United Airlines Holdings (UAL) Earnings: Q3 2026 Results and Next Report Date

The quarter ended September 30, 2026 and United Airlines published the results on October 20, 2026. Revenue and diluted EPS are shown against Q3 2025, the same quarter a year earlier, which takes seasonal swings out of the comparison. United Airlines reports EPS two ways: GAAP, under the accounting rules every US filer follows, and adjusted, which leaves out items the company considers outside its operating results. The release reconciles the two, and when they diverge, the reconciliation says why.

• United's revenue line is total operating revenue: passenger, cargo and other operating revenue.
• Q3 2026 GAAP results include $215 million of net special credits, primarily $294 million of gains on aircraft sale-leaseback transactions. Adjusted EPS excludes them.

Source: United Airlines Q3 2026 results, October 20, 2026. Also in the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026. Figures as reported; checked against the release on November 10, 2026.

How United Airlines splits revenue in its own release, under its own labels, for Q3 2026 against Q3 2025. Indented lines are parts of the line above them.

• United Airlines's Passenger revenue revenue was $16.2 billion in Q3 2026, up 18% from $13.8 billion in Q3 2025, 91% of total revenue.
• United Airlines's Cargo revenue revenue was $529 million in Q3 2026, up 23% from $431 million in Q3 2025, 3% of total revenue.
• United Airlines's Other operating revenue revenue was $1.1 billion in Q3 2026, up 13% from $979 million in Q3 2025, 6% of total revenue.

Segment lines are the figures writers cite most often, because they show where the growth in a quarter came from. Companies redraw their segments from time to time and restate the prior year to match, so a year-ago figure here can differ from the one printed a year ago. When that has happened, the note above says so.

From the earnings release

United gives its outlook in an Investor Update furnished as Exhibit 99.2 with the release. It guides Q4 2026 adjusted diluted EPS of $0.50 to $1.50 and gives no GAAP EPS target.

In its Q3 2026 release, United Airlines said:

“United expects Q4 total operating revenue growth to accelerate versus Q3 and set another record with an over 20% year-over-year increase”

“Additionally, unit cost excluding fuel growth is expected to step down for the fourth quarter 2026 versus the third quarter 2026.”

“For the fourth quarter, the Company assumes an all-in average fuel price per gallon of approximately $4.80 based on the Gulf Coast jet forward curve as of October 16, 2026.”

Source: United Airlines Investor Update, October 20, 2026, Oct 20, 2026.

This is the company's own guidance as of Oct 20, 2026, quoted as given. Walnut does not make forecasts of its own. Analyst estimates for the coming quarters are on the UAL forecast page.

Revenue and diluted EPS for the last 5 quarters. Each date links to that quarter's release.

GAAP total operating revenue and diluted EPS, each as first reported in that quarter's release.

United Airlines's next report is expected around January 26, 2027, a date estimated from its reporting history that the company has not yet confirmed. This page will show Q3 2026 until those results are out and have been checked against the release.

Each quarter keeps its own page with the figures as reported, so a link to one stays pointed at the same numbers after the next report.

• Q3 2026 (this page), reported Oct 20, 2026

United Airlines' total operating revenue was $17,875 million in Q3 2026, up 17.4% from $15,225 million. Passenger revenue was $16,241 million (up 17.6%), cargo revenue $529 million (up 22.9%) and other operating revenue $1,106 million (up 12.9%). The 10-Q attributes the passenger increase to a 16.8% rise in yield and a 2.4% rise in passengers flown, while capacity grew 1.3%. (United Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026; United Airlines Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 21, 2026)

Domestic passenger revenue was $9,708 million, up 19.9%, and international passenger revenue $6,533 million, up 14.3%. Within international, the Atlantic brought in $3,611 million, the Pacific $1,583 million and Latin America $1,339 million. United cut Middle East/India/Africa capacity by 36.5%, and passenger revenue there fell 17.3% to $287 million. (United Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

United reported growth across fare types compared to Q3 2025: premium revenue up 17%, Basic Economy up 16%, loyalty revenue up 17% and contracted business revenue up 26%. Total revenue per available seat mile (TRASM) was 20.19 cents, up 15.9%, which United called its best quarterly unit revenue growth since the pandemic. (United Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

