United Airlines reported on Thursday, July 3rd, that their passenger load factor declined for the month of June.  The traffic of the airline decreased by 3.6%, and the airline’s capacity slipped by 0.6%.  The airline states that the total revenue passenger miles that were scheduled decreased from £5.4 billion to £5.2 billion.  They also said that the available seat miles during last month slipped from about £6.1 billion to £6 billion.

Airlines all over the word have a strong burden placed upon them with the soaring prices on fuel, and the situation in the United States is aggravated even further by the decrease in travel demand, which is due to the slowdown of the economy.  Many of the airlines are grounding their flights, forming alliances with other airlines, increasing their airfares, and reducing the number of their staff, trying to at least make a small profit.  United Airlines announced recently that they will be eliminating up to 1,600 of their staff and ground 100 of their aircrafts.  They also increased the cost of their domestic airfare by a little over £30 for a round trip in order to dull the impact of soaring fuel prices.  United Airlines and Continental Airlines were having a merger talk, but due to oppositions from unions and other hurdles, the merger was called off.

United Airways also said on Thursday that, in comparison with last year, the traffic has slipped by 4.8% for North America, the Pacific sector has decreased by 7.8%, Latin America by 6.3%, but Atlantic increased by 8.4%.  The capacity of the airline, also in comparison with last year, decreased by 2.4% in North America, 2.7% in the Pacific sector, 5.1% in Latin America, but increased by 11.1% in the Atlantic sector.  At the close of business on Thursday, regular trade closed at £1.94 per share, which was down by £0.075, on more than 6 million shares.

Visit www.united.com for booking information on United Airlines.