United Airlines’ Growth Strategy: Turning Capability Into Consideration

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Category Advantage measures the drivers of brand strength by capturing both mental availability (likelihood a brand comes to mind) and emotional closeness (how strongly consumers connect with a brand) among all competitors. Schedule a private briefing on this research. .

The bottom line up front  

United Airlines is the category’s capability and scale brand — winning when trips are complex, long-haul, or timing-sensitive — but it is under-entered in price-led buying moments and over-exposed to friction in high-stakes hubs. United’s mental availability is strong on competence and reach, but weaker on early entry and forgiveness. Growth is constrained not by relevance, but by where and how United enters consideration, and by operational barriers that undermine its strength advantage. The strategic priority is not to soften the brand or chase price, but to enter more buying journeys earlier and convert capability into dependable, low-friction choice.

The Category Landscape

Airline choice is mentally organized around three layers: entry filters (price, baggage fees, basic availability), convenience filters (nonstop timing, nearest airport), and risk reduction (safety, recovery, trust). United competes most effectively in layers two and three, but is often filtered out at layer one.

Where United Stands

CEP Salience — Strong on Capability, Weak on Entry

United over-indexes vs. category on capability- and reach-led situations:

United materially under-indexes on the category’s primary entry point:

United is mentally positioned as “the airline that can handle the trip” — not “the airline I check first.”

Mental Availability Diagnosis: Depth Over Breadth

From the Mental Advantage analysis, United shows clear green advantage on safety, nonstop reach, and upgrades, but is neutral to negative on price and simplicity. Network size is large but clustered around complex travel moments. United’s mental availability is selective rather than expansive.

United, like other legacy carriers, shows a material gap between mental market share and physical market share. This is not a conversion problem — it is an entry problem. United is not making enough first cuts. Once considered, United performs competitively.

The Core Strength — Capability Under Complexity

United’s strongest situations cluster around travel that feels risky or complicated: long-haul, international, tight connections, and timing-sensitive itineraries. This strength is especially pronounced among higher-income travelers, older travelers, business and international flyers, and in East and West Coast markets. United owns the mental role of “this airline can handle it.” The upgrade advantage (41% vs. ~18%) is a distinctive conversion accelerator that no other carrier matches.

The Core Weakness — Price as a Gatekeeper

Despite its strengths, United’s salience on “grabbing the lowest fare” (27%) is nearly 20 points below the category norm. Price is not positioning — it is permission to enter. Even premium travelers often enter on price, then trade up on confidence. United is often excluded before its strengths become relevant.

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Reality Check: Market Barriers

Barrier analysis clarifies why United’s capability advantage does not always convert:

• Hub congestion undermines trust. United’s largest hubs (EWR, ORD, DEN, SFO, IAH) create delay exposure, recovery skepticism, and stress amplification. This erodes United’s advantage precisely where expectations are highest.
• Price and product complexity creates late-stage drop-off. Fare families, upgrade uncertainty, and fee opacity block conversion among mid-income and leisure travelers, even when United is shortlisted. The value exchange is unclear at the moment of purchase.
• High expectations reduce forgiveness. United’s strength raises the bar: success reinforces competence, but failure damages trust faster than for “neutral” brands. Operational consistency is non-negotiable for United.
• Emotional connection is conditional, not protective. Emotional connection is moderate but not category-leading. It does not materially protect against disruption and does not override price or hub-related frustration. For United, emotional connection is earned situationally — not carried universally like Delta’s.

The Core Insight United is chosen when the trip is hard, but excluded when the decision is easy. The growth opportunity is not to change United’s role, but to enter more journeys earlier, reduce friction where expectations are highest, and make capability feel predictable rather than stressful.

Four strategic priorities for United based on this research

1. Enter price-screened moments without competing on cheap. United must appear earlier in consideration sets, then immediately reframe: value equals reach plus timing plus recovery, not price alone. The 27% vs. ~46% gap on lowest fare is too large to ignore, but closing it requires relevance, not discounting. Clear fare structures, transparent bundles, and “worth it because it handles complexity” messaging are the entry levers.

2. Turn network scale into a mental shortcut. “United can get me there” must become an entry cue, not just a reassurance cue. United’s airport proximity (44%), nonstop timing (40%), and layover avoidance (40%) should be foreground choice drivers, not background infrastructure. The upgrade advantage (41% vs. ~18%) is a unique closing signal that should be amplified once United reaches the shortlist.

3. Reduce hub-driven friction where it hurts most. Barrier-reduction investment should focus on recovery speed, communication clarity, and schedule reliability at EWR, ORD, DEN, SFO, and IAH. These are trust multipliers: United’s safety salience (47%) and trust salience (38%) can only convert if the hub experience does not contradict them. Hub operations should be measured and resourced as a brand metric, not just an on-time metric.

4. Measure growth through entry expansion, not deeper persuasion. Track growth in price-adjacent CEP salience, mental penetration among $50K–$99K travelers, and reduction in the gap between mental market share and physical market share. The goal is earlier entry — more people considering United at the start of their buying journey — not deeper conviction among travelers who already choose it.

About this research

Morning Consult conducts over 30,000 daily proprietary surveys in 45 countries covering more than 5,000 brands and 50 economic indicators. 

Our category advantage research is aimed at understanding the needs driving consumers in your category — and how your brand can own more of them. This research is built on validated principles of brand-driven growth and powered by Morning Consult’s industry-leading sampling technology.

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