Private company

United Airlines Holdings

Airline of the United States

United Airlines, Inc. is a major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.² From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 18, 2026.

Overview

Dec 30, 1968Founded¹

Tickeron NYSE¹
Industryair transport¹
HeadquartersChicago¹
Founded inChicago¹
Websiteir.united.com
Legal formDelaware corporation¹
Listed onNew York Stock Exchange (UAL)¹

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Sears Tower ss — Photo: Photo taken in 1998 by Wikipedia user Soakologist . No rights claimed or reserved., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons⁴

United Airlines, Inc. is a major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and to destinations on six continents. Regional service is provided by independent carriers operating under the United Express brand, and the Star Alliance, of which United was one of the five founding airlines, extends its network throughout the world.²

Products and brands

Network

Destinations

As of 2026, United Airlines flies (or has flown) to the following destinations. This table does not include destinations served by United's regional subsidiary, United Express.

Hubs

As of 2026, United operates eight hubs:

Chicago–O'Hare

Denver

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Guam

Houston–Intercontinental

Los Angeles

Newark

San Francisco

Washington–Dulles

Alliance and codeshare agreements

United Airlines is a member of the Star Alliance that has 26 member airlines that operate a combined fleet of over 5,000 aircraft, with more than 19,000 flights, serving more than 1,150 airports with access to over 1,000 lounges in 190 countries.

United has codeshare agreements with the following airlines:

United First and United Business

United First is the highest cabin offered on domestically configured aircraft. When these aircraft operate internationally, the cabin is marketed as United Business. Seats on narrowbody aircraft have a 38-inch (970 mm) seat pitch, while domestically configured Boeing 777-200ERs feature fully flat seats in a staggered layout. Amenities include priority services, complimentary alcoholic beverages and meals on longer flights, and dedicated check-in areas.

United introduced a redesigned domestic first-class seat in 2015, initially on Airbus A320 family aircraft, subsequently rolling it out across the mainline fleet.

In 2019, United announced a fleet-wide increase in first and business class seating, including the introduction of the premium-configured CRJ550 and later the CRJ450 regional aircraft.

United's newest narrowbody interiors debuted on the Airbus A321neo in 2023.

From Wikipedia’s article on United Airlines Holdings, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.³

Subsidiaries and ownership

Subsidiaries

Chelsea Food Services
Continental Airlines
United Airlines
United Express
United p.s.

From Wikidata.¹

Revenue over time

As stated on Wikidata, in the currency reported.

Revenue

United Airlines Holdings revenue by year¹$45.0B in 2022+17% since 2013

2022$45.0B¹
2021$24.6B¹
2020$15.4B¹
2019$43.3B¹
2018$41.3B¹
2017$37.7B¹

Net income

United Airlines Holdings net income by year¹$737.0M in 2022+29% since 2013

2022$737.0M¹
2021-$2.0B¹
2020-$7.1B¹
2019$3.0B¹
2018$2.1B¹
2017$2.1B¹

Controversies and legal

Accidents and incidents

United Airlines has been involved in numerous accidents and incidents since its founding, including Flight 175 and Flight 93 as part of the September 11 attacks, in which roughly 1000 were killed. The deadliest non-terrorism accident was in 1989, when Flight 232 crash-landed at Sioux Gateway Airport, following an uncontained engine failure leading to total loss of flight controls. 112 of the 296 on board were killed.

Controversies and passenger incidents

2017 passenger removal

On the evening of April 9, 2017, a passenger was forcibly removed by law enforcement from United Airlines flight 3411 at Chicago-O'Hare, bound for Louisville. United announced that it needed four seats for airline staff on the sold-out flight. When no passengers volunteered after being offered vouchers worth $800, United staff selected four passengers to leave. Three of them did so, but the fourth, a doctor named David Dao, declined as he said that he had patients to treat the following morning. He was pulled from his seat by Chicago Department of Aviation security officers and dragged by his arms down the aisle after his head was hit against an armrest and he was rendered unconscious. Dao sustained a concussion, broken teeth and a broken nose among other injuries. The incident was captured on smartphone cameras and posted on social media, triggering angry public backlash. Afterwards, United's then-chief executive officer, Oscar Munoz, described Dao as "disruptive and belligerent", apologized for "re-accommodating" the paying customers, and defended and praised staff for "following established procedures". He was widely criticized as "tone-deaf". Munoz later issued a second statement calling what happened a "truly horrific event" and accepting "full responsibility" for it. After a lawsuit, Dao reached an undisclosed settlement with United and airport police. In the aftermath, United's board of directors decided that Munoz would not become its chairman and that executive compensation would be tied to customer satisfaction. Following this incident, passenger complaints increased by 70 percent.

Mail-scan fraud

In February 2021, United Airlines was fined $49 million by the United States Department of Justice on charges of fraud on postal service contracts for transportation of international mail. According to investigators, between 2012 and 2015 United submitted delivery scan data to make it appear that United and its partner airlines complied with International Commercial Air requirements with accurate delivery times when in fact they were automated delivery scans with aspirational delivery times. Some employees within United worked to hide this fact from the United States Postal Service.