A United Airlines jet is parked at a gate at the Manchester Airport in New Hampshire.

The Providence Journal / Bill Murphy

United Airlines’ parent UAL Corp.’s stock rose the most since the company left bankruptcy two years ago after saying it will cut 7,000 jobs and free up cash under a new credit-card agreement with JPMorgan Chase & Co.

UAL announced the moves yesterday as it reported a $2.73-billion second-quarter net loss that was narrower than analysts’ estimates when some costs are excluded.

The payroll reductions amount to about 13 percent of UAL’s employees, and push the total to about 26,000 across the U.S. industry. United, the world’s second-largest airline, is among the carriers boosting fares and shrinking their fleets and work forces to stem losses from record jet-fuel prices.

With six of the eight largest U.S. airlines now reporting second-quarter results, the group’s collective net loss is $5.8 billion. Like UAL, American Airlines parent AMR Corp., Delta Air Lines Inc., Continental Airlines Inc., US Airways Group Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. all posted deficits within the past week. Northwest Airlines Corp. and Southwest Airlines Co. are scheduled to release earnings this week.

UAL “made significant strides in shoring up liquidity,” James Corridore, a Standard & Poor’s equity analyst in New York, said in a note to investors in which he raised his rating to “hold” from “sell.” “Liquidity is less of a concern.”

UAL jumped $3.42, or 69 percent, to $8.41 in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. It was the biggest advance since the shares started trading in January 2006, before Chicago-based UAL’s Feb. 1 bankruptcy exit that year.

The Chase accord means that UAL will have to keep only $25 million in reserve for credit-card processing, allowing it to tap about $350 million in previously restricted cash, chief financial officer Jake Brace said on a conference call. UAL also will receive a $600-million infusion from the sale of frequent-flier miles to Chase for distribution to credit-card holders.

“We got what we needed out of that contract,” Brace said. “We got a higher price per mile. That was important to us, and the liquidity.”

UAL said it ended the quarter with $2.9 billion in unrestricted cash and $655 million in restricted cash.

The new job-cut total adds to UAL’s previous announcement of the elimination of 1,500 salaried positions. UAL said it will shrink its work force by 5,500 hourly employees by the end of next year. The carrier had about 52,500 workers as of March 31.

“Much of the requirement for people is driven by flights and seats,” said Jon Ash, president of Washington-based consulting firm InterVistas-GA2. “When you take flights and seats out of the system, you’ve got to take people out.”

United also boosted this year’s goal for non-fuel cost savings by 25 percent to $500 million and said it will further trim global seating capacity by as much as 2 percent in the fourth quarter and next year.

Excluding $2.6 billion in non-cash charges for a writedown and severance, the second-quarter loss was $151 million, or $1.19 a share, UAL said. On that basis, UAL was projected to report a loss of $2.05 a share, the average of 10 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Year-earlier earnings were $274 million, or $1.83 a share. Sales rose 3 percent to $5.37 billion.

Even with yesterday’s share boost, UAL remains the worst performer among the 14-member Bloomberg U.S. Airlines Index. The stock has fallen 77 percent this year.

“Our industry is challenged as never before by the unrelenting price of oil,” chief executive officer Glenn Tilton, 60, said in the statement.

UAL’s second-quarter loss included previously announced costs of $2.3 billion to eliminate so-called goodwill, $194 million tied to retiring Boeing Co. 737s, $82 million for severance and $54 million for projects that have been terminated or indefinitely deferred.