Following a mid-air cabin rupture on an Alaska Airlines flight in January, the airline was compelled to suspend its Boeing 737 MAX 9 fleet for three weeks.
According to United, this caused it to post a $164 million pre-tax loss for the first quarter.
In any other case, the airline claimed it “would have reported a quarterly profit”.
United’s shares increased by more than 5% following the announcement, despite the fact that the loss was less than what Wall Street had anticipated.
United is the only airline with a larger fleet than any of its competitors, with 79 Boeing 737 MAX 9s, second only to Alaska Airlines.