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

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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.

Q2 2026

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 fourth quarter and full year 2025. My name is Colby, and I'll be your conference facilitator today. Following the initial remarks from management, we will open the lines for questions. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise, and if you'd like to ask a question at that time, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and enter the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question at any time, please press star once again. Thank you. 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, Colby. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to United's fourth quarter and full year 2025 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 and 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 exclude 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 in Houston today to discuss our results and outlook are Chief Executive Officer Scott Kirby, President Brett Hart, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer Toby Enqvist, 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 and available for Q&A. And now, I'd like to flip the call over to Scott.

Thank you, Kristina, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. 2025 had more than its fair share of unusual challenges, but the people of United did a truly remarkable job of living our no-excuses culture, focusing on the customers and overcoming obstacles. Last year was really a proof point that the strategy we've had to build a revenue-diverse, brand-loyal airline at United for the last decade is not only working, but it's remarkably resilient in tough times as well. The proof is in the numbers, and we expect to be the only U.S. airline that managed to grow EPS year-over-year despite all the headwinds. The United team truly is the best in global aviation, and I'm very proud of them. They have made today's United a remarkably different airline than it was in the past.

Before turning to 2026, I want to wish all the best to a friend and an industry icon, Glen Hauenstein. My first real introduction to what has become modern, successful airlines like Delta and United was at Continental in 1994 with Glen and Andrew Nocella as they were dismantling CALite and building the Newark and Houston hubs that we at United are now proud to call our own. I remember Glen once coming into the conference room where I sat and yelled at me for being too loud, something, by the way, that my wife, Kathleen, wholeheartedly agrees with Glen on. At an airline, I think the most important and impactful job is building a great commercial strategy, and a large modern airline simply cannot succeed without a commercial superstar. Glen and Andrew are simply in a separate league from all the other commercial minds around the globe.

And Glen, on a personal level, given the momentum at United, I'll just say that your retirement timing is impeccable. After a solid year in 2025, 2026 sets up as more of the same at United, but with a much better industry backdrop. Our plan has been working for the last decade, and while we make minor adjustments to it every year, the core of building a great, revenue-diverse, brand-loyal airline remains the same. We've had the right strategy for a long time now, and the United team across the board is just better at executing than any other airline in the world. I'm proud of them and excited as we continue to build the best airline in aviation history. On to you, Brett.

Thank you, Scott, and good morning. While 2025 presented a challenging macro backdrop for the industry, we remain laser-focused on the customer experience and on building brand loyalty. Continued investments in the travel experience, communication, and reliability helped us navigate disruption and deliver for our customers. Our strong Net Promoter Scores for the year highlight the care and consistency built into the United travel experience. Despite the operational headwinds of the year, we finished 2025 with an almost three-point increase in our overall Net Promoter Score. And during the month of November, amid an unprecedented government shutdown and real-time flight reductions, we had the best NPS month in the company's history. This is a testament to our customer focus, decisive actions, and customer-friendly policies, and commitment to transparent communication, especially during disruptions. Toby will share in more detail the specific actions we took to produce these customer-friendly results.

We also continue to innovate, and in the fourth quarter, we introduced new features and more personalized updates in our award-winning United app, including enhanced mobile bag tracking, virtual gate real-time boarding updates, and more detailed arrival information. These enhancements are designed to improve transparency, save customers time, and provide clearer, real-time communication at key moments of the journey. With more than 85% of customers using the United app on the day of travel, another one of our competitive advantages, and we are confident that these investments are meaningfully enhancing the United experience, earning customer trust at every touchpoint and winning brand-loyal customers. On labor, we are currently in active negotiations with four of our labor unions. We look forward to reaching industry-leading contracts with these groups and will share more when able.

We have a bright 2026 ahead of us, and I want to thank our employees for the important work they do every day. I am proud to say they will be receiving over $700 million in well-deserved profit sharing for 2025. Their resilience and shared commitment to our values and customers are what make United strong. I now hand it over to Toby to discuss our operation.

Thank you, Brett, and I'm happy to join you all on this morning's call. At United, we're proud of our no-excuses culture, and last year, it was really put to the test as the United operations team confronted a wide array of challenges outside of our control. I'm so proud of how the team responded and delivered for our customers. Capitalizing on investment in our people, new tools, and other innovations allowed us to be nimble and react quickly to capacity directives from the FAA and to recover faster and stronger during other irregular operations than ever before. As a result, we had the highest seat completion factor in our history and number one of the big three legacy carriers in 2025. In fact, at O'Hare in 2025, we canceled a half the seat rate of our largest competitor.

