United Airlines is growing with plenty of aircraft on order and Boeing finally starting to deliver planes again at a strong clip. In their fourth quarter earnings release they made a bold claim: they will take more widebody aircraft – that will fly to far-flung destinations – than any U.S. carrier in 38 years.
In 2026 United plans to enhance the customer experience as it plans to take delivery of over 100 narrowbody aircraft and approximately 20 Boeing 787 aircraft – more widebody aircraft in a year than any U.S. passenger airline since 1988.
A reader asked, what airline took deliveries of more widebodies than United? In 1988, American Airlines was simultaneously ramping up two new widebody types:
- 13 Airbus A300s were delivered between April 21 and November 15, 1988
- 15 Boeing 767-300ERs, where they were the launch customer for that variant and these deliveries started February 19, 1988.
So when United CEO Scott Kirby says United will have the most “since 1988” the last time an airline did more than 20 was American in 1988, at 28 widebodies. Some of these planes of course could just help offset losses of 777-200s with engine issues, and potential regulatory issues.
Overall, the airline says they will have “more than 120 aircraft” delivered in 2026, including those 787s but also 75 Boeing 737 MAX9s, 16 Airbus A321neos, and 8 Airbus A321XLRs. That number will certain change as delivery schedules firm.
Their Investor Update this week lays out its planned fleet counts. By the end of 2026 they project:
- 1,180 mainline aircraft
- 435 regional aircraft
- 1,616 total planes
United Airlines is profitable and growing. They beat analyst expectations for the fourth quarter on record $15.4 billion revenue with an 8.6% margin. Premium revenue was up 9% year-over-year, loyalty revenue up 10%, but revenue per available seat mile down 1.6% (the back cabin isn’t doing as well as the front). For the year they generated $59.1 billion in revenue.
Surprised one of the years during the surge of 777s and 744s in the late 90s at UNITED didn’t surpass the AA year.
UA is knocking it out of the park.
Widebody planes for widebody Americans.
TO no surprise, Scott Kirby failed to mention that DL led US carriers in number of widebody deliveries for 2024 and 2025 because they bought airplanes from Airbus who has delivered to DL on time.
DL has been retiring 767s and has no aircraft that are at risk of being grounded as UA does with the Pratt 777 issue.
TD, “DL has been retiring 767s ”
I think we can all agree that is for the better.
@Tim
Okay Fanboy.
rebel,
UA should be retiring not just its 767s which are just as old and as expensive to maintain as DL’s but UA should also be retiring their Pratt 777s which as Gary has noted are one engine failure away from grounding 50+ aircraft.
No other US airline is in that kind of predicament with any fleet type.
For what it is worth, since you cite AA as launch customer for B767-300ER type, it was also the launch customer for the A300-600R type.
@Denver Refugee
Actually the other article that I read says that the GLP-1 drugs are making them more narrow bodied and the airlines stand to save about $580M annually due to weight savings leading to either fuel savings or additional cargo revenue
TD, Unlike DL UA spent the $ to upgrade the interiors with Polaris suites, Premium Plus, Economy Plus and even new economy seats, screens, entertainment and power in coach.
@ TD, To no surprise Ed Bastian didn’t mention United growing faster than DL this year? Why do you consider Kirby “failing” for omitting biased facts when Ed does it too, seems like a dumb comment to me.
Also by retiring 767s do you really mean, DL is shrinking while UA is growing? That seems like the read between the lines. This was after you spent all of 2025 saying how UA would shrink in 2026 due to retirements, but it clearly will not.
No, Andy, DL didn’t shrink. It replaced older aircraft.
DL added the 2nd most capacity among US carriers; it just did it at a lower level that allowed DL to generate $1.7 billion in profits even though UA flew 10% more ASMs.
UA is one engine failure away from the grounding of 50+ Pratt powered 777s. So, no, UA is not going to shrink but they are playing a high risk game of holding onto old and unsupported aircraft.
Not another airline on the planet faces the same threat as UA
@IsaacM — That’s actually impressive.
To no surprise, Tim has to come on a post about United and spew paragraphs of nonsense aboit Delta. Get some help, dude.
Gene,
the brainless trust in Chicago would do well to stop trying to crown themselves as leader in everything.
UA might get more widebodies than any US airline in 2026 but they didn’t in 2024 and 2025 but DL didn’t run to the media to tout it.
@Tim Dunn — You ready for a weekend of hellish IROPS?
One commenter here appears to be claiming that Delta is the world’s only PERFECT airline. LOL
@ 1990 – Delta will probably sue the weather gods for any shutdowns at ATL. Should be lots of folks sleeping on the floor in ATL on Sunday, as it is safe to assume DL won’t be doing anything to assist stranded passengers.
@Gene — I’m just grateful my return flight is happening this Saturday; canceled for Sunday. Weather app suggests a foot of snow for my part of NYC, which is wild. They often over-hype these things, but, if that holds, woah. Gonna be an interesting weekend, that’s for sure.