Carrier says three-week grounding of 737 Max 9 planes after Alaska Airlines blowout cost it profit
United Airlines has blamed a $200m (£161m) hit to its earnings in the first three months of the year on the mid-flight blowout that forced it to ground many of its Boeing planes.
The US carrier said the three-week grounding of 737 Max 9 jets after a cabin panel blew out on a flight operated by rival Alaska Airlines at the start of January contributed to a $124m loss in the three months to the end of March.
United, which had to cancel hundreds of flights, said it would have reported a quarterly profit without the disruption.
In January, US regulators ordered the temporary grounding of 171 Boeing 737 Max 9s after the Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing because a mid-cabin door plug blew out at 16,000ft.
