United Airlines Q3 Earnings Surpass Estimates, Revenues Lag

United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (UAL) reported mixed third-quarter 2025 results wherein the company’s earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate, but revenues missed the same.

UAL's third-quarter 2025 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) (excluding 12 cents from non-recurring items) of $2.78 surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.64 but declined 16.5% on a year-over-year basis. The reported figure lies above the guided range of $2.25 and $2.75.

Operating revenues of $15.2 billion fell short of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.3 billion but increased 2.6% year over year. Passenger revenues (which accounted for 90.7% of the top line) increased 1.9% year over year to $13.8 billion. UAL flights transported 48,382 passengers in the third quarter, up 6.2% year over year.

Cargo revenues grew 3.2% year over year to $431 million. Revenues from other sources rose 13.2% year over year to $979 million.

United Airlines Holdings Inc Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise

United Airlines Holdings Inc price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | United Airlines Holdings Inc Quote

UAL’s diverse revenue sources contributed to its third-quarter results. These include premium cabin revenues, which went up 6% year over year, revenue from Basic Economy (up 4% year over year), cargo revenues (up 3%) and loyalty revenues (up 9%). This steady positive pattern has continued in the fourth quarter, and UAL anticipates the fourth quarter of 2025 to have the highest total operating revenue for a single quarter in company history.

Other Details of UAL’s Q3 Earnings Report

Below, we present all comparisons (in % terms) with the third quarter of 2024 figures unless otherwise stated.

Airline traffic, measured in revenue passenger miles, grew 6.1%. Capacity, measured in available seat miles, expanded 7.2%. Although traffic improved year over year, it failed to outpace capacity expansion. As a result, the consolidated load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) declined 0.7 points on a year-over-year basis to 83.3%.  We had expected the consolidated load factor to be 83.8%.

Consolidated passenger revenue per available seat mile (a key measure of unit revenues) inched down 5% year over year. Total revenue per available seat mile decreased 4.3% year over year. The average yield per revenue passenger mile fell 4% year over year to 18.73 cents. The average aircraft fuel price per gallon fell 5.1% year over year to $2.43. Fuel gallons consumed were up 5.4% year over year.

Operating expenses (on a reported basis) increased 4.2% year over year to $13.8 billion. Consolidated unit cost or cost per available seat mile, excluding fuel, third-party business expenses, profit-sharing and special charges, inched down 0.9% year over year to 12.15 cents.

UAL exited the third quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $6.73 billion compared with $9.35 billion at the prior-quarter end. Long-term debt, finance leases and other financial liabilities were $20.8 billion, flat sequentially.

UAL repurchased $19 million of shares in the third quarter of 2025. UAL generated $1.21 billion of free cash flow in the September quarter.

UAL’s Outlook

For fourth-quarter 2025, UAL anticipates adjusted EPS between $3.00 and $3.50. The Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.67 lies below the guidance.

UAL’s Zacks Rank

Currently, UAL carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Q3 Performances of Other Transportation Companies

Delta Air Lines DAL reported third-quarter 2025 earnings (excluding 46 cents from non-recurring items) of $1.71 per share, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.52. Earnings increased 14% on a year-over-year basis due to low fuel costs.

Revenues in the September-end quarter were $16.67 billion, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $15.79 billion and increasing 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. Due to improving air-travel demand, adjusted operating revenues (excluding third-party refinery sales) increased 4.1% year over year to $15.2 billion. 

J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. (JBHT) reported third-quarter 2025 earnings of $1.76 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.47 and improved 18.1% year over year.

Total operating revenues of $3.05 billion surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.02 billion and were down 0.5% year over year. JBHT’s third-quarter revenue performance was hurt by a 1% and 4% decline in gross revenue per load in Intermodal (JBI) and Truckload (JBT), respectively, a decrease in load volume of 8% and 1% in Integrated Capacity Solutions (ICS) and Dedicated Contract Services (DCS), respectively, and 8% fewer stops in Final Mile Services (FMS). These items were partially offset by a 3 % improvement in DCS productivity, a 9% increase in revenue per load in ICS and 14% load growth in JBT. Total operating revenue, excluding fuel surcharge revenue, fell less than 1% year over year.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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