United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the company's quarterly earnings results, state of air travel demand, Q3 forecast, travel around Newark Liberty International Airport, international travel demand, and more.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby has reported a notable increase in business travel demand, attributing this to greater economic certainty and recent resolutions in global affairs. Despite this uptick, the company has revised its full-year earnings guidance downward, citing a conservative approach due to earlier disruptions and ongoing uncertainties.

Kirby highlighted operational improvements at Newark Liberty International Airport, with the Federal Aviation Administration implementing measures to better align flight capacity with airport infrastructure. He also noted that while U.S. demand for transatlantic travel remains strong, European demand is weaker, though this has not significantly impacted United's overall international business.

United Airlines CEO: Seeing an uptick in demand for business travel

Good morning, Andrew. Scott, thanks for joining us from United's headquarters this morning. I'm curious about your results when you look at the second quarter. Yes, you beat in terms of earnings per share, but you also narrowed your guidance when you look at the full year results. What are you seeing with the economy right now? You know, we're really proud of the results for the first half of the year. Grew earnings, grew margins, but more importantly is what's going to happen going forward. And we did that despite everything that's happening in the macro environment. As we looked at the end of June, we see both an inflection in supply and demand. So for the airline industry, much like last year, starting in mid-August, there's a lot of seats coming out of the industry, which is going to be a tailwind for us. But probably more importantly, we've seen a step up in demand, particularly business demand. I think that's related to less uncertainty in the economy as the tax bill got settled, as the situation in the Middle East got more settled, and as tariffs, while not yet settled, narrowing the range of the outcomes and the market sort of zoning in on what's more likely to happen. You see more and more businesses kind of coming off the sidelines, getting unfrozen, and I think getting back to business and getting back to normal. And we're a pretty good real-time indicator of the economy, and we see that happening, just really like a light switch got flipped at the end of June, particularly for business travel. But then when you look at your guidance, Scott, back in April you said, look, in a stable economy, and that's the wording that you guys used, you think you'll earn $11.50 to $13.50. You're out with your guidance now after yesterday's results, and you say it's going to be $9.00 to $11.00. That's the range that you're targeting. I mean, that's a step down compared to $11.50 to $13.50. Is this all because of Newark, or are there other issues here? Well, we had Newark, but the biggest change is really we try to build conservativism into our guide because stuff does happen. A lot happened in the first half of the year. So our guide right now, if nothing else happens this year, and a lot has happened to start the year, and if demand stays as strong as it is right now, there's going to be upside to the guide. But we try to consciously build conservativism into the guide. We were explicit in the last quarter saying, given everything that happened to start the year, there was no conservativism left in the guide. But we've built that back into the guide now. When you look at Newark, obviously you have a much more stable environment with fewer flights for everybody overall, including for you guys out of Newark, and you've improved your on-time performance there. But do we have to adjust the investor, I should say? Does the investor have to adjust their outlook for when you will be able to get Newark back up to the level of flights that you would like, where it was last year? Because it's going to take some time for air traffic control. You know, I feel better about Newark than I have in my entire career here at United. May and June were tough. You know, what happened in Newark was really hard. But because of that, the FAA in particular has taken the steps needed to put Newark on a permanent, better footing, particularly with slot controls. And they're doing all the work to get the fiber optic is in now, the runway construction is done, all those things are done. And if you look just at June, Newark was the most on-time of the three New York airports. And particularly what we've been asking for for years is to control, manage the capacity at Newark. Have the number of flights equal to the capacity of the airport, and the FAA is now doing that. So it's going to step back up as we go through the year, but it's going to end at a level that is the best for customers. That will be the best for our profitability as well. You know, when it's overscheduled, it's much worse. So we're going to step it back up. So financially, by the time we're to the fourth quarter, I don't think it has any impact on us. And by the time we're at this point next year, I think Newark will be better. I'm certain it will be better for customers, and that will be better for the profitability of United Airlines. So we feel better about the future for Newark than we have in my entire career here because we finally fixed the fundamental issue of matching the airport's capacity to the number of flights. Scott, when you look at transatlantic travel, because you've done so much expansion, not just to Europe, but some other transatlantic areas, when you look at that and the demand that has been there, are you worried about the lower dollar and the fact that it's become more expensive for many people to go to Europe? Or are you not seeing that reflected in the booking so far? You know, really, for U.S. point of sale, it has been strong. Actually, it's up year over year. European point of sale, as widely reported, is a little bit weak, so fewer Europeans are coming to the United States. But U.S. point of sale is 80% of our international business, and that has remained strong despite what's happened with the dollar.

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