Not sure where you are getting your info on the financials but its mostly incorrect.

You're conflating different numbers with "net profit" for one.

GAAP Net income: UA 965m DL 1.27B

Adjusted Net Income: UA 1.11B DL 971M (includes roughly 380 in net income hit due to crowdstrike meltdown)

Also, UA has not generated more net cash flow YTD: UA 3.593B DL 4.278B.

UA has paid more debt than DL, but it has more debt and that doesnt affect cash flow numbers.

UA has made significant ground, but still below DL in revenue, net income, free cash flow, and both operating and net profit margin. These two airlines are head and shoulders above the rest of the industry no doubt. I'm not attacking you, there's just so much finacially illiteracy around these reports I wanted to come in and try and explain a bit more.

All of this can be found directly from the quartely 10Qs.

https://ir.united.com/static-files/e8f60718-632e-4794-a60d-69cb2264af37

https://s2.q4cdn.com/181345880/files/doc_financials/2024/q3/56bfd3a9-e3b8-468a-8351-51ae59ef7bbf.pdf