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that United first teased this past August.
Those new colors have already started to make it onto some of United’s updated cabin interiors, such as with the company’s new international-style “Premium Plus” seats.
Now, they’ll also be on bold display as United unveils the uniforms that have been in the works for more than a year, with fashion designer Tracy Reese and retailers Brooks Brothers and Carhartt working behind the scenes to craft the look and newly designed pieces.
“United should stand toe-to-toe with any global airline in terms in of how good their employees look and the quality of their uniforms,” Reese said to USA TODAY’s Today in the Sky blog.
“We wanted them to be proud of what they’re wearing, but I also I didn’t want to be cookie-cutter like the typical uniforms that are out there,” Brooks Brothers designer Brian Lane added about the challenge of perfecting the new look.
ARCHIVES: ‘Passport Plum?’ Delta rolls out new uniforms for 64,000 frontline workers
TODAY IN THE SKY: Make room, ‘Rhapsody Blue’; United adding some new colors
He said it was important to present workers with something that would give them an emotional lift.
“When you get on the plane, they’re the first people you see,” Lane said. “They want to express their pride and their uniform to the customer who comes in. Because at the end of the day, flying is still something special.”
The new designs for flight attendants and customer-service agents will feature some of the most sweeping changes to United’s current color scheme, which is heavy on neutral blues and grays. (see photos above)
A purple-hued dress accented with a curving light-blue stripe will be among the options for female attendants. Purplish “Atlantic Amethyst” ties are among the accessories for male attendants. Customer service uniforms will include United’s signature “Rhapsody Blue” as the main color, but they also have pops of United’s bright teal-like color dubbed “Pacific Blue.”
The uniforms will be worn by all of United’s customer-facing staff – everyone from pilots and flight attendants to airport gate agents and ramp workers.
TODAY IN THE SKY: First look: United shows off its first Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner (uniform story continues below)
More than 70,000 American Airlines workers debut new uniforms Tuesday
United’s effort comes after its three biggest U.S. rivals – American, Delta and Southwest – have each already rolled out their own new employee uniforms since 2016.
The look of those carrier’s uniforms generally were well-received, but American ran into unexpected headwinds after some workers complained the new garments were making them sick. American has repeatedly said it could find no evidence linking the uniforms to the reported illnesses, but the subsequent back-and-forth with the union has remained a pain point for the airline since the rollout.
United believes it’s taken steps to make sure its workers are on board with its new options.
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) that represents United’s cabin crew went so far as to include a staff hygienist in United’s testing of fabrics considered for the uniforms.
Saying the uniforms “are integral to every part of our job,” union spokesman Jeff Heisey added: “When AFA staff participates from the beginning of the process with our experts of staff and our flight attendant representatives, the outcome is better for flight attendants. This uniform rollout is the product of close coordination with the company and union – and we know it will mean a better result for flight attendants.”
TODAY IN THE SKY: December route roundup: Where airlines are adding, and cutting, service
United has leaned heavily on employees for input, sending Reese, Brooks Brothers and Carhartt on frequent trips to United hubs to solicit feedback from the workers they were designing the uniforms for.
Reese credited that employee road shows for “allowing us to talk to so many employees and travel to all the hubs and see the customer-service agents and flight attendants in action.”
She added that the in-person visits, which began in August 2017, helped her and the other designers “understand the job and understand what that required of the clothing. That made the process longer, but it was so important.”
TODAY IN THE SKY: United’s Boeing 747 farewell flight was one to remember
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Airlines
United Continental Holdings shares surged Wednesday after the airline posted stronger revenue and profits than Wall Street expected in the fourth quarter, while issuing a sunny outlook for earnings growth in 2019.
The company’s shares were up more than 7 percent in morning trading Wednesday.
United’s unit revenue, a measure of how much an airline makes for each seat it flies a mile and a gauge of airfares, rose 5 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, at the high end of the company’s estimate. The airline said revenue grew in each of the regions it operates, while domestic revenues grew at the fastest clip: 12 percent.
The results, which the airline released on Tuesday after the market closed, represent a sharp turnaround for United. A year ago, United CEO Oscar Munoz struggled to persuade investors the company’s plan to expand as much as 6 percent a year would pay off. But the airline has topped earnings estimates and plans to continue with capacity expansion of as much as 6 percent in the first quarter.