We flew a record 189 million passengers and ranked number one in Star D0 for the second year in a row. For a year, United ranked number two in on-time departures and number two in cancellations. Our United Express operation delivered 134 days of perfect completion. This is a remarkable performance in the face of the outside challenges that we face at Newark and staffing challenges at the ATC. Beginning in early November, the FAA directed airlines to temporarily reduce departures at 40 major airports due to staffing and system constraints from the prolonged U.S. government shutdown. We worked closely with FAA leadership to swiftly implement the reductions, and we want to thank them for their partnership. At United, we were intentional with how we made these cuts. From the start, our priority was protecting the integrity of our network.

We made a clear decision not to cut long-haul international and hub-to-hub flying. Those flights are the backbone of our network and aided in retaining connectivity and flexibility for our customers. We focused on the reductions where we could minimize customer impact with a majority of cuts concentrated on regional flying and non-hub domestic routes with smaller narrowbody aircraft. In many cases, that meant trimming frequency on routes where there were multiple daily options rather than eliminating connectivity altogether. Where we could, we consolidated flying in fewer departures with larger aircraft to move the same number of customers more efficiently and reducing further disruption. Even with these changes, total cancellations were only approximately 4% of departures during peak periods and had a minimal impact on our capacity in the quarter. Operationally, I'm very proud of how our team managed the rolling schedule changes.

We're no strangers to managing through irregular operation, and that has contributed to the speed and flexibility in which we respond to these situations. We published cancellations several days in advance to give peace of mind to our customers and directly communicated any changes through our app and website and focused on reaccommodating customers wherever possible as quickly as able. Notably, nearly 60% of our customers whose flights were canceled were rebooked within four hours of the original departure time. Any customers traveling during this period could request a refund, even if their flight ultimately operated, and that included non-refundable and Basic Economy tickets. It was the right thing to do. Thank you to each United employee who helped us successfully navigate these real-time schedule changes. We closed out the year on a high note.

United delivered the best operation in the industry over the holidays, ranking number one in on-time departures and on-time arrivals. We canceled less than 1% of our flights during the holidays, and following the Caribbean airspace closure in the early 2026, we added 10% more seats over a three-day period to help customers return home. An outstanding way to close out the busy holiday season. 2025 is a year we should all be proud of, especially given the multiple headwinds United and the industry face. Running a strong operation sets the foundation for delivering on our financial commitments and helps attract the brand-loyal customers that we speak so much about. Thank you again to our incredible team here at United, and I look forward to building on our momentum in 2026 together. Now to you, Andrew, to speak about the revenue environment.

Thanks, Toby. United's top-line revenues increased 4.8% to $15.4 billion in the quarter on a 6.5% increase in capacity year-over-year. Consolidated TRASM for the quarter was down 1.6%. Q4 was United's highest revenue quarter ever. Premium cabins outperformed main cabin once again in the quarter. Premium cabin revenues were up 12% year-over-year on a 7% more capacity. PRASM for premium cabins outperformed the main cabin by almost 10 points in Q4. Main cabin revenues were up 1% on a 6% more capacity for the quarter. For the year, premium revenues increased approximately 11%, while standard and basic economy revenues were down approximately 5%. We did see a nice bounce back in our international flying in Q4 after a challenge in Q3. The Pacific and the Atlantic performed well, with PRASM turning positive in both regions. Latin America, on the other hand, had yet another challenge in quarter.

Cargo revenues for 2025 were up $1.8 billion to 2.1% year-over-year. Loyalty revenues for 2025 were up 9%. Remuneration from global co-brands was up 12% for the year and 14% for the quarter, and for the third year in a row, we added over 1 million new co-brand cards. As we look to Q1 2026, we expect to see sequential improvement with the possibility that all regions have positive RASM year-over-year. Last year did start very strong from a bookings perspective, but then dropped off sharply towards the back third of January and for the rest of the quarter. Based on what we've seen so far this year, bookings and yields are outpacing the strong start from last year, and we're hopeful that the momentum will continue, which could admittedly cause our guidance to feel a bit conservative.

We also expect the domestic capacity environment to be quite favorable for the first half of 2026, with a small but meaningful amount of perennial unprofitable capacity by others leaving the market. However, in Q1, premium revenues continue to lead the way, while standard main cabin seats continue to show some weakness. This main cabin weakness is due to unprofitable capacity offered by other large, spill-demand U.S. carriers as ULCC capacity becomes less relevant. We also have a tailwind in Newark later this spring when operations run well. We expect Newark to give United a unique RASM tailwind versus the industry considering the events last spring. But the number of flights is now limited to what the runways can accommodate, and our customers can and are booking in confidence. We did make aggressive Latin capacity adjustments for Q1 to correct underperformance we saw in Q3 and Q4.

However, recent geopolitical events are having a measurable negative impact on bookings in the Caribbean. Yet, we still have a chance at positive Latin RASM depending on when concern dissipates. All United hubs were once again profitable in Q4 and for all of 2025. A fully profitable hub framework allows United to invest incremental capacity on a solid foundation. We think we're only one of two large U.S. carriers that can say all their hubs were profitable in 2025, and these same two carriers are expected to represent the bulk of industry profits in the year. We also believe that of the three airline hubs located in Chicago, only United's hub was profitable in 2025, and we expect it will be profitable again once again in 2026. Today, I also wanted to talk about our commercial focus points for 2026 to drive higher RASMs and margins.

