The companies on the Global 500 employ 70.2 million people, and their revenue represents more than one-third of the world’s GDP.

Fortune Global 500

With a combined revenue of $21 trillion and $2.1 trillion in profits, the 2026 Fortune 500 is the definitive list of America's largest companies.

Fortune 500

AI is a major force shaping this year’s list—but it’s far from the only story.

World's Most Admired Companies

This is the 40th year for our annual Fastest-Growing Companies list, which ranks companies based on growth in revenue, profits, and stock returns.

100 Fastest-Growing Companies

The corporations on our annual list of the world's 500 largest companies combined to generate $41.7 trillion in revenue over the past year.

Almost $20 trillion in revenue—and a record-breaking $1.87 trillion in profits. Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive list of the biggest companies in America.

Leaders in all industries rely more than ever on Big Tech—and appreciate the giants that deliver, at scale, without drama.

The corporations on our annual list posted aggregate revenues of $41 trillion for the second year in a row.

Industries included in the sector are airlines, transportation equipment, logistics, mail and freight delivery, railroads, shipping, and trucking.

Fortune Sector Leaders: Transportation

The Fortune 500, in its 70th year in 2024, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

The 26th edition of the list shows how much esteem Big Tech giants command among other business leaders.

The 25th Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies list suggests that tech giants’ peers respect them as much as ever.

The corporations on our annual list of the world’s largest companies delivered a record $41 trillion in aggregate revenues.

The Fortune 500, in its 69th year in 2023, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

F500-2023-096-United Airlines

United Airlines, one of the largest American airline carriers by revenue, has jumped 50 spots on this year’s Fortune 500, securing a spot within the top 100. 
<ul> 
 	<li>The Chicago-based company benefited from the post-COVID travel rebound, bringing in $45 billion in revenue in 2022, an 83% increase from 2021.</li> 
 	<li>United, like its rivals, faced a number of challenges through 2022—from high fuel costs and staffing shortages to delays in airplane deliveries. But the company’s 2022 fourth-quarter profit outstripped Wall Street estimates as consumers proved willing to shell out money to take trips.</li> 
 	<li>As travel demand continues to recover, United has purchased 100 new aircraft (with an option to buy 100 more) to support its growth. It also added new routes over the summer, including some that it dropped in previous years. The airline has yet to finalize a new contract with its pilots after five years of negotiations.</li> 
 	<li>United’s flight training school, United Aviate Academy, graduated its first class in January 2023, and boasted that 80% of the graduating class was made up of women or people of color.</li> 
</ul>

Just as it dominates our economy, Big Tech now dominates Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

F500-2021-200-United Airlines Holdings

One of the most recognized airlines in the country, United is based in Chicago and offers national and international flights. While business travel remains depressed, leisure bookings are recovering faster from the pandemic than expected.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $33.3 trillion in revenues and $2.1 trillion in profits.

G500-2020-276-United-Airlines-Holdings

United overcame international and aircraft-related challenges to flourish in 2019. Despite the grounding of its Boeing 737 MAX jets and the impact of Hong Kong protests on its flights there, United increased its passenger revenue and benefitted from low fuel costs; overall revenues rose 4.7% to $43.3 billion, and profits jumped 41.3%, to $3 billion. CEO Oscar Munoz, who spent years helping United recover from its troubled merger with Continental, last June dropped the latter’s name from the combined company. J. Scott Kirby, who had been president of the company succeeded Munoz as CEO in May 2020. But the airline’s large international business meant that United was one of the first U.S. carriers to feel the effects of the coronavirus pandemic; by April, it had accepted government aid, slashed capacity, given voluntary unpaid leaves of absence to more than 20,000 workers, and reported $1.7 billion in first-quarter losses. The pain continued in the second quarter as sales plummeted 87% compared to the year before and United reported a loss of $1.6 billion.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

F500-2020-076-United-Airlines

United overcame international and aircraft-related challenges to flourish in 2019, gaining two spots on the list. Despite the grounding of its Boeing 737 MAX jets and the impact of Hong Kong protests on its flights there, United increased its passenger revenue and benefitted from low fuel costs; overall revenues rose 4.7% to $43.3 billion, and profits jumped 41.3%, to $3 billion. CEO Oscar Munoz, who spent years helping United recover from its troubled merger with Continental, in June dropped the latter’s name from the combined company. J. Scott Kirby, who had been president of the company succeeded Munoz as CEO in May 2020. But the airline’s large international business meant that United was one of the first U.S. carriers to feel the effects of the coronavirus pandemic; by April, it had accepted government aid, slashed capacity, given voluntary unpaid leaves of absence to more than 20,000 workers, and reported $1.7 billion in first-quarter losses.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2019 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $27.7 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 64th running of the list.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2017 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 63rd running of the list.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2016 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $27.6 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 62nd running of the list.

