Commitments and Contingencies

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2022

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

Commitments. As of September 30, 2022, United had firm commitments and options to purchase aircraft from The Boeing Company ("Boeing") and Airbus S.A.S. ("Airbus") as presented in the table below:


		Scheduled Aircraft Deliveries
Aircraft Type	Number of Firm Commitments (a)	Last Three Months of 2022	2023	After 2023
Airbus A321XLR	50	—	—	50
Airbus A321neo	70	—	12	58
Airbus A350	45	—	—	45
Boeing 737 MAX	353	27	121	205
Boeing 787	7	7	—	—
(a) United also has options and purchase rights for additional aircraft.

The aircraft listed in the table above are scheduled for delivery through 2030. The amount and timing of the Company's future capital commitments could change to the extent that: (i) the Company and the aircraft manufacturers, with whom the Company has existing orders for new aircraft, agree to modify the contracts governing those orders; (ii) rights are exercised pursuant to the relevant agreements to modify the timing of deliveries; or (iii) the aircraft manufacturers are unable to deliver in accordance with the terms of those orders. Furthermore, Boeing notified United that three Boeing 787 aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2022 and 15 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2023, all as shown in the table above, are now expected to deliver in 2023 and 2024, respectively. In addition to Boeing’s notification, United estimates that seven additional Boeing 737 MAX aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2022, as shown in the table above, will deliver in 2023.

United intends to exercise options to purchase, in 2023, eight Boeing 737 MAX aircraft that are currently leased under sale and leaseback arrangements.

United has an agreement to purchase eight used Bombardier CRJ550 aircraft in the last three months of 2022.

The table below summarizes United's commitments as of September 30, 2022, which include aircraft and related spare engines, aircraft improvements and non-aircraft capital commitments. Aircraft commitments are based on contractual scheduled aircraft deliveries without any adjustments for the delays communicated by Boeing or estimated by United.


(in billions)
Last three months of 2022	$	3.0
2023	8.4
2024	6.9
2025	4.4
2026	3.4
After 2026	8.5
	$	34.6

Legal Contingencies. The Company has certain contingencies resulting from litigation and claims incident to the ordinary course of business. As of September 30, 2022, management believes, after considering a number of factors, including (but not limited to) the information currently available, the views of legal counsel, the nature of the contingencies to which the Company is subject and prior experience, that its defenses and assertions in pending legal proceedings have merit and the ultimate disposition of any pending matter will not materially affect the Company's financial position, results of operations or cash flows. The Company records liabilities for legal claims when it is probable that a loss will be incurred and the amount is reasonably estimable. These amounts are recorded based on the Company's assessments of the likelihood of their eventual disposition.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2022, the Company recorded charges of $94 million as a result of a number of recent decisions, including one involving another carrier, that appear to impact the Company's ability to successfully assert, in certain cases, that federal law preempts state and local laws that conflict with union contracts and/or federal requirements.

Guarantees. As of September 30, 2022, United is the guarantor of approximately $2.0 billion in aggregate principal amount of tax-exempt special facilities revenue bonds and interest thereon. These bonds, issued by various airport municipalities, are payable solely from rentals paid under long-term agreements with the respective governing bodies. The leasing arrangements associated with these obligations are accounted for as operating leases recognized on the Company's consolidated balance sheet with the associated expense recorded on a straight-line basis over the expected lease term. All of these bonds are due between 2023 and 2041.

As of September 30, 2022, United is the guarantor of $95 million of aircraft mortgage debt issued by one of United's regional carriers. The aircraft mortgage debt is subject to similar increased cost provisions as described below for the Company's debt, and the Company would potentially be responsible for those costs under the guarantees.

Increased Cost Provisions. In United's financing transactions that include loans in which United is the borrower, United typically agrees to reimburse lenders for any reduced returns with respect to the loans due to any change in capital requirements and, in the case of loans with respect to which the interest rate is based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), for certain other increased costs that the lenders incur in carrying these loans as a result of any change in law, subject, in most cases, to obligations of the lenders to take certain limited steps to mitigate the requirement for, or the amount of, such increased costs. At September 30, 2022, the Company had $12.8 billion of floating rate debt with remaining terms of up to approximately 10 years that are subject to these increased cost provisions. In several financing transactions involving loans or leases from non-U.S. entities, with remaining terms of up to approximately 10 years and an aggregate balance of $9.7 billion, the Company bears the risk of any change in tax laws that would subject loan or lease payments thereunder to non-U.S. entities to withholding taxes, subject to customary exclusions.

Credit Card Processing Agreements. The Company has agreements with financial institutions that process customer credit card transactions for the sale of air travel and other services. Under certain of the Company's credit card processing agreements, the financial institutions in certain circumstances have the right to require that the Company maintain a reserve equal to a portion of advance ticket sales that has been processed by that financial institution, but for which the Company has not yet provided the air transportation. Such financial institutions may require additional cash or other collateral reserves to be established or additional withholding of payments related to receivables collected if the Company does not maintain certain minimum levels of unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments (collectively, "Unrestricted Liquidity"). The Company's level of Unrestricted Liquidity as of September 30, 2022 is substantially in excess of these minimum levels.

Labor. As of September 30, 2022, the Company had approximately 90,800 employees, of whom approximately 85% were represented by various U.S. labor organizations.