Defined Benefit (Pension) · DOL Form 5500 · 2023
United Airlines, Inc. Pension Plan
Data updated 2026-07-24
- $231M
- Total assets
- 1,289
- Participants
- 95th
- Percentile by assets
- $179,582
- Avg per participant
Official DOL plan name: The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan · Sponsored by United Airlines, Inc. · Texas · Transportation & Warehousing
$231M in assets, 1,289 participants
United Airlines, Inc.'s The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan reported $231M in total assets and 1,289 participants in its 2023 DOL Form 5500 filing, ranking in the 95th percentile by assets among filed plans. Figures are as reported by the plan sponsor to the Department of Labor, not audited or endorsed by PlainRetire.
- 95th percentile by assets (of 126,618 plans)
What the 2023 filing shows
The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan holds $231M for 1,289 participants - about $179,582 per participant, in the top 5% of all filed plans by assets, down 4.6% over the 2023 plan year.
- $231M
- total plan assets (2023 EOY)
- 1,289
- covered participants
- 95th
- percentile by assets (of 126,618 plans)
- $179,582
- avg assets per participant
The plan reported a net loss of $11M for the year, a single-year figure driven by markets and benefit payments, not a measure of plan health.
Defined Benefit (Pension) · DOL Form 5500 · 2023
What the Filing Says About The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan
The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan is a Defined Benefit (Pension) retirement plan sponsored by United Airlines, Inc., headquartered in Texas. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's 2023 Form 5500 filing, the plan reports $231M in total end-of-year assets and covers 1,289 participants across the Transportation & Warehousing industry. The sponsor's EIN on file with the U.S. Department of Labor is 742099724, and the plan has been effective since 2005-04-30. Its filing status is currently FILING RECEIVED.
Year over year, total assets edged down modestly from $243M at the beginning of 2023 to $231M at year-end - down 4.6%. Net assets (after liabilities) closed the year at $231M, with reported net income of -$11M driven by investment returns, contributions received, and benefit payments during the period. These figures reflect what the plan administrator certified on Schedule H or Schedule I of the Form 5500 annual return and can be compared against 2 prior plan-year filings from the same sponsor shown below.
Across the 3 plan years United Airlines, Inc. has on file with PlainRetire (2022-2024), sponsor-wide plan assets have moved from $26.7B to $32.6B, a gain of 22.4%, while reported participants moved from 110,304 to 102,481 (-7.1%). The strongest year on file by total sponsor assets was 2024 at $32.6B; the softest was 2022 at $26.7B. Year-by-year, sponsor-wide filings show: 2022 - $26.7B in assets across 6 plans covering 110,304 participants; 2023 - $31.8B in assets across 6 plans covering 114,586 participants; 2024 - $32.6B in assets across 4 plans covering 102,481 participants.
By assets, The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan outranks 95% of the 126,618 plans that filed a Form 5500 for the 2023 plan year, and holds roughly 2.3x the national average plan size of $100M and 730 average participants.
Asset totals and participant counts reflect a single plan year snapshot and can change materially with market conditions, plan mergers, or workforce changes. Fields such as "net income" include both realized investment performance and contribution/distribution flows, a single-year figure does not by itself indicate plan health or participant outcomes. This page summarizes public DOL disclosures for research and educational purposes only and is not retirement, tax, legal, or financial advice. Before making decisions about your own retirement benefits or evaluating an employer's plan, verify the underlying filing directly via the DOL EFAST2 system and consult a qualified professional.
How the percentile is calculated: we count every plan that filed a 2023 Form 5500 with a reported end-of-year asset figure (126,618 plans), rank The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan against all of them by total assets, and report the share of those plans it outranks. A plan reporting no asset figure for the year is excluded from the ranking rather than assumed to be zero.
Financial Summary (2023)
| Total Assets (Beginning of Year) | $243M |
|---|---|
| Total Assets (End of Year) | $231M |
| Net Assets (End of Year) | $231M |
| Net Income | -$11M |
| Plan Type | Defined Benefit (Pension) |
| Employer EIN | 742099724 |
| Plan Effective Date | 2005-04-30 |
| Filing Status | FILING RECEIVED |
Sponsor Plan History (United Airlines, Inc.)
| Year | Plans | Participants | Total Assets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 6 | 110,304 | $26.7B |
| 2023 | 6 | 114,586 | $31.8B |
| 2024 | 4 | 102,481 | $32.6B |
Nearby Defined Benefit (Pension) Plans in Texas
Peer Defined Benefit (Pension) plans, same state, same plan type, ranked by total assets.
The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan vs. nearby Defined Benefit (Pension) plans in Texas, assets vs. participants
- AT&T Pension Benefit Plan $30.0B · 107,859
- Shell Pension Plan $15.1B · 12,215
- Exxonmobil Pension Plan $12.0B · 22,551
- Caterpillar Inc. Retirement Income Plan $9.8B · 12,138
- Bp Retirement Accumulation Plan $5.5B · 9,360
Similar-Sized Defined Benefit (Pension) Plans Nationally
Defined Benefit (Pension) plans in other states closest to The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan by total assets, not by location.
- Indiana Farm Bureau Retirement Plan (IN) $231M · 364
- Park National Corporation Defined Benefit Pension Plan (OH) $231M · 1,489
- First Citizens Bank & Trust Company, Inc. Pension Plan (NC) $232M · 288
- Retirement Plan for Employees of Matson (CA) $231M · 660
Frequently Asked Questions
How much money is in the The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan? ▼
What type of plan is The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan? ▼
Who sponsors the The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan? ▼
How did The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan perform in 2023? ▼
What this filing means
Ways to act on The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan's numbers.
- By total assets, The Continental Pilots Retirement Plan ranks in the top 5% of all filed plans by assets. See the largest plans
- Compare it side-by-side against 3 similar Defined Benefit (Pension) plans in Texas. Compare plans
- United Airlines, Inc.'s sponsor-wide assets have grown 22.4% since 2022 across 3 plan years on file. More Transportation & Warehousing plans
- A Defined Benefit (Pension) plan works differently from other retirement plan types, understand the structural differences before comparing. Compare plan types
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), Form 5500 public disclosure dataset. Plan year 2023.
Source: DOL EFAST2 filing system (efast.dol.gov) - original filing retrieval by EIN 742099724.
Reference: IRS Publication 560, Retirement Plans for Small Business, contribution-limit rules.
Reference: IRS Publication 590-B, Distributions from IRAs, RMD rules under SECURE Act 2.0.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Every figure on PlainRetire is rendered directly from the Department of Labor's Form 5500 annual return filings, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-07-24.