Our first focus will be new seasonal capacity shaping of our long-haul schedule. Peak demand for international travel has spread from the second and third quarters to other parts of the year. As a result of this shift, we expect the fastest growing quarter for United's international capacity to be Q1 in 2026, with minimal growth in Q3. Flattening capacity across the quarters would have not been correct in 2019, but it is today. A second focus will be enhanced merchandising of our growing product lineup. We plan to increase segmentation and customer choices with our changes, which we'll announce in early 2026. This effort includes the largest redesign of United.com in a decade. Our third focus will be enhanced connectivity. We will soon approach the connectivity goals we set in 2021 with the United Next plan by 2027.

As a result, 2025 represents United's high watermark on domestic capacity growth as we draw this very successful part of the United Next plan to an end. Our fourth focus will be MileagePlus, enhancing the growth potential in the coming years via drawing a larger distinction between true loyalty programs and reward programs offered by others. We have a legacy contract that continues with our banking partners regarding core economics, but we still have plenty of ideas to boost growth and revenue in the meantime, and premiumization is our fifth focus in 2026. We've had this premium focus for almost eight years now, and while our lead is now being followed by a range of other U.S. carriers, it's United's seven business-centric hubs that dictate this plan and why we expect to be more successful at it.

Last spring, we announced our new elevated interior for our widebody jets, including the new United Polaris suite, Polaris seats with doors, along with countless other upgrades to the soft product. Four elevated 787s are now being prepared for delivery in the coming weeks, and we expect 16 more for the remainder of 2026. These aircraft, along with other new deliveries, will result in our premium capacity growth accounting for more than half our growth in 2026. We look forward to another innovative set of products and aircraft announcements in 2026. United is defining what premium means for all customers, no matter where they sit or what they pay. Our United Signature Interior mods and Starlink installs are now moving at that pace and will be completed in 2027, creating a consistent premium product we hope for when we announce United Next in 2021.

A quick but important preview for 2027 is our long-term focus on gauge. While gauge is not a focus in 2026, it will be in 2027 and beyond as a much higher percentage of our growth equation. Most of our commercial focus areas in 2026, of course, ladder up to decommoditizing our product, providing consumers with more choices and winning a higher share of brand-loyal customers. We like our plan. We remain focused on doing more of the same in the coming years. With that, I'll offer my thanks to the entire United team for a great but challenging 2025 and hand it off to Mike to talk about our financial results. Mike.

Thanks, Andrew. We closed out 2025 on a high note and delivered fourth-quarter earnings per share of $3.10 within our guidance range of $3-$3.50, and that's despite a $250 million impact to our pre-tax earnings from the government shutdown. 2025 was a challenging year for the airline industry. Between macro volatility and idiosyncratic challenges at Newark, each quarter of 2025 experienced a material event that pressured earnings and further widened the performance gap between industry leaders and laggards. Our full-year 2025 EPS came in at $10.62, which was slightly up versus 2024, and despite a $0.85 headwind from our challenges at Newark. I expect we will be the only U.S. airline to grow EPS last year. This is an incredible proof point of United's ability to execute through times of elevated uncertainty when most of the industry cannot.

An airline with a business anchored by brand-loyal customers isn't only more profitable, it's also more resilient. Our plan is working, and I'd like to thank the entire United team for their hard work in the face of all of these challenges. I'd particularly like to thank our frontline flight attendants, pilots, and customer service representatives. Through an extraordinarily difficult time during the government shutdown, you served our customers, leading to the highest net promoter scores in United's history. Over the last year, we've invested $1 billion in the customer, and as a result, customers are taking note. From larger clubs to free Starlink Wi-Fi, the United product offering, as well as further segmentation, continues to attract more and more brand-loyal customers, driving strong top-line performance and more durable earnings.

The investment in the customer has been enabled by our industry-leading efforts to drive cost efficiencies across the core business. In the fourth quarter, our CASM-ex year-over-year was up only 0.4%, bringing our full-year 2025 CASM-ex up to 0.4% as well. We expect this performance to be industry-leading and will continue to drive efficiencies across the business in 2026. Now turning to the outlook. Looking to the first quarter, we expect earnings per share to be between $1 and $1.50, an approximately 37% earnings improvement versus the first quarter of last year at the midpoint, and margin expansion year-over-year. Building off a strong quarter for the full year 2026, we expect earnings per share to be between $12 and $14. At the midpoint, this represents over 20% growth and implies continued margin expansion as we march towards double-digit margins.

