United Airlines Braces for High Oil Prices
Photo Credit: United Airlines is bracing for high fuel with oil prices up more than 50 percent since the beginning of the year. Flickr / mattbuck4950
Skift Take
Airlines have never faced the confluence of a global pandemic, war in Europe, and high oil prices. United Airlines' finance chief Gerry Laderman said there's no precedent for the concurrent crises, a phrase we've heard a lot of in the past few years.
Airlines are normally able to recoup the majority of a rise in fuel prices through higher fares. But the confluence of the Covid-19 recovery and Russia's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent surge in oil prices has the industry in uncharted waters.
“There really is no precedent for what is going on right now," United Airlines Chief Financial Officer Gerry Laderman said at the ISTAT Americas conference in San Diego on Monday. Historically, the Chicago-based carrier is able to pass on 60 percent of fuel price spikes to travelers but, with the myriad of crises, it is unable to predict whether that will be the case again, he said.
United Treasurer Pam Hendry added that it generally takes around a quarter — or three months — to price an o
