Company profile
SEC EDGAR ↗- Industry
- Air Transportation, Scheduled
- Listed
- Nasdaq: UAL
- Incorporated
- DE
- Headquarters
- Chicago, IL
- Fiscal year end
- Dec 31
Financials
FY2025- Revenue
- $59.1B
- Net income
- $3.35B
- Total assets
- $76.4B
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Total assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $59.1B | $3.35B | $76.4B |
| FY2024 | $57.1B | $3.15B | $74.1B |
| FY2023 | $53.7B | $2.62B | $71.1B |
| FY2022 | $45.0B | $737.0M | $67.4B |
| FY2021 | $24.6B | −$1.96B | $68.2B |
| FY2020 | $15.4B | −$7.07B | $59.5B |
Reported fiscal years from SEC filings (10-K) — SEC EDGAR ↗. Stratrix is a strategy publication, not a real-time financial data service.
Decisions on record
3 verified Decision Cases on United Airlines, and the casebook each one belongs to.
| Fork date | Decision type | What United Airlines chose | Where it stood | The story | Casebook |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | The Turnaround | Enter Chapter 11 and shrink | 20% lower operating costs, 7.5 cents per ASM excluding fuel (2006-02) | Read the story → | The Turnaround Casebook → |
| 2017 | Crisis Response | Lead with procedural defense | Dao reached an amicable settlement on undisclosed terms after United announced ten policy changes including raising maximum involuntary-bump compensation to $10,000 (2017-04) | Read the story → | Crisis Response Casebook → |
| 2020 | The Cross-Subsidy | Collateralize MileagePlus for debt | United repaid its MileagePlus-secured debt in full by July 2025, ahead of rivals (2025-07) | Read the story → | The Cross-Subsidy Casebook → |
Run one of these yourself
The decisions United Airlines faced, as kits you can run.
Each pack takes one of these decisions and gives you the framework, a deck for the room, a model that resolves to one number, and the sourced cases behind it. $499, one-time.
The analyses
The Crisis Response · Crisis & Reinvention
United's Two Worst Days Turned on the First Sentence of Each Apology
United didn't get hammered by a broken guitar or a dragged passenger. It got hammered by its own first sentence each time - and the legend that followed (stock crash, 'overbooked,' a federal fine) is mostly false. The damage was in the apology, not the incident.
8 min
The Cross-Subsidy · Business Model
United Borrowed $6.8 Billion Against MileagePlus and Showed Where the Profit Really Lives
In July 2020 United moved its frequent-flyer program into a separate company and borrowed $6.8B against it. That move revealed the real business: MileagePlus and a JPMorgan card deal generate billions in margin-rich revenue while thin domestic routes exist mostly to feed premium long-haul seats.
8 min
The Market-Entry Gambit · Growth & Portfolio
Survival Was the Strategy: United's 1,150 Days in Bankruptcy Left It 30% Smaller
United spent 1,150 days in the longest airline bankruptcy on record and came out 30% smaller. That isn't a strategy story — it's a survival story, and survival is the only edge that ever worked in this industry.
7 min
Tools to try
- Ansoff move finderFramework: Ansoff Matrix
- Business model canvas builderFramework: Business Model Canvas
- Change readiness checkFramework: Kotter's 8-Step Change Model
- Five Forces scorerFramework: Porter's Five Forces
- SMART goal builderFramework: SMART Goals
- SWOT builderFramework: SWOT Analysis
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