United Airlines has reported full-year 2014 net income of $1.97 billion, an increase of 89 percent year-over-year, or $5.06 per diluted share, excluding $834 million of special items.

Including special items, UAL reported full-year net income of $1.13 billion, or $2.93 per diluted share.

UAL reported fourth-quarter 2014 net income of $461 million, an increase of 86 percent year-over-year, or $1.20 per diluted share, excluding $433 million of special items.

Including special items, UAL reported fourth-quarter 2014 net income of $28 million, or $0.07 per diluted share.

Full-year 2014 consolidated unit costs, excluding special charges, third-party business expenses, fuel and profit sharing, increased 1.3 per cent year-over-year on a consolidated capacity increase of 0.3 per cent.

Full-year 2014 CASM, including those items, decreased 1.6 per cent year-over-year.

“Thanks to the good work of the United team, we reported a $2 billion profit for 2014, excluding special items,” said Jeff Smisek, UAL chairman, president and chief executive officer.

“We’re starting 2015 as a better airline, and we expect to generate far better results.

“I’m excited about what we will do this year to improve our operations, our product, and our customer service, focusing on growing our core earnings and margins.

“For the first quarter, we expect our pre-tax margin to be between five and seven per cent, excluding special items.”

For the fourth quarter of 2014, total revenue was $9.3 billion, a decrease of 0.2 percent year-over-year.

Fourth-quarter consolidated passenger revenue increased 1.3 per cent to $8.1 billion, compared to the same period in 2013.

Ancillary revenue per passenger in the fourth quarter increased 9.7 percent year-over-year to more than $22 per passenger.

Fourth-quarter cargo revenue grew 18.2 per cent to $260 million driven by higher volumes year-over-year, as cargo traffic recovered from the prior year’s lower bookings.

Other revenue in the fourth quarter decreased 14.3 per cent year-over-year to $970 million mostly due to the company choosing to discontinue an agreement to sell fuel to a third party.

The corresponding expense decline appears in third-party business expense.

Consolidated revenue passenger miles increased 0.1 per cent and consolidated available seat miles increased 0.9 per cent year-over-year for the fourth quarter, resulting in a fourth-quarter consolidated load factor of 81.7 per cent.

Fourth-quarter 2014 consolidated PRASM increased 0.4 per cent and consolidated yield increased 1.3 per cent compared to the fourth quarter of 2013.