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.