United Airlines CEO Doubles Down on Growth Strategy as Stock Rides Tailwind

With many rival airlines scaling back plans to add travel routes and seats in a bid to protect margins, Oscar Munoz is taking United Airlines in a different direction. The No. 3 U.S. air carrier is forging ahead with a strategy to boost its flight network by another 4 percent to 6 percent next year after an estimated 5 percent network growth in 2018, Munoz, CEO of United Airlines since 2015, said on Wednesday. The growth plan has allowed United to claw back market share in a competitive U.S. airline sector and boost its profitability. Traditionally capacity growth in the airline business has come at a cost to yields because it can drive down fares.So far, United has bucked the industry trend, increasing unit revenues - a closely watched metric that compares airlines' sales to available seat miles - at a faster pace than rivals American Airlines and Delta Air Lines .When the airline unveiled an aggressive plan to add capacity in the middle of a price war with low cost carriers in January, the stock of parent company United Continental Holdings fell 7 percent.But United investors have more than reversed course, sending its shares up about 30 percent so far this year against a roughly 2 percent drop on the S&P 500.United has overhauled its hubs in Chicago, Houston, Denver, Newark, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco with 220 new flights and better coast-to-coast connecting options.