Turning to the fleet, this year we expect to take delivery of over 100 aircraft, 100 narrowbody aircraft, and approximately 20 widebody aircraft. Accordingly, we expect our capital expenditures for the year to be less than $8 billion, consistent with the $7-$9 billion multi-year CapEx guidance we provided back in 2024. On the balance sheet, becoming investment-grade rated is a major priority of mine, and in 2025, we made meaningful progress towards investment-grade metrics. We paid off $1.9 billion of our high-cost COVID-era debt and brought our total cost of debt down to 4.7%. Our net leverage at the end of the year was 2.2 times. As a result of our deleveraging efforts, combined with our earnings power and industry bifurcation, we've received five upgrades to our credit ratings across Moody's, S&P, and Fitch over the last 13 months.

United is now just one notch below investment-grade at all three agencies, our highest ratings in over 25 years. In 2026, we plan to deliver further and target net leverage below two times with the intention of achieving investment-grade metrics by year-end. We're hopeful to achieve investment-grade ratings shortly thereafter and are committed to managing our balance sheet to achieve that goal. Free cash flow generation remains a key priority. In 2025, we generated $2.7 billion in free cash flow, and in 2026, we expect to deliver a similar level of free cash flow given higher aircraft deliveries. In the medium term, we expect free cash conversion to remain around 50%, and as we exit the decade, we continue to expect free cash conversion to expand to around 75%. On the buyback, we have $782 million left in authorization from our board of directors.

We will continue to balance our priority of being investment-grade with making opportunistic purchases of our shares when market opportunities present themselves, hopefully less frequently. 2025 proved United could effectively manage through macro volatility and company-specific challenges while also delivering resilient earnings. Our relative margins remain strong, and moving forward, our focus will be on continued margin expansion and achieving double-digit margins. The industry continues to transform, and competitive dynamics are evolving, with United firmly in the lead. Taken together, United Airlines is positioned for another year of growth and success that will drive value to our employees, our customers, and our shareholders. Now, back 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 brief follow-up question as we hope to get to as many of you as possible. Colby, please describe the procedure to ask a question.

Thank you. The question-and-answer session will be conducted electronically. If you would like to ask a question, please press star then the number one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and enter the queue. If you'd like to withdraw your question at any time, please press star one again. Please hold for a moment while we assemble our queue. Your first question comes from Conor Cunningham from Melius Research. Your line is open.

Hi, everyone. Thank you. Just on the corporate travel comments, you've noted a lot of strength there in January so far, and I actually think that's your most difficult comp of the quarter. So if you could just talk about how things changed throughout Q1. I just think that you're going to be exiting at a much higher booking rate in March than you are right now. So if you could just talk about that in general. Thank you.

Thanks, Conor. I think I agree with your conclusion. 2026 has gotten off to a really, I think, very strong start, but in particular, business volumes have gotten off and are just really compelling, and the way I look at it is if you think back to early 2025, we saw actually strong business volumes at first, but those numbers quickly trailed off to be up just very low single digits in February and March. This year, for the same early January week, business revenue is up high single digits and nearly 20% year-over-year, so if current business volumes simply continue, you'll see year-over-year growth for the last two weeks of January for business up 12%, 13%, 14%. The further you push this math into February and March, the stronger it potentially gets, so I think I agree with your conclusion.

It's still early in the year, but we're off to a great start from a business point of view.

Okay. Great. And then, I mean, I know you spent a lot of time diversifying away from the main cabin and with all the premium and corporate and all that stuff that you're doing, but it just feels like we've been, I mean, you noted ongoing issues in the main cabin into 2026 so far. So if you could just talk about how that segment potentially flips to the positive. And are you assuming any sort of rate of change or that flipping positive at some point later in the year? Thank you.

Look, I think it's inevitable. Premium cabins look really on their fourth year in a row, but I do think it's inevitable that the coach cabin, the main cabin, improves. It's a really simple equation. It's the unprofitable capacity offered by others in the marketplace that continues to fly more than you otherwise expect to fly. We'll see how that all shakes out. I can't predict the timing, but I do think eventually businesses stop doing unprofitable things. We'll have to see when that happens, but I remain bullish that we are going to see the performance of the main cabin flip at some point in the future. When it does, that will be enormous fuel to our margin growth and be great for the industry itself.

So time will tell, but I remain optimistic that we're on the course for that at some point in the future.

Appreciate it. Thank you. Your next question comes from David Vernon with Bernstein. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, guys, and thanks for taking the question. So Scott, maybe I'd like to get your thoughts on how you're thinking about some of the changes that are being discussed around the credit card ecosystem and what that might mean for United as we look for the next couple of years. If some of these changes are implemented, how do you think about what you can do to manage around it, and what are you and your partners thinking about as the most likely set of outcomes as far as whether it's the cap on interest rates or the credit card competition attacks, what have you? Thanks.

