United Airlines is one of the big three groups in US aviation. It became the giant we now know following the merger with Continental Airlines. The airline carried almost 70 million passengers in 2021, although mostly domestically. The airline therefore requires a vast fleet to enable it to fly such volumes of passengers. We’ll be looking exactly at that in this post today: what does the United Airlines fleet look like in 2023?
How is The Fleet Built?
In this in depth analysis of the UA fleet I’ll only take into consideration planes that are part of the main United Airlines fleet. I won’t take into account planes owned by regional airlines that operate short haul flights on behalf of the carrier.
The United Airlines fleet has a very strong presence of Boeing planes. Out of the 895 that compose the airline’s fleet, 716 are Boeing aircraft, while 179 are Airbus planes.
All the Airbus United Airlines fleet is made up of narrow body planes, while the Boeing fleet features both narrow and wide body aircraft.
The United Airlines Narrow Body Fleet
Almost 75% of United Airline’s fleet is made up of narrow body planes. This reflects the split between domestic and international traffic as 85% of the airline’s passengers travel within the United States. The difference in percentages is covered by wide bodies configured for domestic flights.
Specifically the United Airlines narrow body fleet features:
Airbus
- 81 Airbus A319-100
- 98 Airbus A320-200
Boeing
- 40 Boeing 737-700
- 141 Boeing 737-800
- 148 Boeing 737-900
- 48 Boeing 737-MAX 8
- 60 Boeing 737-MAX 9
Then there are the Boeing 757 that are mainly used of medium to long haul flights that are classified as narrow body planes. United Airlines owns:
- 38 Boeing 757-200
- 21 Boeing 757-300
The United Airlines Wide Body Fleet
The United Airlines wide body fleet will change dramatically in coming years as the airline gradually takes delivery of the 200 Boeing 787s it has on order from the manufacturer, replacing and expanding its current plane lineup. Also we must note that all of United’s wide body planes are Boeing aircraft and with the large order prior mentioned, it’ll stay that way for the foreseeable future. As of June 2023 though the airline operates for its international routes and higher demand domestic routes these wide body jets:
Boeing 767
- 37 Boeing 767-300
- 16 Boeing 767-400
- 74 Boeing 777-200
- 22 Boeing 777-300
Boeing 787
- 21 Boeing 787-10
- 37 Boeing 787-9
- 12 Boeing 787-8
United Airlines is one of the few carriers to have the Boeing 787-10 in its fleet. Not many airlines have chosen this variant of the aircraft preferring the smaller and more versatile 9 and 8 variants.
