United Airlines will continue to look outside U.S. borders for future growth, saying it will focus on adding flights to other countries rather than domestically.

"We don't see lots of growth opportunities in the U.S.," Jake Brace, United's chief financial officer, said this morning during a transportation conference in New York. "The growth opportunities seem to be international."

United scaled back domestic flights significantly during its recent three-year bankruptcy. The company, which emerged from Chapter 11 in February of last year, has instead focused more on adding service to Mexico, Europe and Asia, where it faces less competition and gleans higher profits than on domestic flights.

United's international growth strategy could get a boost from tentative plans to open up air travel between the U.S. and the European Union, even though the carrier will face new competitors on its flights to and from London's Heathrow Airport.

The so-called "open skies" agreement would relax restrictions that limit the number of U.S. airlines that can serve a given European airport. Currently, only United, American Airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic can fly between the U.S. and Heathrow, for instance.

Allowing more airlines to flying into Heathrow obviously will lead to more competition for United. But the carrier says it will open up more opportunities elsewhere in Europe and allow it to work more closely with its code-share partners.

EU officials are set to vote on the agreement Thursday.

"Over the long term the Heathrow operation will face more competition, and we accept that," Brace said at the conference, sponsored by JP Morgan. "Heathrow is not a huge driver of our cash flow. We may suffer a little bit in the short term, but. . .open skies is the right way to go."

Brace also reiterated that United is still a proponent of industry consolidation, even though there seem to be few willing partners.

"We aren't going to predict whether it happens in 2007 or not," Brace said. "It's something we believe should happen. The airline industry does not need six network carriers."