The world's 500 largest companies generated $31.2 trillion in revenues and $1.7 trillion in profits in 2014. Together, this year's Fortune Global 500 employ 65 million people worldwide and are represented by 36 countries.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

Global business is back. After limping through a worldwide financial crisis and economic slowdown, the 500 largest companies ranked by revenues shattered all sorts of performance records in 2013: They racked up combined revenues of $31.1 trillion, up 2.5% from 2012, and profits soared 27% to nearly $2 trillion. China’s 95 companies (up from 89 last year) posted $5.8 trillion in revenues. The U.S. has four fewer companies on the list than last year but remains (for now) the country leader, with 128 corporations on the list—including No. 1 Wal-Mart Stores—reporting $8.6 trillion in revenues. 

Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

Fastest-growing Companies

Revenue 3 Yr Growth Rank

Revenue 3 Yr Annual Growth Rate

EPS 3 Yr Growth Rank

EPS 3 Yr Annual Growth Rate

Total Return 3 Yr Rank

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Current Streak

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Current All-Star Rank

Previous All-Star Rank

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Use of Corporate Assets

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Incorporated in 1968, United Airlines Holdings is one of the world’s largest airlines. It transports both people and cargo internationally. It also provides third-party services, including maintenance and ground-cargo handling.

Q3 2026

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Q1 2026

Q4 2025

Q3 2025

Q2 2025

Q1 2025

Q4 2024

United Airlines Holdings (UAL): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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United Airlines Holdings

united airlines holdings

Good morning, and welcome to United Airlines Holdings earnings conference call for the third quarter 2026. My name is Regina, and I will be your conference facilitator today. Following the initial remarks from management, we will open the lines for questions. At that time, if you would like to ask a question, simply press star then the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press star one again. In order to get to as many questions as possible, we kindly ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up.

This call is being recorded and is copyrighted. Please note that no portion of the call may be recorded, transcribed, or rebroadcast without the company's permission. Your participation implies your consent to our recording of this call. If you do not agree with these terms, simply drop off the line. I will now turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Kristina Edwards, Managing Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Regina. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to United's third quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Yesterday, we issued our earnings release, which is available on our website at ir.united.com. Information in yesterday's release and the remarks made during this conference call may contain forward-looking statements which represent the company's current expectations, which are based upon information currently available to the company.

A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Please refer to our earnings release, Form 10-K and 10-Q, and other reports filed with the SEC by United Airlines Holdings and United Airlines for a more thorough description of these factors. Unless otherwise noted, we will be discussing our financial metrics on a non-GAAP basis on this call, and historical operational metrics will include pandemic years of 2020 to 2022.

Please refer to the related definitions and reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures at the end of our earnings release. Joining us today to discuss our results here in Houston and outlook are Chief Executive Officer, Scott Kirby; President, Brett Hart; Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, Andrew Nocella; and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Mike Leskinen. We also have other members of the executive team on the line available for Q&A. I would like to put the call over to Scott.

Thanks, Kristina, and thank you all for joining us on the call today. It has been an eventful year, but it is once again given us the opportunity to demonstrate how de-commoditizing and becoming a true brand loyal airline was a structural change for United that gives us resilience in volatile times, and I expect it will lead to strong results in a normalized environment.

We have built an airline that our employees are proud of, and they are delivering and have made United the leading airline around the globe. Before I start, I want to congratulate Boeing on the certification of the MAX 10. It is a fantastic aircraft, and we look forward to taking our first delivery next year.

On this call, we will talk a lot about 2026 and the current environment, but I want to take a couple of minutes to focus on 2027 and specifically answer the question: What will it take for us to reach our goal of double-digit pre-tax margins next year? We live and breathe no excuses, and the one thing you will never hear us say or use as a planning excuse is, "If it were not for fuel." Instead, we are planning for and actually expect fuel to remain elevated for all of 2027.