Sure. I'll take the question. I think it's a really good and relevant question, obviously. And first, we're in constant contact with Chase on the issue. Obviously, Chase is our largest co-brand partner, and we talk to them all the time on this issue. And what I'd say is, while much remains uncertain, of course, United's portfolio would be impacted, but in our view, it would be impacted a lot less than just about everybody else. MileagePlus co-brand holders tend to skew towards higher FICO band ranges, often revolve at a lower rate, and have low loss rates. These factors make us different than most non-airline co-brand programs and maybe even a lot different from a lot of other airline co-brand programs. We're going to let the banks sort this out. Interest rates and revolve rates are more their thing.

Our focus is on providing amazing benefits via this program that our consumers love. So a lot more to come on this subject, but we feel like we're on top of it, and we will be ready for whatever happens in the future.

All right. Thanks for that, and then maybe just as a quick follow-up, you mentioned some additional stuff you might be able to do outside of, on top of the existing sort of agreements that you have with your card partners. Any more color you can give us in terms of kind of what that means in terms of specific changes or enhancements you can drive to the program in the near term outside of renegotiating the contract?

Sure. I'll do my best. But first, I want to welcome Jared Fisher to the team. Jared's our new head of MileagePlus. He has experience in credit cards, strong brands, and airlines, which make him a perfect fit to lead MileagePlus into the next chapter. Richard and Luc have just done a great job, and as you can see from our new card growth stats that I said earlier in 2025, along with our redemption growth. I know I often talk about these changes at MileagePlus without a lot of details, but what I'll tell you is Jared and I will have a lot more to say about this, and we're going to say something within the next 10 weeks to accelerate growth and pull levers that we can pull that are in our control.

So, just a few more weeks, and I'll be able to, I think, answer that question sufficiently for you.

Your next question comes from the line of Sheila Kahyaoglu with Jefferies. Your line is open.

Good morning, guys. It's been a great quarter. Mike, maybe this first one's for you. The unit cost has been stellar across 2025 quarters, even in light of the investments you guys are making around the product, the experience, and your debunking that sort of view that there's a variable cost relationship here. So maybe can you dissect what you guys are doing, right, what the opportunities are for efficiencies going forward, and how that plays into 2026 growth?

Thanks, Sheila. And I'm very proud of our cost performance in 2025. I think it'll prove to be industry-leading, as I said in my prepared remarks. Look, the cost efficiency in 2025 in the fourth quarter, the operation, the strong operation formed the foundation. And so a lot of credit goes to Toby and his team for driving that strong operation. Strong operation is a cost-efficient operation. But in addition to that, we are driving a real cultural efficiency here at United Airlines. And I'll give a few examples, and we can talk more about it as time goes on, but a few examples are as we continue to invest in an industry-leading app, it drives a lot of automation for quicker check-in. It's customer-pleasing. It also takes some variable costs out of our system. We've also overhauled our global procurement organization.

And I'm really happy to say that through this first year of that overhaul, we've identified and delivered on $150 million in run rate savings in the procurement organization, and there's a lot, lot more to come. And then finally, we are using sophisticated technology to help model the demand for our tech ops organization. And that's leading to more productive technicians, fewer grounded aircraft, and a more productive fleet overall. So there's a few examples. I'll tell you that there's more to come. This is a culture at United to drive an efficient operation. We reinvest a lot of that in the customer, and it's helping to drive higher structural profitability for United. So thanks for the question.

I at least want to add on, mostly to complement the team. I think this is, from an investor perspective, one of the differentiating points of United versus all the other airlines in the world. We are the best airline in the world at the real core cost efficiency, something we've talked about a little in the past. Credit to Mike, credit to Jonathan Ireland, who's sitting in this room, Toby Enqvist, our Chief Operating Officer, and Jason Birnbaum, who runs technology for us. Culturally, we are great, but we've also made technology investments that I know do not exist at any other airline. That's the foundation, the culture, and the technology that drives core efficiency. We keep doing more. Mike told you a bunch of the tactical things that have happened recently, but then we keep finding more.

One of my favorite stories was we finished the budget last year and finished the budget, and Toby came forward and said, "I think we got chances to drive another $250 million out of that operation in core efficiency." Nothing that impacts the customer, that helps the airline actually run better and saves money, and there's no other Chief Operating Officer in the world that is doing that. They're all begging for more money in their budgets. This is real at United. I think we're going to drive costs for years to come that outperform the rest of the industry because what we're doing is real and is not coming at the expense of employees or customers.

That's great. And maybe if I could ask one on your fleet. You talked about 2025 being a high watermark for growth, but you have 100 narrow-body deliveries plus 20 787s , so that's 10% growth by the end of 2026, given you only showed 20 retirements. So plus you have the gauge benefit that accelerates in 2026. How are you thinking about the guardrails, the capacity growth this year, and where in the network and the fleet plan you're keeping a buffer there?

