United Airlines revenue misses Wall Street’s expectations

United Airlines earnings proved to be a mixed bag for its third fiscal quarter.

The airline reported a earnings per share of $2.78 on a $15.2 billion revenue, plus a pre-tax earnings of $1.3 billion, for its fiscal third quarter earnings after the bell Wednesday. Although United’s EPS beat out estimates, Wall Street expected better revenue results. 

Zacks Equity Research said analysts projected an EPS of $2.64 on a $15.3 billion revenue. JPMorgan analysts projected an EPS of $2.60 on a revenue of $15.38 billion. 

United’s lackluster revenue report comes days after Delta Air Lines reported positive earnings that included a record revenue that sent its stock rising. However, United said it expects its fourth quarter to have the “highest total operating revenue for a single quarter in company history” due to a rise in revenue year-over-year for its premium cabin, basic economy, cargo, and loyalty revenue sources for the last quarter that United said “has continued so far” into this quarter. 

United CEO Scott Kirby said customer investments have let United “retain brand-loyal customers” which he said led to “economic resilience even with macroeconomic volatility through the first three quarters of the year and significant upside as the economy and demand are improving in the fourth quarter."

The airline said it's on track to spend over $1 billion on customer investment, and plans to invest over $1 billion in 2026 as well. 

JPMorgan analysts gave United Airlines an overweight rating and a December 2026 price target of $149 in its latest note on U.S. airlines from September. For the full fiscal year, they estimate an EPS of $9.92 on a revenue of $58.99 billion. For fiscal year 2026, the analysts project an EPS of $13.58 on a revenue of $64.36 billion.

“We believe UAL possesses exposure to the strongest industry tailwinds, primarily robust demand for international travel and premium products,” JPMorgan analysts said in the note. “With Legacy airlines widening the outperformance gap over LCCs (low-cost carriers), we expect trends to continue to favor the Big 3 (DAL, UAL, AAL) in the medium term. Our Overweight rating reflects the efforts of UAL’s Next strategy beginning to take hold as well as business and international travel demand that should benefit UAL comparatively more than other leisure-focused airlines.”

The analysts said risks to its valuation of United include “a slowdown in travel demand; should UAL begin to materially fall behind on its turnaround plan; unexpected labor cost increase that would impair cost structure; should proposed legislation limit interchange fees that fund reward programs for credit cards, or if OEM delays were to materially impair United’s growth ambitions.”

United’s stock was up less than 1% after the bell Wednesday before its earnings report. Its stock has risen about 55% in the last six months since President Donald Trump announced his global tariffs in April and is up about 9% year-to-date.