It also appears that industry capacity will accelerate. Obviously, either of those things could change and get us to double-digit pre-tax margins, but we are not counting on it. So what would it take to get there in a higher fuel and capacity environment? To be blunt, even though we are outperforming, the traditional way of looking at it would be hard.

Though in fairness, I have been pleasantly surprised at the industry's ability this year to raise yields and pass through much of the increase in fuel prices. So it is possible that airlines will continue to focus on yields at the expense of load factor, and that alone could get us to double-digit margins next year. But we are not going to assume that will happen.

You have heard me say in the past that hope is not a strategy. Instead, we are focused on things we can control, and those are the big investments we have made over the past several years in products, service, and technology. And one of those things is Starlink, a new and truly differentiating RASM tailwind in 2027. Today, about half of United departures are on Starlink-equipped aircraft, but we offer more Starlink flights than the entire U.S. airline industry combined.

We currently expect to reach 61% of departures by the end of 2026, 87% by June 1st, and available fleet-wide by the end of 2027. Importantly, we are also seeing evidence that Starlink is a motivating factor for customers to choose which airline they fly.

That is why we launched a new tracker so people can check if their flight has it and can follow along as we outfit our fleet. It is hard to get brand loyal customers to switch airlines, and while it is mostly anecdotal, we are seeing two important things happen. One, customers who are brand loyal to other airlines and have flown them for years switch to a United flight solely because of Starlink.

Once they try us, they stick with us because they also experience great service and all the nose-to-tail things we've invested in for years, like new aircraft, larger seat back screens in every class of service, oversized bins, technology like ConnectionSaver, and a mobile app that's dramatically better than anything they've experienced before.

We know that eventually high-speed, low-Earth orbit Wi-Fi will be industry standard for everyone. But for 2027, and really 2028, we are well on our way to being the only global U.S. airline with Starlink at scale. A lot of new customers are going to try us. It's a huge head start, and we're going to press our advantage wherever we can.

While others are just ramping up on their LEO Wi-Fi installations, we'll be onto our next wave of product and technology to sustain our lead and further deepen the competitive moats around our business. Our mission will be to show new customers the very best of United and then earn their long-term loyalty by demonstrating that we're the number one airline in everything else as well.

With both fuel and industry capacity expected to be elevated next year, will that share shift happen fast enough to get us to double-digit pre-tax margins? While I do expect a meaningful RASM tailwind from Starlink in 2027, to be honest, it probably isn't enough on its own.

To get there in 2027, we probably also need at least one of the three following things to happen: lower fuel, lower industry capacity, or a continued willingness for the industry to trade load factor for yield. Regardless of what happens on how big the RASM benefits are in 2027, however, our series of big customer investments, including Starlink and some big new ideas we haven't even announced yet that are coming in the not-too-distant future, have emerged as a new tailwind to a plan that was already working at United. We expect to exit 2027 with more brand loyal customers than we otherwise would have had, and expect that to lead to higher RASM in 2027 and beyond. With that, I'll pass it over to Brett.

Thank you, Scott, and good morning. First, I want to thank all of our United employees for their tremendous work throughout the quarter. Our team demonstrated exceptional resilience and adaptability, working together to restore our operation and get our customers to their destinations. United ranked second in on-time departures for the third quarter, with United being first among the top seven U.S. carriers in July.

We also delivered our second-best third-quarter post-pandemic seat cancellation rate in United history, ranking first amongst the three largest U.S. carriers for the quarter. Ultimately, the strength of our operation is reflected in our customer satisfaction results. In the third quarter, we saw our highest quarterly NPS score since 2022 amidst record passenger growth.

Our people remain at the center of everything we do. In August, we completed the first phase of our expanded pilot training center in Denver, increasing our capacity to train up to 860 pilots per day with 86 flight simulation training devices, 52 of which are full-motion simulators. This investment supports both our existing workforce and our ability to develop the talent needed for United's future.

Transportation Secretary Duffy and FAA Administrator Bedford announced that they are seeking an additional $30 billion in improvements for our nation's air traffic control system. A safer and more resilient ATC system will benefit United's customers and operations, and we are actively engaged with the administration and both sides of the aisle in Congress to advocate for this much-needed funding.

It is especially exciting to be here in Houston today as we celebrate a major milestone in the transformation of Terminal B at George Bush Intercontinental Airport. This project represents a significant investment in one of our most important hubs, and we believe it will fundamentally improve the experience for millions of customers traveling through Houston.

