to make it up on volume! :D

I'm with trk1. I have seen thread after thread about the increase in UA prices not the other way around. Look on MR deals and you will see a much larger number of discounted fares on DL.

I'm sure there are over 1MM combined elites now between the two airlines (remember in 2005, posted data showed 500K 2P, 250K 1P, 50K 1K, 20K GS, so close to 800K total). So not inconceivable! :D

And yet we still see f cabins going out full with lists 60 deep! Seriously, elites haven't gone anywhere.

A few anecdotal observations on FT don't really represent the yield and PRASM performance metrics of UA versus other carriers. Sorry, but I'll stick with the corporate filings for such numbers.

IMO the jury is still out on this issue. I think we'll need to see several quarters worth of financials from all of the major U.S. airlines before we can draw informed conclusions. Also the recent steep drop in oil prices is going to tend to distort the overall bottom line performance of all carriers. PRASM comparisons are going to be the thing that matters to these discussions on FT.

My read of the MAY numbers....
 

Here is my read of the May over May numbers ...

PRASM +0.3% (Compare to Delta +6%) (Compare to US Air +6%) (Compare to LUV + 5to6%)
Seat Miles +0.4% (Compare to Delta -0.9%) (US Air +0.5%)
Load Factor -0.1% (Compare to Delta +0.2%) (US Air -1.1%)
On board Passengers -0.5% (Compare to delta -0.6%) (US Air -0.9%)

Nothing for UAL to be proud of....

It's not getting any better... data from the last 2 weeks -

On time departure rate per 1000 completed flights by operating carrier:
On time arrival rate per 1000 completed flights by operating carrier:
Delta is killing it. Heck even UA's express carriers out-do them.

I have a feeling the OP used to set up hedge transactions for JP Morgan given his level of analysis... these numbers are what matters, and are actually from financial reports...

I might add one more figure, AA announced its PRASM was UP 7.3%.

to give some context, while UA did not reveal its revenue for May, if one extrapolates from its Q1 figures, had they matched Delta/US's PRASM growth (which is a measure of the airlines ability to attract higher paying passangers, i.e. sell its seats for more money overall) it would have been another $151M in revenue for the month.

To give further context, the "loss" of this revenue, multiplied by 3 months = their loss last quarter. Extrapolate this lag in revenue over a year and its 1.8B in revenue loss. Not only material, but the difference between a profit and a loss.

And since costs are basically fixed, its all pure profit/loss.

Also note that the AA status match (if it effects them) will not begin to impact revenue heavily until probably next month. And the trend vs. AA/US/DL is that the gap between UAs PRASM and the competition has widened, i.e. UA is falling further behind, this year. This is what one would expect if they are loosing high value traffic.

Its all very, very bad for UA. :o

american posts strong imprivement
 

American posts strong gains/united flat

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/american-airlines-parent-amr-sees-uptick-in-traffic-big-gain-in-key-revenue-measurement/2012/06/08/gJQA66H0NV_story.html

The OP can cheerlead all he wants, but IMO the current environment (reasonable demand with reduced capacity over the past couple of years, leading to increased prices) means that all of the airlines should have seen PRASM increases. And they all did, except UA.