Other operating revenue includes mileage revenue from non-airline partners. United recognized $0.9 billion in Q3 2026, against $0.8 billion a year earlier, from its partner agreements, including the MileagePlus co-brand agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., and the 10-Q attributes the rise in other revenue to higher credit card spending with that partner. (United Airlines Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 21, 2026)

United operates U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. In Q3 2026 it carried a record 49.5 million revenue customers and served 241 airports across the U.S. and Canada. (United Airlines Form 10-K, 2025, Feb 12, 2026; United Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

United Airlines' GAAP diluted EPS was $3.14 in Q3 2026, up from $2.90, while adjusted diluted EPS fell to $2.54 from $2.78. GAAP EPS was higher because it includes $215 million of net special credits ($0.66 per share), mainly $294 million of gains on aircraft sale-leaseback transactions, which the adjusted figure removes along with unrealized investment losses. (United Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026; United Airlines Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 21, 2026)

United said adjusted EPS came in within its guidance despite a 62% increase in fuel expense. Aircraft fuel expense rose $1.8 billion, or 61.6%, to $4,843 million as the average price per gallon rose to $3.90 from $2.43. Adjusted pre-tax margin fell to 6.2% from 8.0%, and CASM-ex, which excludes fuel, profit sharing, special charges and third-party business expenses, rose 7.8% to 13.09 cents. (United Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026; United Airlines Form 10-Q, Q3 2026, Oct 21, 2026)

Net income was $1,029 million against $949 million. Diluted weighted-average shares were 327.4 million against 326.9 million, so the share count had little effect on EPS. Income tax expense was $282 million on pre-tax income of $1,311 million. (United Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

Diluted EPS divides net income by the weighted average number of shares outstanding in the quarter, plus the shares that options and other equity awards could add. Buybacks shrink that count and lift EPS for the same profit; share issuance and stock awards enlarge it.

United Airlines publishes its outlook in an Investor Update filed with the release. For Q4 2026 it guides adjusted diluted EPS of $0.50 to $1.50, assuming an all-in fuel price of approximately $4.80 per gallon, and says every $0.01 change in the fuel price equates to approximately 2.5 cents of EPS for the quarter. The release says Q4 total operating revenue growth is expected to exceed 20%. (United Airlines Investor Update, Q4 2026, Oct 20, 2026; United Airlines Q3 2026 release, Oct 20, 2026)

United gives no GAAP EPS target. Its Investor Update says consensus expectations assume a Q4 fuel price of approximately $4.35, about $0.45 lower than United's assumption, which it says represents approximately $1.00 of EPS for the quarter. United expects full-year 2026 adjusted capital expenditures of about $7.5 billion. (United Airlines Investor Update, Q4 2026, Oct 20, 2026)

A consensus figure is the average of the models published by the analysts who cover United Airlines, collected by a data provider and revised up to the day of the report. A quarter that lands above it says how expectations were set as much as how the business did, and the share price on the day also reflects the guidance and the lines no consensus covers.

The consensus figures on this page are Yahoo Finance's, as pulled on the date shown. Each comes with the number of analysts behind it; the smaller that number, the more one revised estimate can move the average.

The figures below are the ones United Airlines's own release and filings put weight on for Q3 2026, with the latest reported value for each.

What the quarter means for a holding is a separate question from what it reported. The case for and against owning UAL is on is UAL a buy or a sell?, what analysts expect next is on the UAL forecast, and what the company does is on the United Airlines Holdings (UAL) stock page.

Every number on this page can be traced to a document United Airlines published. Checking one takes a couple of minutes, and it is worth doing before you quote a figure anywhere.

• The results release is the document linked in the source line above. Companies publish it on their investor relations site at the moment results go out, and it carries the headline tables: revenue, operating income, net income and EPS for the quarter and the year-ago quarter.
• The same release is filed with the SEC as Exhibit 99.1 to a Form 8-K under Item 2.02, usually on the day of the report. The SEC copy does not change after the fact, which makes it the safer thing to link when you cite a number.
• The quarterly report (Form 10-Q) follows within a few weeks and carries the full financial statements, the segment note and management's discussion of what changed. The fourth quarter is covered by the annual report (Form 10-K) instead.
• Restated comparisons are flagged in the notes on this page. When a company redraws its segments or changes how it adjusts EPS, it restates the year-ago column, so the year-ago figure in a new release can differ from the one printed a year ago. This page always uses the comparison in the newer release, because that is the like-for-like one.

A walk-through of every line in a release, with what each one tells you, is in how to read an earnings report.