We are making significant investments across our hub network, including at Washington Dulles, where we are also advancing a major airport transformation and expect to open a new concourse with 14 additional gates next month. Together, these investments reflect our continued execution of our strategy to build a stronger airline positioned for long-term profitable growth. With that, I will turn it over to Andrew.

Thanks, Brett. United's top-line Q3 revenues increased by 17.4% year-over-year to a record $17.9 billion. TRASM increased by 15.9% with yields up 17%. Passenger load factor fell modestly. Consumers and businesses have been accepting price increases, which we believe is a result of fares lagging the rest of inflation, along with other aspects of travel costs for many years. Looking at revenues by cabin in Q3, premium revenue, including Economy Plus, increased 17% on a 2.5% increase in capacity. 

PRASM increased 14.1%. Non-premium revenue increased 18.4% on a half a point increase in capacity with RASM up 17.8%. Against a backdrop of strong premium cabin revenue growth, it was nice to see standard economy cabin RASMs up. Recall that in Q1 of 2026 was the first time in 12 quarters that economy cabin RASMs were positive.

In other words, yields still have a long way to go to catch up with inflation, whether measured before or after the pandemic. Expect economy RASM to outpace premium once again in Q4. Looking at revenues by travel purpose, business revenue increased by 22% in the quarter, with yields up 15%. Contracted business revenues increased by 26%.

Premium business continues to be strong with load factors in the premium cabins up a little over half a point year-over-year and up 3.6 points since 2019. Business load factor in the quarter increased by almost a point. While Starlink is important to all of our customers, it is critical for our business customers, which we believe will be a key driver of revenue and share growth in 2027. Leisure revenues were up 16% with stronger year-over-year yield gains than business traffic.

Leisure load factor fell modestly by 1.3 points, which reveals a small amount of elasticity given higher ticket prices, a trade we would make every day. Cargo revenues increased by 23% year-over-year, with most of the increase occurring in yields as our global long-haul capacity growth was minimal in the quarter. Loyalty revenue had another strong quarter, up 17%.

Remuneration from Chase was up 15%, and portfolio spend on our co-brand cards was up 13%. We remain on pace to generate 1 million new accounts in 2026, a material increase from 2025, thanks to changes to MileagePlus, along with strong marketing from both United and Chase. I've talked about United's efforts in the past to de-seasonalize our business by improving the relative RASM performance of Q3. We made substantial progress in Q3 of 2026 on this goal.

Fuel costs may make our progress hard to see, but we believe these recent results are another milestone towards our goal of reaching double-digit pre-tax margins as we move forward into a more normalized fuel environment. My goal in absolute RASM is Q1, Q2, and Q4 to be similar each year with a slight reduction in Q3, given less business traffic that travels during the summer.

We can tailor our network and capacity to achieve this goal over time. We expect RASM and yields increase sequentially from Q3 to Q4. Sell-in yields have been up in the very high teens in recent weeks, including some weeks north of 20%. However, we know we need to achieve more to capture fuel costs as we see them today.

For a little more color in RASM strength in Q3, Central America, the Caribbean, Florida, Newark, and London were strong RASM tailwinds in the quarter. In fact, Florida RASMs were up 26% in the quarter alone. Hawaii, the South Pacific, and Chicago were RASM relative laggards in the quarter. Hawaii will have a better Q4 but will still underperform.

A quick note on Chicago, starting in the second quarter of 2027, we expect minimal domestic industry capacity growth at O'Hare due to the FAA capacity constraints where the growth in total flights is capped. United is capped at 600 in daily flights, and we think that may be the likely outcome well into 2028 at this point. United's revenue share in Chicago continues to climb as we win more brand loyal customers.

United hit a key milestone in Q2 of 2026, capturing 50% of Chicago-based passengers' revenue for the first time. Congratulations to the entire United team for delivering this amazing achievement. Beyond Chicago, we also saw share gains in all remaining United hub cities with the latest data released by the DOT. We believe these share gains will increase further in 2027 as Starlink becomes commonplace across all United flights.

As we think about what changes from today to the end of 2027 for United, I wanted to give you a few highlights. We'll continue the efforts to deseasonalize our RASM production. We're excited to reestablish JFK as a destination in 2027. We will largely complete our United Next connectivity goals in our mid-con hubs by the summer of 2027. We'll turn more of our attention towards our coastal gateways and international expansion in 2027 and beyond.

