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United Airlines Holdings (UAL) FY2025 results: revenue $59.1 billion, up 3.5% on the year

United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (UAL) reported revenue of $59.1 billion for fiscal 2025, the year ended 31 December 2025, up 3.5% on the year before. Net income was $3.4 billion, up 6.5%, and diluted earnings per share $10.20. The figures are the company's own, from the 10-K it filed with the SEC on 12 February 2026.

Revenue
$59.1 billion
+3.5% on the year
FY2018FY2025
Operating margin
8.0%
8.9% a year earlier
FY2018FY2025
Net income
$3.4 billion
+6.5% on the year
FY2018FY2025
Diluted EPS
$10.20
+7.9% on the year
FY2018FY2025

this yearthe year beforeHover a bar for its figure.

The year in brief

What management said about the year

Guidance figures: 1 new.

  • Record fourth-quarter revenue: Fourth-quarter total operating revenue was $15.4 billion, up 4.8% on 6.5% capacity growth, the highest quarterly revenue in company history.
  • Fourth-quarter EPS up, adjusted down: Fourth-quarter diluted EPS was $3.19, up 8.1%. Adjusted diluted EPS was $3.10, down 4.9% from $3.26. Net income was $1 billion.
  • Full-year diluted EPS up 7.9%: Full-year diluted EPS was $10.20, up 7.9%. Adjusted diluted EPS was $10.62, up 0.1%. Full-year pre-tax earnings were $4.3 billion.
  • International passenger revenue up 9.5%: Fourth-quarter international passenger revenue was $5.6 billion, up 9.5%. Atlantic rose 14.2% to $2.7 billion, and Europe rose 8.7% to $2.3 billion.
  • Unit costs down, ex-fuel unit costs up: Fourth-quarter CASM fell 0.3% while CASM-ex rose 0.4%. TRASM fell 1.6% on 6.5% capacity growth.
Read the Q4 FY2025 earnings call summary

From this 10-K

United Airlines Holdings is a holding company whose wholly owned subsidiary, United Airlines, carries people and cargo across North America and to Asia, Europe, Africa, the Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America. United makes up nearly all of the holding company: almost all its revenue and expenses and approximately the entire balance of its assets, liabilities and operating cash flows. The offices are at 233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago. The filing describes United as having the most comprehensive route network among North American carriers.

United Airlines Holdings, Inc., the 10-K for 2025

United Airlines Holdings is a holding company whose wholly owned subsidiary, United Airlines, carries people and cargo across North America and to Asia, Europe, Africa, the Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America. United makes up nearly all of the holding company: almost all its revenue and expenses and approximately the entire balance of its assets, liabilities and operating cash flows. The offices are at 233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago. The filing describes United as having the most comprehensive route network among North American carriers.

Hubs and the hub-and-spoke model

Hubs are at Chicago O'Hare, Denver, George Bush Intercontinental in Houston, Los Angeles, Newark Liberty, San Francisco, Washington Dulles and A.B. Won Pat International in Guam. All the domestic hubs sit in large business and population centres, which brings a lot of origin-and-destination traffic. The hub system lets the airline connect many destinations with more frequent service than direct routes would allow, and lets it open a new destination from many cities using only one or a few aircraft.

United Next

United Next is the company's plan to match network and product to the capacity of its hubs, offering a range from Basic Economy to Polaris and growing the global network. The company says it expects to take delivery of over 630 new narrow-body and wide-body aircraft by the end of 2034, and that the aircraft delivered so far have increased its gauge, scale and connectivity and improved fuel efficiency. Headcount has grown by more than 38,000 since 2020. Service began in 2025 to eight new destinations, among them Nuuk in Greenland, Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, Faro and Madeira in Portugal, Puerto Escondido in Mexico, Palermo in Italy and Bilbao in Spain. Two other items are named: Kinective Media, a media network that uses travel behaviour to target advertising and offers, and Starlink's Wi-Fi service, brought to United Express regional aircraft with installation beginning on mainline aircraft.

The regional network

Regional flying was approximately 6.1 percent of total capacity in 2025 and is branded United Express, carrying traffic into the hubs and serving smaller cities that mainline aircraft cannot reach economically. CommuteAir, GoJet, Mesa, Republic and SkyWest fly that capacity under capacity purchase agreements. United pays the regional carrier agreed fees plus a variable adjustment against performance metrics, calculated from operating statistics such as block hours and departures plus fixed monthly amounts, and bears the fuel, landing fees and other costs. In some cases United owns the aircraft and leases them to the regional carrier. The regional carrier flies only for United on schedules United sets, while United sets prices, manages revenue, carries the risk on unsold seats and allows miles to be earned and redeemed on those flights.

