United Airlines is one of the "Big Three" US airlines alongside American Airlines and Delta Air Lines. The airline, which was one of the five founding members of the 👁 Image
Star Alliance, can trace its history back to Varney Air Lines, launched by Walter Varney in 1926. The airline successfully negotiated a merger agreement with Continental Airlines in 2010.
Behind the other "big three" US airlines, United Airlines was the world's largest airline based on revenue as of January 2023. Interestingly, the airline also ranks 3rd by fleet size, again behind 👁 Image
Delta Air Lines and 👁 Image
American Airlines.
The airline employs over 100,000 people and is headquartered in Illinois, United States. It is currently headed by Scott Kirby, who became the airline's CEO in May 2020, succeeding Oscar Munoz. Before this, Kirby was the airline's president since August 2016.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused two consecutive years of loss for United Airlines. However, its workforce is now bigger than before the pandemic, highlighting its recovery somewhat. According to data from ch-aviation, the airline's last five years of financial performance are as follows:
|
Year |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total Revenue |
$43.3 billion |
$15.4 billion |
$24.6 billion |
$45.0 billion |
$53.7 billion |
|
Operating Profit/Loss |
$4.30 billion |
-$6.36 billion |
-$1.02 billion |
$2.34 billion |
$4.21 billion |
|
Net Profit/Loss |
$3.01 billion |
-$7.07 billion |
-$1.96 billion |
$737 million |
$2.62 billion |
|
Employees |
90,100 |
74,400 |
84,100 |
92,800 |
103,000 |