We'll open amazing new terminal facilities in Houston tomorrow and in Dallas in just a few weeks. We'll also open numerous United Clubs. Our newest Club right here in Houston, Texas, opens tomorrow, which will not only be United's largest Club, but the largest in the Americas. By the end of 2027, we expect to finish installing Starlink on all our jets, both mainline and express.

We'll finish installation of our interior signature cabins, including seat back, entertainment for all, large overhead bins, and new lighting by the end of 2027. We'll also grow premium capacity faster than main cabin capacity as we introduce the A321neo Coastliner and A321XLR at scale we believe no other airline is contemplating. We'll launch Relax Row, an Economy Plus open middle seat extending premium products to all cabins as we elevate the experience in all cabins for all passengers.

We'll continue to refine our product segmentation and retailing with the introduction of tiered fares across our network and various product types. Again, we'll add more than 1 million new co-brand accounts as we enter the sunset years of our existing Chase agreement. We aim to recapture 100% of the price of oil in 2027. At United, we will continue to stay focused on our consistent strategy and path, recognizing that our relative results show our plan is working. Our goal is double-digit pre-tax margins, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to deliver them. With that, I will pass it over to Mike. Mike?

Thanks, Andrew, and thank you to the entire United team for the tremendous effort as we manage through a high fuel cost environment, an environment in which most of the industry will lose money. Our third quarter results reinforce why United is on the right path and demonstrate how much progress we've made earning brand loyal customers, which are critical to delivering resilient and durable earnings. In the third quarter, we were deliberate about where we deployed capacity and continued to thoughtfully invest in the business.

We remain determined to achieve double-digit pre-tax margins and an investment-grade credit rating. Our ability to pass on higher fuel costs through higher ticket prices was stronger than ever before and demonstrates how much United and the industry has transformed. In the third quarter, we delivered earnings per share of $2.54 and a pre-tax margin of 6.2%.

Earnings per share were within our guidance range. Fuel prices accelerated in the quarter and drove a $1.8 billion increase in expense year-over-year. We recaptured 72% of the increase in fuel expense as much of the increase versus our guidance occurred in the period, and most of our revenue was already on the books. We're highly confident in our ability to recapture 100% of increases in our fuel cost, but with a lag.

Our CASM-ex was up 7.8%, and that higher rate now captures the full run rate of expense from our flight attendant deal. We also incurred the impact of closing capacity reductions. We expect Q3 to be the high-water mark for CASM-ex, and expense growth will step down in the fourth quarter and then step materially lower in 2027.

Outside of the impact from closing capacity reductions, our CASM-ex trajectory has remained consistent with our expectations at the start of the year. I want to thank our team for their diligent work to keep us on track in such an inflationary environment. Looking ahead, we expect fourth quarter earnings per share to be between $0.50 and $1.50.

Assuming an all-in fuel price per gallon of approximately $4.80, based on last Friday's forward curve. Underlying this guidance is a CASM-ex that will decelerate and a TRASM that is accelerating compared to the third quarter. This is a good setup as we exit the year. We are forecasting that our fuel recapture in the fourth quarter will be similar to the third quarter, given the continued increase in fuel prices.

This is lower than the 100% we were anticipating due to the rapid spike in jet fuel prices late in the third quarter. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with $17.7 billion of liquidity, including our undrawn revolver, and paid down approximately $1 billion of debt. We raised $900 million of new debt that was priced at a fixed rate equivalent in the low 5% range.

Additionally, we upsized our revolving credit facility last week from $3 billion of unfunded liquidity to $5 billion, and we extended the maturity two more years to 2031. We intend to reduce gross debt by the same amount as we target $18 billion in liquidity at year-end. We expect this shift to unfunded liquidity to save approximately $70 million of annual interest and fees.

This is currently the largest airline revolving credit facility in history, and yet another proof point of the strength of our business and our balance sheet. Rising oil prices have impacted our near-term metrics, with our net leverage at 2.4x. However, we remain determined to achieve investment grade metrics and hopefully also ratings next year.

We continue to target net leverage of less than 2x. Our financial performance continues to demonstrate the strength of United's business model and our ability to execute through industry shock events. We can't control oil prices or geopolitics, but we can control how we run our airline. In an environment like this, the gap between airlines that have invested for the long term and those that haven't has become even more apparent.

