UAL expecting to announce more opportunities to enhance liquidity

By Jennifer Lanning Drey

Portland, Ore., June 11 - UAL Corp. expects to have news on additional liquidity-enhancing opportunities for the company by the time of its second-quarter earnings conference call, Greg Taylor, senior vice president of planning and strategy for UAL, said Thursday.

"We continue to be quite active in the markets going forward, looking for additional liquidity raises, Taylor said while speaking at the Bank of America and Merrill Lynch Global Transportation Conference in New York.

UAL raised nearly $500 million in the first quarter through a series of small engine and aircraft transactions and other monetizations.

The company has $1.7 billion of unencumbered assets, which it believes will allow it to raise additional liquidity even in the tough credit environment, Taylor said.

UAL had $2.5 million of unrestricted cash at the end of the first quarter.

In addition to looking to raise new liquidity, UAL also continues to be tight with its capital spending. The company originally budgeted $450 million for capital expenditures in 2009 but has since reduced that figure to about $350 million.

At the same time, UAL has begun considering a fleet-replacement strategy, as approximately half of its fleet will be at least 25 years old within the next 10 years, Taylor said.

The company has entered into a competition among airplane manufacturers in the hopes that the slow environment for new orders will make it an ideal time to begin to purchase new aircraft, he said.

UAL is the parent company of Chicago-based United Airlines.

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