United Airlines Holdings UAL

“the major international airports that we operate with our partners, United and Southwest”

Archer again names United Airlines as a U.S. infrastructure partner, operating at major international airports like Newark, LAX and SFO for its planned air-taxi network.

“For what it's worth, the only remaining successful LCC around the globe in my view, is Ryanair. And guess what? That's because they're the only LCC that stayed true to their founding principles and don't fly to high-cost airports like London, Heathrow or Charles de Gaulle.”

United's CEO cites Ryanair as the only enduring low-cost-carrier success story globally, attributing it to Ryanair's discipline in avoiding high-cost airports rather than expanding into them.

“our partnership with JetBlue. They're a customer-focused airline. They have the same DNA. They may not be as big as us, but they have the same kind of DNA for how to take care of customers and caring about customers. And this is a great way to have a built-in frequent flyer base on both sides of the Hudson and get our metal back into JFK, which is important to our brand.”

United highlights its Blue Sky partnership with JetBlue as a way to regain a presence at JFK and build a combined frequent-flyer base across both sides of the Hudson.

“We fly 6,000 flights a day. So a couple of new routes aren't that big of an issue for us. But I guess I feel complemented when other airlines feel like they're worried about us getting ahead and have to fly routes you're going to lose money for them.”

Asked about Delta's new Los Angeles-Hong Kong and Chicago O'Hare routes, United's CEO downplayed the competitive threat and implied such expansion moves by rivals are often money-losing.

“But what I'd say is I do respect Delta. In fact, on a conceptual level, much of what we've been trying to do for the last 15 years at the airlines I've been at is win brand loyal customers. And I think they were one of the first airlines maybe the first in the U.S. to really prove that winning brand loyal airlines was the winning formula -- winning brand loyal customers was the winning formula for airlines.”

United's CEO frames Delta as the only other airline pursuing the same brand-loyal, revenue-diverse strategy, expecting the two carriers' margins to converge near each other while both pull further ahead of the rest of the industry.

“Boeing is doing a great job on narrow-bodies. So we're seeing MAX deliveries actually slightly ahead of the schedule we were planning on. So really pleased with that and all evidence suggests that they're going to maintain that trajectory. On the wide-body front, 787s, they haven't got to plan yet. We're hearing good things, but there's also some engine constraint wide- body longer term.”

United's narrow-body MAX deliveries from Boeing are running slightly ahead of schedule, while Boeing's 787 wide-body deliveries remain behind plan amid ongoing engine supply constraints, suggesting Boeing's narrow-body recovery is outpacing its wide-body program.