While our relative margin has been industry-leading, we remain focused on achieving absolute double-digit pre-tax margins as our top financial goal. We will continue making investments that further our competitive advantage, and that will lead to those double-digit pre-tax margins. I'll now turn it to Kristina to kick off the Q&A.

Thank you, Mike. We will now take questions from the analyst community. Please limit yourself to one question, and if needed, one related follow-up question. Regina, please describe the procedure to ask a question.

Thank you. The question and answer session will be conducted electronically. If you'd like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Please hold for a moment while we assemble our queue. Our first question will come from the line of Mike Linenberg with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.

Oh, yeah. Hey, good morning, everyone. I'm staring at $5 jet fuel, and hard to believe that you're still on track to do $3 billion of pre-tax profit or more this year. United has clearly cracked the code here. A question directly to Mike. Look, as best as I can tell, among publicly traded airlines, I think you had the highest liquidity position of anyone, and yet you upsized it by another $2 billion.

If my math serves me right, I presume your liquidity is right around $20 billion, unless you've paid down debt recently since quarter end. Why the step up? Is it because you already had a lot? Is it just being poised for opportunity? We know that things break at $5 jet fuel. Talk about the philosophy behind having so much cash. Thanks for taking my question.

Yeah, thanks, Mike. It's a great question, and it does create optionality, but we are cost-conscious. If you think about when we've raised our debt and where we're investing the liquidity, the cost to carry is relatively low right now, number one. Number two, the upsizing the revolver is going to allow us to carry that liquidity in a more efficient way. I said in my prepared remarks, but let me repeat. We intend to bring that liquidity to $18 billion at year-end. $20 billion is too much.

We will bring that down. That is going to save us over $70 million in interest and fees. As we earn an investment-grade credit metric, we will reevaluate the level of liquidity. We are comfortable with this. We are an industry that asteroids hit. We are well prepared for lots of events, and it is a relatively low cost of insurance to carry the extra liquidity.

Mike, I will just quickly add, if people think we did that for optionality to do M&A activity, that is absolutely 100% not the rationale. It is save $70 million to get to the same liquidity targets we had anyway. It is simple.

Our next question will come from the line of Tom Fitzgerald with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. Thanks very much for the time. Just curious for Andrew, you mentioned a lot of momentum on the loyalty side of the business, and it's been kind of running the low double-digit rate the last couple of years, but a million new co-brand accounts annualizing next year, and then some of the other benefits with Starlink. You've made a lot of leadership changes on loyalty. Curious about connectivity as well. I guess, long-winded way of saying, could we see that other revenue line item accelerate, maybe into the low teens potentially next year?

I think we hope so. As you pointed out, the milestone of a million new accounts, as those accounts mature and spend more next year and the year after, that's how that calculation works, as I think we're all aware of. We'll do a million accounts this year. We'll get those accounts spending. We'll get them upgraded to higher credit cards, the club card in particular, and then we'll do another million accounts next year. That's a big investment in making that number in terms of total loyalty revenue increase, hopefully in the mid-teens, at least 14% or 15% consistently for the next few years, or maybe even higher.

Thanks. That's really helpful. Then if I could squeeze in a quick follow-up just on the tiered fare categories. Just curious early learnings with that and maybe how you could think about that tailwind into next year, specifically around buy-up to basic business. Thanks again for the time.

Yeah. I will say that we are really pleased by the launch of the tiered fare products, and we continue to expand them and are doing a bit more in the next few weeks. I think it's been great for our customers. It provides more options for them and great for the airline as well. We redesigned united.com specifically to sell them effectively, and we'll continue to refine our approach on that I think has even more upside.

The buy-up rates are incredibly high. Consumers know what they're buying, and we disclose it very carefully. This has worked for years. It started with basic economy a little more than 10 years ago. We've learned a lot of lessons on how to do this, and I just think it's been really monumental for us, more so than people realize, and we're glad to pave the way on this.

It was a very good idea, and we look forward to refining it. If you recall, the early days of basic economy took a lot of refinements, and I think we're just at the early days of this phenomena in the other cabins as well.

Our next question will come from the line of Sheila Kahyaoglu with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I wanted to ask about the fleet, maybe just based on deliveries slipping out of 2026 and your view for higher for longer fuel and accelerating capacity. How are you thinking about 2027 deliveries and retirements? Maybe as a follow-up to that, your specific plans on MAX deliveries across the MAX 9 and MAX 10 models in 2027.

