Strong Q1 Growth Drives United's Focus on Winning Loyal Customers

United Airlines has reported a first-quarter profit, delivering first-quarter pre-tax earnings of $0.9 billion, with a pre-tax margin of 6.0%, up 2.3 points year-over-year. United delivered adjusted pre-tax earnings1 of $0.5 billion, with an adjusted pre-tax margin1 of 3.4%, up 0.4 points year-over-year.

United delivered strong first-quarter results despite challenges, including a $340 million increase in fuel expense compared to the first quarter of 2025. United's capacity and revenue initiatives are intended to recapture this increase over the long term while maintaining the offerings that are winning brand-loyal customers.

United's diverse revenue streams remained resilient, including premium revenue up 14% compared to the first quarter of 2025, loyalty revenue up 13%, and revenue from Basic Economy up 7%. Business revenue also remained strong at up 14% for the first quarter. The first quarter was United's highest-revenue first quarter ever, with positive PRASM growth in every region2.

Oil prices remain volatile and elevated versus the start of the year. United has already begun adjusting its schedule for the rest of 2026 to account for higher fuel prices with an expected 5-point capacity reduction versus its original plan.

As a result, the Company expects capacity in the third and fourth quarters of 2026 to be flat to up approximately 2% year-over-year. United will continue to be nimble with capacity, with additional reductions or restored flying as appropriate to meet anticipated demand.

United expects to take delivery of more than 250 new aircraft by April 2028, and customers are benefiting from United innovations throughout every cabin.

The airline announced several industry-leading customer enhancements during the quarter, including its planned "Coastliner" Airbus A321neo, the "Born to Explore" Airbus A321XLR, the new CRJ450 with its spacious United First cabin, and the United Relax Row℠ across a row of United Economy®-class seats.

Starlink installations are accelerating and United expects to bring fast, free Wi-Fi for MileagePlus® members to the whole fleet by the end of 2027. On April 1, United announced a new way to monitor TSA wait times in its mobile app. Nearly 1.6 million customers used this feature in the first two weeks after rollout.

United carried the most passengers in a first quarter in its history and achieved the best on-time departure rate for the quarter among the eight largest U.S. carriers. March was the fourth month in a row United achieved the best on-time departure rate among U.S. carriers.

For the quarter, United's per-seat cancellation rate averaged 44% lower than the next two largest U.S. carriers by available seat miles.

United continued to strengthen its balance sheet as it works toward its goal of investment grade credit ratings by paying down $3.1 billion in debt during the quarter.

Additionally, for the first time since 2019, United returned to the unsecured market and successfully raised $2 billion across two unsecured bond issuances — exceeding initial expectations. At the end of the first quarter, net leverage1 was 2.0x for the last twelve months.