United Continental has reported third-quarter 2012 net income of $520 million, or $1.35 per diluted share, excluding $514 million of net special charges.

This represents a 99 per cent fall from the $653 million recoded for the same period a year earlier.

Including special charges, UAL reported third-quarter 2012 net income of $6 million, or $0.02 per diluted share.

“I want to thank my co-workers for working together to help us earn more than half a billion dollars of profit this quarter,” said Jeff Smisek, UAL’s president and chief executive officer.

“We overcame tough operational challenges and remain focused on running a reliable airline, delivering to our customers the benefits of our product investments and delivering to our co-workers tools and training to provide good customer service.”

For the third quarter of 2012, total revenue was $9.9 billion, a decrease of 2.6 percent year-over-year.

Third-quarter consolidated passenger revenue decreased 2.6 percent to $8.8 billion, compared to the same period in 2011.
 
Consolidated revenue passenger miles (RPMs) decreased 1.5 percent on a consolidated capacity (available seat miles) decrease of 1.4 percent year-over-year for the third quarter, resulting in a third-quarter consolidated load factor of 85.2 percent. 

Consolidated yield for the third quarter of 2012 decreased 1.2 percent year-over-year. 

Third-quarter 2012 consolidated PRASM decreased 1.3 percent compared to the same period in 2011.

Mainline RPMs in the third quarter of 2012 decreased 1.9 percent on a mainline capacity decrease of 1.4 percent year-over-year, resulting in a third-quarter mainline load factor of 85.7 percent.

Mainline yield for the third quarter of 2012 decreased 1.5 percent compared to the same period in 2011.

Third-quarter 2012 mainline PRASM decreased 2.0 percent year-over-year.

“In September, we entered the next phase of aircraft redeployment, as we continue to match the right aircraft to the right routes.

“Early results of our redeployment efforts are promising, and we are eager to optimize our global network and realize the full revenue potential of our merger,” said Jim Compton, UAL’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer.

Passenger revenue for the third quarter of 2012 and period-to-period comparisons of related statistics for UAL’s mainline and regional operations are as follows:

Year-over-year cargo and other revenue in the third quarter of 2012 decreased 2.3 percent, or $27 million, to $1.1 billion.