Hi, Sheila. Look, we're really excited and want to congratulate Boeing for the certification of the MAX 10. The MAX 10 is a big part of our up-gauging strategy. It's going to be a very competitive aircraft for our network. So very excited about taking delivery of that. As we look into 2027, I think we're going to take about two wide-body aircraft a month, and we'll take over 100 narrow-body aircraft.

So we have some pent-up demand in our fleet, with older aircraft that are maintenance inefficient, fuel inefficient, and so regardless of the amount of capacity we end up flying, there is an opportunity for us to modernize the fleet and to up-gauge the fleet that has really strong economics. So we're excited to accelerate that rate of delivery on both narrow and wide.

Our next question will come from the line of Conor Cunningham with Melius Research. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. Maybe I'll push back a little bit on that opening statement from you, Scott. The bare thesis that's out there is that you already had low fuel. You had structural change in the industry that brought industry supply super low for a long period of time. Now, obviously fuel has spiked. Industry supply is ramping into that. You're still seeing competitors discount close in. I'm trying to feel comfortable about the long-term double-digit pre-tax margin. It just feels like tweaks in supply don't get you there anymore. If you could just paint the picture a little bit better, I think that would be helpful. Thanks.

I'll do my best. I'll disaggregate it into unique United and industry. Unique United, we've been winning share kind of everywhere we fly at all of our hubs for a while now. I have pretty good anecdotes already. It's mostly anecdotal now, but that Starlink is causing customers to move. What I hear from those people as they get on, the number one thing I hear is they pick a United flight, they live somewhere else or a frequent flyer somewhere else. They pick a United flight and they say, "Oh, my God, the app is amazing. Why doesn't any other airline have that?" Then the people are nice, and they wind up switching.

I don't think that's going to happen fast enough personally in 2027 to get us to double digits without some other structural macro changes, as I said in my opening comments, but it's a big tailwind. That's sort of unique to United. On the structural level, boy, I happen to think that jet fuel prices are going to be high all the way through next year.

There've been an awful lot of airlines, say, managing their business as if it weren't for fuel. Which in the short term is a way to absolve yourself of responsibility and accountability. I just don't think that's going to last. Really what I think is going to, I don't know the timing. I think this is more a question of when than if.

But if oil prices stay high, like I think they will through next year, I find it low probability that every airline runs out what their current capacity plans are for the full year. I know they are all going to get on calls and say it, but once they get an activist investor coming in or something else like that happens, it changes your mind in a hurry.

The losses will be. So six to 10 U.S. airlines are going to lose money this year. If oil is higher next year, the stress is building. I think there are going to be supply changes. Actually being successful as an airline is really simple. One golden rule, don't fly places that lose money. While that is simple, very few people follow it, but there is going to be less loss-making flying.

I think, by the end of next year, I do not know when it is going to happen, but I think at some point next year, these calls are going to be transitioned to 2028 is going to be a really good year because more structural change has happened in the industry. Structural change has happened this year. The fact that Spirit went away was a reprieve from some airlines from making hard decisions. It gave them a reprieve. But there are other airlines that are next up on the firing line, and I think changes are coming.

Okay. Thank you. Maybe kicking over to Mike. It has been difficult to model costs, and I know it is not just a United thing, it is more of an industry problem, or an industry headwind. I know you are talking about decelerating growth into next year, but if you could just give any color around 2027 and how you view cost. I think just people are trying to get comfortable with that side of the equation as we determine where fares go in general. Thank you.

Yeah. Thanks, Scott, and I think it is a reasonable question to ask. This team has done an incredible job of managing the inflationary pressures we faced in 2026. I will repeat what I said in my script. Were it not for the voluntary reductions in capacity, our 2026 CASM-ex is tracking exactly where we expected it to at the beginning of the year. So, given the inflationary pressures, given what we have seen from peers, I think that is an incredible result.

As we look to 2027, we are going to continue to target 2%-3% CASM-ex. We are definitely facing inflationary pressures. One of the biggest inflationary pressures we are facing is from increasing distribution costs, because as fares go up, the distribution cost is a percentage of fares. We are facing airport costs that since the pandemic have gone up by 60%.

