United Airlines Holdings said strong booking trends and rising fares are helping it absorb the recent fuel price spike, with the carrier also cutting marginal flying to protect profitability.
Speaking at the JPMorgan Industrials Conference, chief executive Scott Kirby said United had recorded the 10 biggest booking weeks in its history in the first 10 weeks of 2026, with booked yields up 15% to 20% in the latest week.
Kirby said March unit revenue had improved sharply, with RASM now expected to rise 14%, while second-quarter RASM should also be in double digits. United’s goal is to offset the recent fuel increase, which Kirby said amounts to about $4.6 billion.
“We have a goal this year to fully offset the increase in fuel prices,” Kirby said. “The revenue environment is really strong.”
United has already loaded about one point of capacity reductions for May and June, focused on lower-value flying such as Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and red-eye utilisation flying.
The airline is also reducing exposure to the Middle East. Chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella said United has cancelled flying to Tel Aviv and Dubai, which represented about 2% of capacity, and is redeploying some widebodies to domestic transcontinental routes.
Chief financial officer Michael Leskinen said higher fuel prices represent a $400 million quarterly headwind, but added that the airline was having “a lot of success” passing through higher costs in fares.