The Chicago-based airline said it expects unit revenue to be flat to up 3 percent in the first three months of this year from the same period in 2018.
The parent company of United Airlines said revenue in the last three months of 2018 was $10.49 billion, higher than the $10.34 billion analysts polled by Refinitiv were expecting. Net income, however, fell 20 percent from a year earlier to $462 million, as costs rose. United said its fuel bill in the fourth quarter was 27 percent higher than a year earlier.
In the first quarter of 2019, United expects to post earnings of $1 a share on an adjusted basis, above analysts’ estimates of 84 cents.
Its per-share earnings in the quarter were $2.41 on an adjusted basis, compared with the $2.04 that was expected.
Earlier Tuesday, Delta Air Lines said it expected its unit revenue to grow by a maximum of 2 percent in the first quarter due to the U.S. partial government shutdown and the timing of the Easter holiday in the second quarter.
United’s Munoz on Wednesday said the company isn’t seeing a “significant” impact on reservations.
“There is some impact there,” Munoz told CNBC’s Phil LeBeau in an interview. “It’s not discernible and it’s not significant. Clearly the longer this goes, of course there’s going to be impact, and we do worry about that.”
United expects to earn between $10 and $12 a share on an adjusted basis this year, in line with estimates.
The airline’s executives will hold a call with analysts at 10:30 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
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United Airlines shares jumped as much as 6 percent following a strong top and bottom line beat for the airline’s fourth-quarter earnings report. United turned in a profit of $2.41 a share for the most recent quarter, better than the $2.04 a share expected by Wall Street. The airline also gave a forecast for first-quarter earnings of $1 a share, topping analyst estimates of 84 cents a share.
Snap shares fell more than 8 percent after the company announced that CFO Tim Stone is resigning to pursue other opportunities. He joined the company in May. The company also said it expects fourth-quarter results to come in near the top end of its guidance. Snap is scheduled to report those results on Feb. 5.
Apple launched three smart battery cases for its latest generation of iPhones. The tech giant’s new offerings can be ordered now and Apple says they will be available to purchase in stores on Jan. 18.
PGE Corporation shares dropped as much 8 percent, continuing to to crater after closing down more than 17.5 percent in trading Tuesday. The utility lost longtime board director Roger Kimmel, with PGE’s stock adding to its losses of more than 80 percent over the last three months. The massive California utility is facing bankruptcy after its alleged part in helping spark a wave of historic wildfires in California.
Petrobras reported fiscal year 2018 production of 2.6 million barrels of oil and gas per day. The Brazilian energy giant projects in 2019 it will grow that total oil and natural gas production to 2.8 million barrels per day.
— CNBC’s Christine Wang contributed to this report.
(Bloomberg) — United Continental Holdings Inc. surged more than 6 percent in early trading after crushing Wall Street earnings estimates and saying its financial momentum from last year will carry over into 2019.
Adjusted profit is set to increase again this year, United said in a statement late Tuesday, as the airline enters the second year of an aggressive expansion plan. Revenue for each seat flown a mile, a pricing-power gauge also known as unit revenue, will extend recent gains with a 3 percent increase this quarter, although a percentage point of that is at risk from the U.S. government shutdown, United said.
The Chicago-based carrier sounded its upbeat note after Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. raised doubts earlier this month about their ability to push fares higher. United began a drive last year to win back market share at key airports, and the effort paid off as it surpassed Delta as the No. 2 U.S. carrier by traffic, trailing only American.
“Overall the guidance is encouraging as revenue growth continues into 2019 despite Easter moving to the second quarter and a weaker macro environment in certain international markets,” Cowen Co. analyst Helane Becker said in a note to clients. “The company did a great job executing their strategic plan in 2018.”
The shares jumped 6.2 percent to $86.20 before the start of regular trading Wednesday in New York. United climbed 24 percent in 2018, the only advance among major U.S. carriers. Even after that advance, however, Delta remains the world’s most valuable airline, with a market value of $32.8 billion. United trails in that measure by more than $10 billion.
