United Airlines CEO Warns of Choppiness Affecting Recovery

In March 2020, then-United Airlines President Scott Kirby was the only airline executive to speak candidly about how the Covid crisis would affect business. Now, as CEO, he's one of the few executives giving an honest assessment of what sales might look like in the coming months.

To be sure, Kirby is mostly bullish. He knows demand is robust, and he understands airlines are reducing capacity because of operational constraints, giving them increased pricing power. And on United's second quarter earnings call Thursday, he was happy to share United recorded its first profitable quarter since the pandemic began, with airline reporting net income of $329 million, on revenues of $12.1 billion. In addition to ticket sales, revenues from ancillary items, including seat assignments, baggage fees and premiu