Andrew Nocella
Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at United Airlines
It's been an exciting decade at United. Thank you, Linda. At United, we take great pride in our leading RASM results over the last few years. Our segmentation strategies, multiple product choices from basic to Polaris, and network capacity deployment decisions have created strong relative margins for United versus others. Elimination of change fees and the swapping out of single-class RJs from mainline jets has been very positive for United and negative for our competitors.
Turning to our third quarter revenue results, United's top-line revenue grew 2.5% year over year to $14.8 billion on 4.1% more capacity versus the third quarter of '23. Consolidated TRASM was down 1.6% year over year, aligned with our expectations of a challenging domestic industry capacity dynamic in July. As expected, we reached the domestic inflection point. Domestic PRASM was slightly positive in August and September year over year, which was a material improvement from earlier in the quarter where it was down 4%.
United's domestic capacity in 2024 was shaped with the expectation that the industry would remove unprofitable capacity in earnest in Q4. As a result, United expanded slower than most during the first three quarters of the year when capacity dynamics were less favorable. But importantly, our timing was right, tilting our growth to the quarter where the industry conditions would be the best. Network and business model changes due to large financial losses by others are resulting in an improving domestic and near Latin America pricing and yield environment. We expect more of the same in 2025.
The time in our growth push into Europe in 2022 and 2023 proved to be spot on with the recovery in demand post pandemic. This year, we allowed capacity added in 2022 and 2023 to mature, creating good RASM results. We entered Q4 with momentum across the Atlantic as RASM growth was strongest as we exited Q3 at plus 4%. We've gotten pretty good at knowing when and where to grow and, just as importantly, knowing when and where not to grow. While our Asia-Pacific network is solidly profitable, Asia RASM was challenged in the quarter as we continue to face China and South Pacific headwinds driven by simply returning to a more numeralized revenue environment, United expanded Asia capacity by 27% year over year in Q3 and 50% in the last 12 months.
Pivoted capacity across the network remains a focus as we enter Q4. We're in the process of reallocating under-performing narrowbody capacity in our Guam operation to create new revenue pools and connectivity in Tokyo. United's planned Pacific growth will moderate to 7% in Q4 and further again in 2025. We plan to return to a more typical Pacific growth rate once our post-pandemic network is fully restored. With stronger year-over-year performance expected across the Atlantic and Pacific in Q4, United is also seeing a much better global year-over-year RASM outlook versus Q3.
We remain bullish about the long-term growth prospects of our global long-haul flying. The structural shift in profitability is evident in two of the three international entities at United so far in 2024. We're optimistic that performance to Latin America will improve in the coming quarters as the region is seeing significantly -- significant capacity rationalization by low margin airlines. United's network health remains strong. All United hubs and all four entities produced profits in Q3, produced profits year to date and produced profits over the last 12 months.
Corporate demand acceleration was nice to see in September across all regions and is expected to continue into Q4. Contracted corporate revenues were up 13% in September at 95% of 2019 revenues, which is 13 points higher than July and August. United is centered in the largest business market as corporate demand expands, we expect a material tailwind. Load factor for managed business was down nearly 2.5 points in Q3 still versus 2019, and we look forward to a slow but steady gains as we enter 2025.
We've seen eight of the top 10 biggest post-pandemic corporate revenue booking days since the start of September, including the biggest day in United's history. RASM in United's premium cabins was up 2% in Q3. Premium cabin RASM performed better than main cabin in all entities during the quarter. On the other end of the spectrum, basic economy remains an important product with volumes up 21% year over year.
MileagePlus revenue was up 11% and our Kinective Media business continues to spool up as we invest in technology and seatback screens to create new high-margin revenue streams. Active membership in MileagePlus was up 13% year over year and holders of our credit card have reached a new penetration record with credit card spend reaching new records up 9% year over year, showing flyers are increasingly engaged with all United has to offer.
I will end with a quick view of the revenue setup for early 2025. Much of the revenue challenges we have seen in Q3 were on weak yields for domestic leisure customers who booked travel far out. As we look into Q1, we're selling these very same tickets at yields that are much higher. We believe Q1 yield strength will be possible due to the significant schedule changes and business model changes that will continue to be implemented by low-margin airlines.
While there's still a bunch of noise in Q4 due to the multiple calendar shifts that make the positive magnitude of the domestic revenue pivot a bit difficult to see for some, the environment is improving rapidly, just as we anticipated. In addition to the positive leisure yields we expect in Q1, we're clearly seeing an acceleration of return-to-office policies, which are driving corporate traffic revenue growth at an accelerated level and creating a great setup for 2025. Further, as I said earlier, Asia unit revenues have clearly pivoted in Q4. Thanks to the entire team for a job well done.
With that, I'll turn it over to Mike to discuss our financial results.
