What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does United Airlines Holdings (UAL) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q2 2026, United Airlines Holdings generated $8.91B of operating cash flow and $2.54B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 28.5% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did United Airlines Holdings (UAL) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent United Airlines Holdings's shareholder returns for TTM through Q2 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

United Airlines Holdings (UAL) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$8.91B

Capex

-$6.37B

Free Cash Flow

$2.54B

FCF Margin

+28.5%

Cash flow waterfall for United Airlines Holdings (UAL) — TTM through Q2 2026

Free cash flow: $2.54B

Cash flow breakdown for United Airlines Holdings (UAL) — TTM through Q2 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$8.91B	$8.91B
Capital Expenditure	-$6.37B	$2.54B
Free Cash Flow	$2.54B	$2.54B
Other Investing	-$292M	$2.25B
Net Debt Change	-$3.44B	-$1.19B
Other Financing & FX	$1.99B	$804M
Net Cash Increase	$806M	$806M

Operating Cash Flow$8.91B
Capital Expenditure-$6.37B
Free Cash Flow$2.54B
Other Investing-$292M
Net Debt Change-$3.44B
Other Financing & FX$1.99B
Net Cash Increase$806M

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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