Boeing Order
United also disclosed orders for two dozen more Boeing Co. 737 Max single-aisle aircraft and four 777-300ER wide-body jetliners. Based on list prices, the deal would be valued at more than $4 billion depending on which variant of 737 Max the airline is taking, which United didn’t specify. As of Sept. 30, United had firm orders for 154 Max aircraft, mostly for the largest Max 10 model.
United’s adjusted fourth-quarter earnings rose to $2.41 a share, compared with the $2.05 average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales increased 11 percent to $10.5 billion, compared with the $10.3 billion that Wall Street expected.
For last year as a whole, adjusted earnings rose to $9.13 a share, easily exceeding the $8.78 average of analyst estimates. This year, United said it expects to earn $10 to $12 a share, compared with analysts’ forecast of $10.99. By 2020, the company has told investors it will earn as much as $13 a share.
Boosting Hubs
To bolster profit, United began an ambitious three-year expansion program a year ago to regain what it considers its “natural share” of travelers at three mid-continent hubs: Chicago, Denver and Houston. United has reworked its flight schedules in Chicago and Houston and plans to begin flying its adjustments at Denver next month. The changes are designed to increase higher-yield connecting traffic.
Beyond its hub revamp, United has focused on improving schedule reliability, as well as customer-service training for flight attendants and other employees who interact with travelers. United also moved to a redesigned revenue-management system last year, which has improved the airline’s ability to forecast seat demand and boost profits.
Capacity Expansion
United said its first-quarter seating capacity would climb as much as 6 percent, in line with the long-term growth goals it unveiled a year ago.
For unit revenue, Delta forecast a first-quarter gain of no more than 2 percent, including the impact of the government shutdown. American is expected to issue its outlook when it reports earnings next week.
The closing of large swaths of the federal government is exacerbating fears of weaker U.S. economic growth this year, putting airline earnings at risk. United has a hub at Washington-Dulles, the capital’s main international airport. The government’s partial shutdown costs $50 million per day in direct domestic travel spending, the U.S. Travel Association said in a blog post last week.
To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Bachman in Dallas at jbachman2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brendan Case at bcase4@bloomberg.net, Tony Robinson, Cecile Daurat
For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
Jennifer Newton for MailOnline
Confidential information about United Airlines’ top corporate clients has been leaked on to the internet.
A blogger posted a picture of a promotional poster created by the airline that showed that Apple is its biggest corporate customer, with the tech giant booking a staggering 50 business class seats a day on its No1 route alone – San Francisco to Shanghai. These usually cost around $2,500 (£2,000).
The US-based carrier revealed that Apple spends $150million (£115million) each year on flights, with San Francisco to Shanghai accounting for $35million (£27million), or 25 per cent, of the tech company’s spend with the airline.
A blogger posted this picture of a promotional poster created by United Airlines that revealed who its top corporate clients are
The poster, which was displayed in an employee-only area of San Francisco Airport and posted to Twitter by blogger @LAFlyr, went on to list the top 10 ‘primary routes for Apple’.
After Shanghai they are Hong Kong (HKG), Taiwan (TPE), London (LHR), Seoul (ICN), Singapaore (SIN), Munich (MUC), Tokyo (HND), Beijing (PEK) and Tel Aviv (TLV).
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It is thought that Shanghai is the most popular destination for Apple as it is the hub for connecting flights to Shenzhen and Zhengzhou, where the tech giant has factories.
The poster also explained that the next three biggest-spending clients are Facebook, Google and healthcare company Roche. They all spend over $34million (£26million) with the airline each year.
The next biggest corporate clients according to the poster are Deloitte, McKinsey and Company, Cisco, Applied Material, PWC and Oracle, as they all spend between $12million (£9million) and $17million (£13million) with the airline.
Companies spending over $10million (£7.8million) are Intel, Visa and Chevron, the poster claimed.
At the bottom of the banner was a message to staff warning them that the figures were confidential and not to be shared.
However, @LAFlyr’s picture was quickly retweeted hundreds of times and viewed by thousands before being deleted.
Many on Twitter couldn’t believe the information had been printed on a large promotional poster
Many on Twitter couldn’t believe the information had been printed in such an easy-to-view manner.
Michael Hodapp said: ‘They actually printed this customer data out and put it on a banner? That’s insane.’