Look, we're not going to give capacity guidance other than to tell you that our United Next plan has been working well, and this last past year was the high watermark. So we'll manage capacity as appropriate for demand, but that's the guidance we're given today.

Sheila, regarding the 100 narrow-body deliveries, it could be a little more. I mean, Boeing and Airbus have been doing a better job of repairing the supply chain that's been damaged from the pandemic, and so production rates are improving. If we get a few more than that, we're going to welcome that on the narrow-body side. That's going to help us upgauge more quickly. And the profitability of those new aircraft is really robust versus the aircraft that we can replace. And on the wide-body front, it's a similar story. We expect 20 787s in 2026. I think we'll take about that amount in future years as well. And that modernization of the wide-body fleet is not just for growth, but it helps drive better profitability and better returns on capital for United going forward.

So I feel really good about the CapEx profile and what it's going to do to the financials.

Your next question comes from the line of Catie O'Brien with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning, everyone. Thanks so much for the time. Andrew, I wanted to start with you and just dig in on how you're thinking about the sequential trends by region underlying your 1Q EPS guidance. Is it fair to assume that most of the $250 million pre-tax hit was driven by lower domestic revenue? So just trying to understand, should we see the most sequential improvement in domestic? Obviously, you had really strong performance in some of the international regions the fourth quarter. So really just trying to get a sense of the relative improvement you're expecting between the four regions. Thanks.

Yeah. Clearly, in Q4, the larger hit was domestic. I wouldn't say international was zero from the government shutdown, but it was mostly domestic. As we look into 2026, we do have this Caribbean situation, which is impacting the numbers there. So I'm going to be careful what I say about the Caribbean. We still think it could be positive, but it's going to be close. But we are looking for sequential improvement everywhere. Clearly, the Atlantic is leading the way, which is great to see. We're growing a lot across the Atlantic. A lot of it is Israel, but we're still growing a lot across the Atlantic, and we think we've got the capacity equation really dialed in in that region. So we're really proud of that. The Pacific, I think, looks pretty darn good. South Pacific is not as good as the North Pacific.

Domestically, it's going to be another improvement. What I'd say is premium cabins are leading the way, not only domestically, but across the entire network.

Great, and Mike, maybe one for you on the 2026 cost outlook. Obviously, I understand not asking for guidance, but you just detailed a bunch of things that you were really excited about this year: the operation, the procurement. These are some pretty big numbers that you guys have gotten out of the system. I guess on the 2026 punch list, what are the opportunities you're most excited about? Is it just falling down some of the same paths? How should we think about the opportunity to cost out this year versus the great success you had in 2025? Thanks.

Yeah. Thanks, Katie, for the question. I think a continued strong operation, number one. I mentioned global procurement. We're just getting started there, so you should see continued improvements on that front. And then we're working with our technology team led by Jason Birnbaum, and there's some significant multi-hundred million dollar opportunities there. So we'll give you more details as we deliver on those, but this is a permanent cultural shift at United to drive efficiency.

Your next question comes from the line of Ravi Shankar with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.

Great. Thanks. Morning, everyone. So it's pretty clear that your full-year guide is quite conservative. I think you guys may have hinted at that in your comments as well. Just trying to get a sense of kind of is this as conservative as it usually is, or do you see reasons to make it kind of even more conservative for 2026? Just trying to get a sense of how many acts of God are in that full-year guide for this year.

Look, the way I would obviously, Scott said something last night about this, so it helps with the answer just a little bit, I suppose. Let's think about the process. We think carefully about all these forecasts, and we're pretty consistent on how we approach it. We did our forecast for 2026 more than a few weeks ago. Clearly, as we refined it coming into the new year, we focused on refining it in Q1 because that's where we're at. We focused less on refining it in Q2 and beyond because that's how we do the process. We'll see how it goes. I'll just start off with the year's gotten off to a really great start. The international entities are looking pretty darn good, even the Caribbean, considering the situation we're facing there.

So we remain bullish, and business demand looks really pretty amazing right now. And we'll see if that continues. If all of that continues, which I assure you we think it is, and Scott definitely thinks it is, our forecast will prove to be more conservative than it usually is. But that's all I'll go with at this point. Maybe Mike wants to add to that.

Ravi, I'd just say 2025 proved a year. If we talk about acts of God in this industry, we got walloped. The industry got walloped. I'm incredibly proud of United's full-year results. I'm particularly proud of the fourth quarter, where we had a government shutdown. Just about every other major airline had to issue 8-Ks to update their guidance, and we delivered within our original guide. That is testament to how we guide at United Airlines to make sure that we deliver on our financial commitments, even in imperfect times. 2026 will be no different.

Very helpful. And on that note, kind of obviously, you guys are coming to the end of the United Next kind of original guidance range. I mean, 2026 seemed like an eternity away back in 2021, but here we are. So what can we expect next in terms of when do we get the next set of long-term targets from you guys? Obviously, incremental loyalty disclosure kind of what's the timing on that, and what is the forum for that? Thank you.

