Five US airlines, five fuel bills, one margin gain in 3Q26

Five US airlines, five fuel bills, one story. Revenue is up 14% to 21% at every carrier that has reported, and of the carriers we can measure, only Southwest turned it into a better margin.

Delta opened the season, followed by Alaska and United on October 20, Southwest on October 21, and American on October 22. Alaska’s release arrived after our first pass, so it sits in the scorecard but not in the revenue-versus-fuel math, because it gave no 3Q fuel increase.

Item	Delta	Alaska	United	American	Southwest
3Q26 revenue	$17.59bn	$4.3bn	$17.88bn	$16.3bn	$8.4bn
Revenue growth	+15.7%	+14%	+17.4%	+19.3%	+21.2%
Adjusted EPS	$1.72	-$0.31**	$2.54	-$0.28	$0.66
Fuel price per gallon	n/a	n/a	$3.90	$3.85	$3.92
4Q26 EPS guide	$1.15 to $1.65	not given***	$0.50 to $1.50	-$1.10 to -$0.50	$0.55 to $0.80
4Q26 fuel assumption	$4.25*	$4.65 to $4.85	$4.80	$4.70	$4.55

*Includes a refinery benefit of about 40 cents, so about $4.65 without it.
**Alaska’s adjusted figure includes a $0.67 hit from a revised annual tax rate. Before it, adjusted EPS was $0.36. Adjusted pre-tax margin was 1.1%.
***Alaska guided the full year only: an adjusted loss of $5.00 to $5.50 a share.

Unit revenue ran 14.5% at American, about 15% at Delta, about 12% at Alaska, about 16% at United, and 21.6% at Southwest. Nobody is discounting. Delta said so, and the numbers agree. Alaska’s premium revenue rose about 25% and its managed corporate revenue 30%.