United Airlines Reports Earnings: Record Revenue—But Delta Made 35% More Profit On Lower Sales

United Airlines is out with its third quarter earnings. They brought in $2.65 billion more revenue in than a year ago, but adjusted pretax profit fell nearly 9%. Delta earned more on slightly less revenue. And United’s fourth-quarter profit forecast is well below Wall Street expectations. United leads its announcement with record revenue, Starlink, and investments in customers. They’re making some smart investments, but the release leans into the same revenue growth everyone else has been seeing with high fuel prices. Revenue rose 17.4% on just 1.3% more capacity. United’s $17.9 billion in sales was about what analysts had forecast. Adjusted earnings of $2.54 per share barely missed the $2.57 consensus by three cents. Measure United Comparison Third-quarter adjusted earnings per share $2.54 $2.57 expected United’s own third-quarter guidance $2.50–$3.50 Actual result near the bottom Fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share forecast $0.50–$1.50 $1.76 expected Fourth-quarter revenue growth forecast More than 20% Delta expects roughly 20%, too The midpoint of United’s fourth-quarter earnings forecast is 43% below what analysts expected. Even the top of the range falls short. United says it stayed within guidance despite a 62% increase in fuel expense. That’s fair as far as it goes, but the guidance already assumed expensive fuel. Meanwhile, Delta is still earning more from roughly the same revenue. Here’s the comparison with United a year ago and Delta’s latest results: Third-quarter measure United 2025 United 2026 Delta 2026 Comparable revenue $15.23 billion $17.88 billion $17.59 billion Revenue growth 2.6% 17.4% 15.7% Capacity growth 7.2% 1.3% 0.3% Revenue per available seat mile growth −4.3% 15.9% About 15.4% Adjusted pretax profit $1.215 billion $1.109 billion $1.497 billion Adjusted pretax margin 8.0% 6.2% 8.5% Adjusted operating margin 8.7% 6.9% 9.4% Delta made about 35% more adjusted pretax profit. Delta also saw its margin shrink, but roughly maintained last year’s adjusted pretax profit while United’s fell. For United, the profit math is: $2.650 billion more revenue minus $1.846 billion more fuel expense minus $895 million more other adjusted operating costs leaves $91 million less adjusted operating profit. Nonfuel costs per seat mile rose 7.8%. Last year’s costs benefited from roughly two percentage points of maintenance and labor-contract timing. But fuel isn’t the only expense growing quickly. The full financial tables also two other important things I noticed: Aircraft sale-and-leaseback gains helped reported profit. These gains were $294 million, compared with $75 million last year. Reported earnings per share rose 8.3%, while adjusted earnings fell 8.6%. Selling aircraft and leasing them back can make financial sense, but the gains don’t mean United earned more flying passengers. And you can more or less finance as much profit as you want this way when you have the assets – selling the planes for more if you’re willing to pay the lessors more. Free cash flow was negative $1.843 billion for the quarter, versus negative $153 million a year ago. Operating cash flow remained positive at $465 million, but aircraft spending and other investing outflows pulled that negative. Buying airplanes consumes cash and United is buying a lot of planes. United’s premium revenue grew 17%, basic economy revenue 16%, and loyalty revenue 17%. Those are good increases, but none outpaced the airline’s overall revenue growth. That means all are up, but the story about premium or loyalty driving the business isn’t supported in those numbers. Meanwhile, contracted corporate revenue was up 26%. We don’t know how much of that is more trips, new accounts, or higher fares. In the release, United touts Starlink. I reported the accelerated internal plan earlier this month, based on decks shared by aviation watchdog JonNYC. It’s not just ‘done in 2027’ they expect more than 1,000 mainline aircraft by May 2027, with more than 20 installations a week across 17 maintenance stations. I’ve avoided United and largely avoided Southwest because I couldn’t count on working internet. A cheaper ticket isn’t a bargain if it costs me hours of productivity. It’s interesting how Starlink has become a baseline expectation. Southwest is racing to install its full fleet next year,too, and American now plans Starlink across its entire mainline fleet, with installations beginning in early 2027. Delta risks getting left behind in the window where it offers inferior service – before starting on its initial Amazon commitment of 500 aircraft, when that becomes available and if it works as promised. It’s an earnings release, so it’s a PR exercise, but there’s a lot of cherry picking oing on. They highlight their cancellation performance in July (not for the full quarter) and compare three airlines, with results weighted by available seat miles. That’s great and all, but United’s reliability hasn’t hit the levels of the best in the industry. They can blame congested hubs at major cities, but when you’re considering whose network to connect over it still matters. Topics on this page