United Airlines has reported third-quarter net income of $1.7 billion, or $4.53 per diluted share, excluding special items.

Including special items, UAL reported third-quarter net income of $4.8 billion.

These results include a nonrecurring $3.2 billion non-cash gain associated with the reversal of the company’s income tax valuation allowance.

The news comes at a troubled time for the carrier, which has lost two chief executives in the last two months.

“I want to thank all of our employees for their hard work, professionalism and contributions to another successful quarter.

“The United family has had a challenging few weeks, but we have never felt more unified and are committed to making the right investments in our people and providing them the tools they need to deliver excellent service to our customers,” said Brett Hart, acting chief executive of United.

“With Oscar Munoz on medical leave, this leadership team and I are working to push forward the agenda we laid out over the past six weeks by focusing on our employees, improving our processes and investing in our systems to further improve our margins.”

For the third quarter of 2015, total revenue was $10.3 billion, a decrease of 2.4 per cent year-over-year.

In the quarter, the company amended its co-branded credit card marketing services agreement, which led to approximately $100 million of incremental revenue.

This was more than offset by the declines in passenger revenue.

Passenger revenue for the third quarter of 2015 and period-to-period comparisons of related statistics for UAL’s mainline and regional operations are included in the tables in the back of this document.