United just cut a bunch of flights during hours many depend on

The airline says it will 'continue this approach into the fourth quarter of 2025.'

Apr 17, 2025 - 16:56

United just cut a bunch of flights during hours many depend on

With tariff impacts and low consumer sentiment seeping into people's decisions to travel, multiple airlines have started feeling these economic rumbles in their bottom line.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) CEO Ed Bastian named "broad economic uncertainty" behind the carrier's stalled growth. While predicting profit increases of between 6% and 8% at the end of 2024, the Atlanta-based airline later slashed its annual forecast to just 2% growth. Low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines (FRON) has also recently lowered its first-quarter forecast from 14% to no more than 5%.

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United calls its morning flight cuts 'prudent adjustments'

As one of the country's "big three" airlines, United Airlines (UAL) also told investors that it is feeling the brunt of lower traveler numbers.

While the Chicago-based carrier announced a quarterly profit of $387 million in the first three months of 2025, United also said that it is "removing four percentage points of scheduled domestic capacity starting in the third quarter of 2025."

Flights that leave early in the morning or late at night will feel the brunt of the cuts. Some routes have already been axed, but the most drastic cuts will take place in the second half of the year come July.

"United is also continuing to make prudent adjustments to the utilization rate of its fleet, including ongoing reductions in off-peak flying on lower-demand days," the airline said.

The cut choice was justified by numbers showing United that its domestic flight traffic was down by 3.9% in the first quarter while international traffic rose by 5.2% — this comes largely from U.S. travelers booking European and Mexican holidays. The number of international tourists coming into the U.S. continues to be down, while United saw the highest dropoff from Canadian travelers in particular at a 9% decrease in the first quarter.

Scott Kirby has led United Airlines since May 2020.
Image source: TheStreet

United CFO just said we are 'marching toward a recession'

Government staff travel dovetailed by 50% as a result of Trump's budget cuts, while an atmosphere of general uncertainty is causing many to put off any discretionary travel.

In further efforts to balance its finances, United will be retiring 21 planes earlier than expected this year.

"I feel like we're marching toward a recession scenario," United's Chief Financial Officer Michael Leskinen said during the April 15 investor call.

More on travel:

"There's a tremendous amount of uncertainty in the economy right now, and we've already seen a reduction in demand but we've seen stability at that lower demand level in the last six weeks," United's Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella told investors.

Despite the bumps and cuts that will affect customers who take these flights, full-service airlines are in general better positioned to withstand economic uncertainty than budget ones. The $13.2 billion in revenue that United reported this quarter is still a record, while premium bookings were up 9.2% — 7.4% for business seats and 7.6% for premium economy. Budget carriers do not have a traditional business class and so have fewer revenue streams in this regard.

"The big differentiator will be airlines that have healthier balance sheets overall," Tom Fitzgerald, an analyst with TD Cowen, told TheStreet at the start of April.