Southwest Airlines vs United Airlines
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The short version
- United Airlines is the larger business, with $59.1B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $28.1B for Southwest Airlines, about 2.1 times as much.
- United Airlines grew revenue faster (3.5%, against 2.1%).
- United Airlines kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (8.0% operating margin, against 1.5%).
- United Airlines turned more of its sales into free cash flow (4.3% FCF margin, against −3.0%).
- United Airlines earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (15.3%, against 3.7%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Southwest Airlines’s earnings: a P/E of 20.4x against 9.0x for United Airlines.
| Latest fiscal year | LUV · FY25 | UAL · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $20.6B | $32.1B |
| Revenue | $28.1B | $59.1B |
| Free cash flow | −$831M | $2.6B |
| Net income | $441M | $3.4B |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 2.1% | 3.5% |
| 5-year growth | 25.4% | 30.9% |
| Share count change | −13.2% | −1.4% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | — | — |
| Operating margin | 1.5% | 8.0% |
| Net margin | 1.6% | 5.7% |
| FCF margin | −3.0% | 4.3% |
| Return on capital | 3.7% | 15.3% |
| Return on equity | 4.8% | 24.0% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $1.8B | $9.5B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.9x | 1.2x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $2.9B | $637M |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 20.4x | 9.0x |
| Piotroski F-score | 7 | 6 |
Revenue
FY16
LUV $20.4B
UAL $36.6B
FY17
LUV $21.2B
UAL $37.7B
FY18
LUV $22.0B
UAL $41.3B
FY19
LUV $22.4B
UAL $43.3B
FY20
LUV $9.0B
UAL $15.4B
FY21
LUV $15.8B
UAL $24.6B
FY22
LUV $23.8B
UAL $45.0B
FY23
LUV $26.1B
UAL $53.7B
FY24
LUV $27.5B
UAL $57.1B
FY25
LUV $28.1B
UAL $59.1B
LUV
UAL
Operating margin
FY16
LUV 17.2%
UAL 11.9%
FY17
LUV 16.1%
UAL 9.6%
FY18
LUV 14.6%
UAL 7.8%
FY19
LUV 13.2%
UAL 9.9%
FY20
LUV −42.2%
UAL −41.4%
FY21
LUV 10.9%
UAL −4.2%
FY22
LUV 4.3%
UAL 5.2%
FY23
LUV 0.9%
UAL 7.8%
FY24
LUV 1.2%
UAL 8.9%
FY25
LUV 1.5%
UAL 8.0%
LUV
UAL
Free cash flow
FY16
LUV $2.3B
UAL $2.3B
FY17
LUV $1.8B
UAL −$396M
FY18
LUV $3.0B
UAL $2.1B
FY19
LUV $3.0B
UAL $2.4B
FY20
LUV −$1.6B
UAL −$5.9B
FY21
LUV $1.8B
UAL −$40.0M
FY22
LUV −$134M
UAL $1.2B
FY23
LUV −$356M
UAL −$260M
FY24
LUV −$1.6B
UAL $3.8B
FY25
LUV −$831M
UAL $2.6B
LUV
UAL
Return on capital
FY16
LUV 30.2%
UAL 17.4%
FY17
LUV 38.1%
UAL 15.5%
FY18
LUV 25.5%
UAL 13.6%
FY19
LUV 25.6%
UAL 16.0%
FY20
LUV −42.0%
UAL −23.5%
FY21
LUV 21.9%
UAL −3.9%
FY22
LUV 12.2%
UAL 8.3%
FY23
LUV 2.4%
UAL 14.1%
FY24
LUV 3.2%
UAL 16.2%
FY25
LUV 3.7%
UAL 15.3%
LUV
UAL
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.