There's lots of work to do to run a more efficient airline to offset those inflationary pressures. At United, we're going to have a unique tailwind in increasing gauge growth in 2027. We're going to work hard to live within that 2%-3% CASM-ex in 2027 and beyond. But we do have our work cut out for us.

The last thing I will say is, in environments like this where fuel prices spike, we're going to have no hesitation to cut capacity of flights that are losing money because we're not managing the CASM-ex, we're managing the margin. We're doing a great job relative CASM-ex. We're not changing the goals. The goals are going to remain aggressive, but make no mistake, we're managing the margin, not CASM-ex.

Our next question will come from the line of Andrew Didora with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking the questions. I guess my first one for Andrew or Scott, I guess you talk about this higher for longer fuel environment in 2027. I guess, where do you think industry capacity should shake out next year, and how does United's growth fit into that overall industry backdrop?

I think Scott gave the macro answer to that question largely, so I don't think I want to repeat it. For United, we're very conscious of our capacity. I think about it every day, and look at every flight and every market. And we are nimble, and we will make the right decision, and we'll make the right decision for 2027 as well as we usually do. I think we have a very good track record on this.

Okay, thanks. I guess a second one, just quickly for Mike. Obviously, there was a loyalty transaction out in the market a couple of months ago with Air Canada that I think shed a little bit more light on the value of that business. I know you don't need to do that type of deal, but I think in the past, you've sometimes floated the idea of providing a little bit more disclosure just to give investors a little bit more color on that business. Have you any new thoughts post that transaction? Thank you.

Thanks, Andrew. I love the question. Look, we are the first airline to use our loyalty program as collateral in the pandemic. I want to compliment the Air Canada team on an incredible transaction. I think it highlights the value of these loyalty programs, the tremendous value that frankly, we're not seeing in our share prices. That said, here at United, as Andrew has shared, we are getting close to the sunset of our existing contract with our partner, number one.

Number two, given that it makes sense, given that it's about to sunset and given that it's a historic contract that it doesn't have modern economics, it makes much more sense for us to wait and get the new contract, and then provide the additional disclosure. For now, holding pattern, but Air Canada did an amazing job of highlighting the value that exists in these programs, and particularly here at United.

Our next question will come from the line of Jamie Baker with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, everybody. Scott, since you brought up the C word, you've been vocal

You've been vocal about not engaging in M&A. You've spoken about JetBlue specifically, given the, among other things, 10%-15% margin gap between yourselves and them, and a preference to quote unquote, "Go big." I believe that was your term when it comes to consolidation.

There's been no movement at American forward in terms of regime change, but we've seen JetBlue's market cap get decimated here. We've got $2 billion of loyalty bonds trading at, whatever, half of par. Obviously, it's a touchy subject, but why shouldn't United be a potential solution for JetBlue as they ponder a restructuring?

Well, I have done enough talking this year, I think, about the C word, as you say. I have done enough talking to be newsworthy in the last 48 hours. Actually, I did an interview six or seven weeks ago to be newsworthy. I am not going to create any new. I have nothing new to add on that. We are focused on, you can hear from our call, you can hear from our tone. We feel great about what we are doing here at United. I wish oil prices were lower in the short term.

I am really proud of the team. The fact that we are able to be doing this well in this environment. I think it is a matter of when, not if, we get to double-digit margins on a standalone basis. I think, by the way, Starlink, schedule is number one, it is the clear number two in choice when people are choosing an airline, to me. It is a significant advantage we are going to have for the next couple of years.

We are really focused on, my message to the team is, we are going to have new customers trying us from other airlines, and our mission, I am going to do it with a bunch of employees here in an hour, is make sure they know that United is the best airline in the country for them to fly and get them to be long-term customers.

I would say, by the way, for those on the call that are listening, that fly other airlines, at some point in the next 12 months, when you find yourself on the second or third United flight because of Starlink, and you find yourself taking the application from the flight attendant for the credit card, and you realize that you have switched airlines, you will get a twofer. You will have upgraded your airline and your stock investment idea.

Okay, fair enough. Andrew, just quickly, can you expand on your earlier Chicago comment? I know you do not want to give specifics in terms of hub profitability, but on a fuel-neutral basis, can you help us think about the shape of how margins have evolved there and what you expect to occur after the April date that you identified a few minutes ago? Not talking absolute, I am just looking at how the change ex-fuel, if you will, in Chicago profitability has looked.

United Airlines Holdings (UAL) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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