Hey, Ravi. I am thinking about that and all of our quarterly calls, and frankly, when we go to conferences, I think we talk very big picture, very long-term, which is serving us well. It is important that we have long-term goals that we communicate with the investor base. At this point in time, our commitment to get to double-digit margins, our commitment to get the free cash flow conversion of 75%, our commitment to get to investment grade, those are the longer-term benchmarks that we're fighting for, and so I feel like we're in a pretty good position around the long-term targets at this time.

I'll just add, we look forward to sharing what comes next. What comes next is something that I've been thinking about, and the entire commercial team has been thinking about for years. Because in order to prepare for what comes next, we need to put that into place with a lot of foresight and a lot of thought. We look forward to sharing with all of you at some point in the future. Rest assured that we have a lot of, I think, really great commercial plans and opportunities for the latter part of this decade.

Your next question comes from the line of Jamie Baker with JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Good morning, everybody. Scott, I'm guessing the term CALite just got a few dozen more Google searches today than at any point in life.

Oh, yeah. No, I appreciated the comment, so Andrew, sorry, I'm just getting over a cold here. Andrew, in your prepared remarks and also to Conor a few minutes ago, you mentioned that some degree of unprofitable domestic flying out there is increasingly a function of hub and spoke peers as opposed to the usual domestic discounter suspects. Now, in the case of discounters, I think it was very reasonable to assume that a lot of that would go away just given the staggering system-wide losses, but the difference with certain hub and spoke competitors that you reference, their returns are subsidized by loyalty and premium, so put differently, discounters had no choice but to back off. As Scott likes to say, it's just math, but hub and spoke peers do have a choice. I'm curious if you agree with that.

And if you do, does it influence your confidence that ultimately some of these competitors do call that loss-producing capacity?

Yeah, I think it's a really good question. I think economic gravity is the same for all. And money-losing businesses need to figure that out and do something different. And in this case, I do think money-losing routes or hubs should ultimately be closed. I have some experience in this. I've worked on closing a number of hubs in my career at different airlines, not at United, obviously. And these decisions are complicated and big. But ultimately, it was making rational capacity decisions and recognizing what makes money and what loses money kind of has led, at least United, to where we are today. And there's only one other airline, I think, that can say that all of their hubs make money. And so I still have a lot of confidence.

I just don't know when, but I have a lot of confidence that money-losing flights will eventually exit the system, and airlines will move to what they do best. And the industry will be better off, and all the airlines will be better off. But I don't know when, and it may be a while. And they do have a lot longer runway than other airlines for all the reasons you said earlier. But again, I'll go with economic gravity applies to all.

Okay. And by the way, Jamie, I'm just going to, since Andrew talked about closing hubs, say one of the things that's my opening remarks about Andrew and Glen being the two best in the world. They have each closed three hubs that I can count in my career. The most important thing for a successful commercial airline is knowing when to pull out of loss-making markets. It's emotionally hard to do. Very few people have the discipline to do it. It is the most important characteristic for somebody that's going to run a network at any airline in the world, and it's rare.

I appreciate that. Scott and Andrew, and then just a quick follow-up. Something, Andrew, I think you and I were discussing it in person not so long ago, or maybe it was me and Patrick. But the fact that many of your recent international additions were coming in at a margin premium to their geography as opposed to a deficit that would hopefully rise over time. I'm curious if that's still the case. And if it is, how long can that continue? And should we assume that those premium margins get competed away over time, or are they sustainable, which would imply the broader geography also gets more profitable? Holding other inputs constant.

Yeah. That's a very broad question, and look, I would say that there's nobody better in the world than Patrick at looking at these opportunities. And what we have found, which I think is contrary to normal, is that the fruit that we're picking off the tree after all these years continues to be excellent. In other words, we're able to find different opportunities because the world is getting smaller. The aircraft technology, obviously, with the 787 has changed, but most importantly, United is different today than it was a decade ago, and our differences in the attraction of brand loyal customers, as Scott often says, our product, everything we do has enabled us to add these new routes that couldn't have been done years ago and add them at higher margins than the bulk of what the airline has done, so it's a remarkable journey.

And I think on the international front, we're frankly just getting started. New York, San Francisco, Washington, and LA, when you combine all those together, going across the Pacific and the Atlantic, they're just amazing opportunities. And I think, obviously, you know that the A321XLR is being made for us and will arrive. And we're going to use that aircraft for its unique capabilities, not unlike Continental did 20-plus years ago with the 757. And I think we'll be the only airline to use the aircraft in a way that really does bring on a bunch of new markets. We're not trying to downgauge, overgauge wide-body jets, for example. We're looking to expand our network and our scope and our depth. And there's just a lot more to come on this front. And so kudos to the whole United team. It is just an amazing achievement.

