United Airlines says business travel is improving, echoing comments from rivals Delta and American.

UAL Corp., which runs the nation's third-largest airline, says it lost $240 million during the fourth quarter. That's much smaller than the $1.32 billion loss during the same period last year.

Chief Financial Officer Kathryn Mikells says business and premium traffic is strengthening. She says better traffic plus lower costs put United on the road to "closing the profitability gap."

An improvement in business travel is one of the key things analysts have been watching for as a sign that United's prospects are getting brighter.

Revenue fell 7.8 percent to $4.19 billion.