Star Alliance and other partners

United is a member of Star Alliance, which in 2025 served more than 1,150 airports in more than 190 countries and territories with 17,500 average daily departures. Its members include Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Asiana, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Copa, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian, EVA Air, LOT, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, THAI and Turkish Airlines, with Juneyao Airlines a connecting partner and Deutsche Bahn and Austrian Federal Railways rail partners. Bilateral agreements with alliance members cover reciprocal mileage earning and redemption, lounge access and, with some, codesharing, where one carrier's flights are sold under another's brand. Separate alliance agreements run with carriers including Aer Lingus, Azul, Emirates, Eurowings, flydubai, Hawaiian Airlines, ITA Airways, JetBlue and Virgin Australia.

MileagePlus

Members earn miles flying United, United Express, Star Alliance members and other participating airlines, and by buying from non-airline partners including credit card issuers, retail merchants, hotels and car rental firms. Miles are redeemed for free, discounted or upgraded travel and for non-travel awards. The co-brand agreement with JPMorgan Chase lets U.S. residents earn miles on a MileagePlus credit card, covers joint marketing, and gives Chase permission to market to the company's customer database. In 2025 approximately 10.9 million MileagePlus flight awards were used on United and United Express, and flights including upgrades were approximately 90 percent of all miles redeemed; members took approximately 4.3 million other awards, covering United Club memberships, car and hotel awards, merchandise and flights on other carriers.

Capital and people

The business is capital intensive; aircraft have been funded with cash, enhanced equipment trust certificate financing, leases and other financings, alongside long-term airport leases for terminal, cargo and maintenance facilities. UAL and its subsidiaries had approximately 113,200 employees at the end of 2025, approximately 83 percent of them represented by United States labour organisations.

From United Airlines Holdings' annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 12 February 2026: read the full 10-K.

The four quarters: Q1 FY2025 · Q2 FY2025 · Q3 FY2025 · Q4 FY2025

Income statement (profit and loss)

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Revenue59,07057,06353,717+3.5%
Operating income4,7135,0964,211-7.5%
Operating margin8.0%8.9%7.8%
Interest expense1,3731,6291,956-15.7%
Pre-tax income4,3064,1683,387+3.3%
Income tax9531,019769-6.5%
Effective tax rate22.1%24.4%22.7%
Net income3,3533,1492,618+6.5%
Net margin5.7%5.5%4.9%
Diluted EPS$10.20$9.45$7.89+7.9%
$ million except per share.
Read moreFree cash flow is operating cash flow less capital expenditure; the effective tax rate is income tax over pre-tax income; margins are the line over revenue. Gross profit is revenue less cost of revenue, and operating income is revenue less the company's own total costs, where the statement does not print those lines. Those four are arithmetic on the filed numbers; everything else is as filed. Money is in $ million as the company files it, or in $ billion by the switch above the tables; per share figures and share counts are as they are.

Cash flow

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Operating cash flow8,4319,4456,911-10.7%
Capital expenditure5,8745,6157,171+4.6%
Free cash flow2,5573,830-260-33.2%
Free cash flow margin4.3%6.7%-0.5%
Cash from investing-6,350-2,651-6,106
Cash from financing-4,945-4,182-1,892
Depreciation and amortisation2,9392,9282,671+0.4%
Share-based compensation14814280.0+4.2%
Buybacks6371620.0+293.2%
Diluted shares, weighted328m333m332m-1.4%
Shares outstanding at period end323m328m328m-1.4%

Balance sheet

$ millionFY2025FY2024FY2023On the yearLast 8 years
Shareholders' equity15,28212,6759,324+20.6%
Debt24,98828,65631,660-12.8%
Operating lease liabilities5,4174,5104,503+20.1%
Finance lease liabilities37868.091.0+455.9%
Other liabilities30,38328,17425,526+7.8%
Total liabilities and equity76,44874,08371,104+3.2%
Fixed assets46,12142,90839,815+7.5%
Goodwill4,5274,5274,5270.0%
Intangible assets2,6552,6832,725-1.0%
Investments6,2985,7068,330+10.4%
Loans54.072.0n/a-25.0%
Cash and equivalents5,9428,7696,058-32.2%
Receivables2,3912,1631,898+10.5%
Other assets8,4607,2557,751+16.6%
Total assets76,44874,08371,104+3.2%

10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025, filed 12 February 2026: the filing.