United Airlines Holdings Inc. is abandoning a US$2.25-billion sale of junk bonds after the deal fell flat with investors.

The company “has decided not to proceed with its previously announced proposed offering,” according to a regulatory filing late Friday by United.

The airline sweetened the yield to 11 per cent from about nine per cent, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, due to weak demand for the three- and five-year notes. The weak reception signaled the limits to investor appetite for bonds from companies hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic after a surge in debt offerings.

United, which is getting US$5 billion in payroll support from the U.S. government, is rushing to raise additional money to ride out the worst crisis in the history of the airline industry. In the U.S., passenger totals have tumbled more than 90 per cent as the coronavirus has all but erased travel demand.