United Airlines says it made $1 billion in the second quarter and sees strong remainder of 2023

United Airlines said Wednesday it earned more than $1 billion in the second quarter despite canceling 3,800 flights in the last two weeks of June, when it struggled to recover from storms that crippled its key operation in the New York City area.

United indicated that it sees no let-up in strong demand for tickets: It raised its forecast of third-quarter and full-year profit.

The report underscores how airline revenue and profits are soaring as travel bounces back after the pandemic. Big carriers like United are benefitting especially from the strong recovery in international travel after the lifting of COVID-19-related restrictions.

From April through June, more than 2.4 million travelers per day on average went through U.S. airport security checkpoints, virtually identical with numbers from the same period of 2019 and a 10% jump from last year.

Airlines at times have struggled to handle those crowds, although they have hired enough new workers to replace ones they encouraged to quit during the pandemic. United has been hit the hardest this summer.

In late June, United canceled nearly four times as many flights as any other U.S. carrier, according to data from FlightAware. Many of those cancellations occurred at United’s hub in Newark, New Jersey.

CEO Scott Kirby blamed the Federal Aviation Administration for restricting flights at the airport, then apologized for taking a private flight out of the New York area while thousands of United passengers were stranded.

Since then, Kirby has said the airline must consider reducing its schedule in Newark to limit future disruptions.

The airline is also getting a huge boost from cheaper fuel. United spent $1 billion less on fuel than it did in the same quarter last year, when...