We look forward to seeing what our international network will look like a decade from now.

Your next question comes from the line of Tom Fitzgerald with TD Cowen. Your line is open.

Hi. Thanks very much for the time. I wondered if you could expand a little bit on the distinction between a loyalty program and an awards program. You've commented on that a few times. I'd love to hear how investors should think about MileagePlus being differentiated.

Sure. I think the most simple way to think about it is churn of members. People join our program and stay with it just about forever. And people grab and get our credit card and stay with it for a very, very long time period. So we have very little churn in our programs. And therefore, we don't need to do extraordinary things to attract people to United. We've already done it with a great product, a great network, and rewards that they really want, which is travel. People really want a first-class seat or a Polaris seat to Tahiti as a reward. And all of the other programs out there tend to use constant bonus points and other benefits and all revolve around customers going in and out, switching credit cards, so on and so forth, often to game the systems.

I just think an airline program, and particularly the United program, is different. As we approach the future, we should harness the power of that to figure out how we can make it even stickier and grow it faster, which is what we'll talk about in the next 10 or 12 weeks.

Okay. That's really helpful. And then just as a quick follow-up, it seems like an important milestone that 2025 is a high watermark on domestic capacity growth. So maybe just remind investors how they should think about as you guys harvest some of the gains from achieving your United Next investments. Thanks again for the time.

Sure. In 2021, we announced United Next, and we announced the growth that would come from the connectivity. The growth was always the outcome of the connectivity. We weren't growing for growth's sake. I think that's really important, and I remember at the time, we did distinguish that not all growth is equal, which was really controversial back in 2021 because I think many thought it was, and I think we proved it was not, so as we've gone through the whole cycle of United Next, we are approaching our connectivity goals. We'll hit them in 2027, probably a year late given some of the delivery delays we experienced from Boeing, but close on time in the grand scheme of things.

As we do that, our hubs have reached this critical level, around 650 flights per day in our mid-continent hubs with a lot of connectivity, big banks, and large airplanes. It's exactly what we were contemplating. As we go forward past 2027, we're going to be a lot more focused on gauge and growing our operation that way versus more flights. We do think there's a point when hubs grow past 900 flights per day, for example, that the marginal economics become really challenging. You compete against yourself, and you drive a lot of operational complexity, no matter how many runways you have available to fly from. We really like our plan. It's based on moderate frequency levels and large aircraft. I don't want to give too much of a preview for what comes next, but that was a good hint as to where we're going.

But so that's the high watermark comment is related to all of that. And I'm glad to get back to focusing on gauge in 2027 and beyond. I think it's going to be very lucrative for the business.

Your next question comes from the line of Brandon Oglenski with Barclays. Your line is open.

Hey, good morning. And thanks for taking the question. And congrats to the team on what was a pretty good year in a tough environment. But Scott, and I don't mean to kiss up too much here, but I think a lot of folks on this call really appreciate your industry commentary. And a lot of your projections have been correct the last few years. Can we talk about just broader industry growth? Because if we look at revenue to GDP, or even revenue growth last year was effectively flat versus GDP that was up 3% or 4% nominal or real, do you think this signals that we're just in a shrinking industry now, or has Zoom taken over, or has this really been too much low-cost capacity and the industry just can't get pricing? What's your prognosis?

It's a supply challenge problem. It's not a demand challenge. It's a supply problem. And it's a supply problem I'm not going to call it low-cost capacity. It's a supply problem with spill carriers. And Andrew said it, and I'll repeat it. It's like economic gravity ultimately wins. Doesn't win overnight. Ego usually beats economic gravity in the short term. But economic gravity always wins in the end. And I feel pretty optimistic that even in this environment, well, it's really good. Even in this environment, how well United is doing, the brand loyal strategy, I thought was going to be successful. I've been on this path with Andrew for really for 20 years. We switched airlines, but we've been on this path for 20 years. I thought it would be successful. It is more successful than I thought.

It is remarkable how much resilience we have in bad times or to competitive activities, and so that's good, but I look at some of the flying at competitors, and it's going to push north of negative 20% margins this year. You can do that for a little bit of time. I actually, to be honest with you, I think the supply really comes out when the next downturn hits. The next downturn is going to make it extremely tense for airlines that are going into it with break-even-ish margins in good times, and so I think that's probably what it takes for the next kind of wave of supply, so I think we'll do okay in main cabin between now and then. We'll do well in premium.

I think, to an earlier question, we are targeting growing margins adjusted for any kind of anomalies that happen, but growing margins at one point a year. That means we got to make up one point from last year, by the way. I think that takes us into the low double digits. Then I think when the next downturn hits coming out on the other side of it and the supply comes out, we come out with mid-teens margins. That's a long answer, but off the cuff, but that's what I think is going to happen.

I appreciate the comment, Scott. Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Linenberg with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

United Airlines Holdings (UAL) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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