While Jay Goldberg tweeted: ‘Pretty sure Apple won’t be United’s biggest account for long after Apple sees this. I’ve seen Apple fire suppliers for much smaller disclosures. The first rule of being an Apple supplier….’
The poster was displayed in a United Airlines employee-only area of San Francisco Airport
A spokesperson for United Airlines told MailOnline Travel: ‘This information was provided to United employees as part of a limited pilot project focused on San Francisco to highlight the importance of our corporate relationships and was not intended to be shared publicly. The project has since been discontinued.
‘A small group of customers were mentioned by name on this material and each has been contacted directly and we are working to address their concerns.
‘The material has been taken down and moving forward we will review and further restrict sharing of internal customer information to a strictly need-to-know audience.’
One Apple employee who doesn’t fly with United Airlines is the company’s chief executive Tim Cook.
The 58-year-old, who was paid $102m (£76m) in 2017, is furnished with the use of a private jet for his ‘personal safety and security’, according to a regulatory filing from Apple.
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United Airlines has released a statement following the circulation of a tweet that showed Apple as its largest account, spending $150 million on flights every single year.
In a statement to Kif Leswing, United Airlines said that the information was displayed as part of a (intended to be) private project that has since been discontinued.
United Airlines comment on the Apple sign pic.twitter.com/7njURPxz3j
— kif (@kifleswing) January 14, 2019
United said it contacted the companies featured in the banner and is ‘working to address their concerns’. Translation: Apple wasn’t very happy that this information leaked out.
The banner showed that Apple spends $150 million annually with United, primarily with flights between San Francisco International and Shanghai Pudong airports.
It said that Apple buys 50 business class seats every single day, presumably to transport members of Apple engineering and manufacturing to visit production facilities in China.
Big companies don’t like details like this being public knowledge, even if there isn’t anything too sensational about a big corporation buying a lot of flights for its employees.
United was aware of this from the outset of course, but they were still a bit sloppy in even revealing these details to a private group. If you look closely at the banners, the small text at the bottom reads ‘This is confidential information. Please do not share outside of United’. Clearly, this direction was not respected by whoever took the photo.
Today’s statement from United says that they will ‘further restrict sharing of internal customer information’ in the future.
Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:
United execued its $456 million loan agreement to an affiliate of Synergy Group Corp. and Avianca Holdings, S.A.
United Airlines, Inc. provides air transportation services in North America, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Sidley represented United Airlines with Kevin Lewis (Picture) and included Anna Ha, Eduardo Marquez (MA), Alan Gabbay and John Bonacum (Global Finance).
Involved fees earner: John Bonacum – Sidley Austin LLP; Alan Gabbay – Sidley Austin LLP; Anna Ha – Sidley Austin LLP; Kevin Lewis – Sidley Austin LLP; Eduardo Marquez Certucha – Sidley Austin LLP;
Law Firms: Sidley Austin LLP;
Clients: United Airlines;
United Polaris lounge seating area at Los Angeles International Airport. Credit: PRNewsfoto/United Airlines.
United Airlines has opened its United Polaris business class lounge at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in the US.
Located in Terminal 7 between Gates 73 and 75A, the lounge imitates the distinct culture of Southern California and offers a host of food and beverages to member passengers.
The new lounge is said to be United’s most recent investment at LAX after it recently completed a $573m renovation of Terminal 7.
United Airlines California president Janet Lamkin said: “Los Angeles is one of United’s most important gateways, particularly to Asia and Australia, and this lounge provides our customers with a best-in-class experience before they board their flights, especially for those customers with late-night departures and early-morning arrivals.
“We continue to expand our presence in Los Angeles, connecting customers from all over California and the US to our global network. The addition of the United Polaris lounge is yet another way we provide customers with the best possible travel experience at LAX.”
United Polaris lounge at LAX is spread across 12,000ft2 and features 140 seats with a range of seating areas for productivity, privacy and dining.
The lounge also features shower suites with rainfall showerheads as well as private daybeds outfitted with Saks Fifth Avenue bedding.
The new lounge joins other United Polaris lounges located at Chicago O’Hare Airport, George Bush Intercontinental in Houston, Newark Liberty Airport and San Francisco Airport.
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