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).
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
