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COMMITMENTS, CONTINGENCIES AND GUARANTEES | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2024
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract] |
COMMITMENTS, CONTINGENCIES AND GUARANTEES | COMMITMENTS, CONTINGENCIES, AND GUARANTEES Purchase Commitments. The table below summarizes United's firm commitments as of December 31, 2024, which include aircraft and related spare engines, aircraft improvements and non-aircraft capital commitments (in billions):
|  | 2025 |  | 2026 |  | 2027 |  | 2028 |  | 2029 |  | After 2029 |  | Total
Purchase commitments |  | $ | 9.6 |  |  | $ | 6.0 |  |  | $ | 4.7 |  |  | $ | 6.5 |  |  | $ | 8.1 |  |  | $ | 19.5 |  |  | $ | 54.4 |
Aircraft commitments included in the table above are based on contractual scheduled aircraft deliveries. The amount and timing of these 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 (or further modify) the contracts governing those orders, (ii) rights are exercised pursuant to the relevant agreements to cancel deliveries or modify the timing of deliveries, or (iii) the aircraft manufacturers are unable to deliver in accordance with the terms of those orders. Regional CPAs. United has contractual relationships with various regional carriers to provide regional aircraft service branded as United Express. Under these CPAs, the Company pays the regional carriers contractually agreed fees (carrier costs) for operating these flights plus a variable rate adjustment based on agreed performance metrics, subject to annual adjustments. The fees are based on specific rates multiplied by specific operating statistics (e.g., block hours, departures), as well as fixed monthly amounts. Under these CPAs, the Company is also responsible for all fuel costs incurred, as well as landing fees and other costs, which are either passed through by the regional carrier to the Company without any markup or directly incurred by the Company. In some cases, the Company owns some or all of the aircraft subject to the CPA and leases such aircraft to the regional carrier. United's CPAs are for 412 regional aircraft as of December 31, 2024, and the CPAs have terms expiring through 2036. Aircraft operated under CPAs include aircraft leased directly from the regional carriers and those owned by United and operated by the regional carriers. United recorded approximately $1.1 billion, $1.1 billion and $0.9 billion in expenses related to its CPAs with its regional carriers in which United is a minority shareholder, for the years ended December 31, 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively. United had prepaid assets and accounts and notes receivables with combined carrying values of $52 million and $84 million with these companies, as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. There were $110 million and $122 million of liabilities due to these companies as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, respectively. The CPAs with these related parties were executed in the ordinary course of business. Our future commitments under our CPAs are dependent on numerous variables, and are, therefore, difficult to predict. The most important of these variables is the number of scheduled block hours. Although we are not required to purchase a minimum number of block hours under certain of our CPAs, we have set forth below estimates of our future payments under the CPAs based on our assumptions. The actual amounts we pay to our regional operators under CPAs could differ materially from these estimates. United's estimates of its future payments under all of the CPAs do not include the portion of the underlying obligation for any aircraft leased to a regional carrier or deemed to be leased from other regional carriers and facility rent that are disclosed as part of operating leases in Note 11. For purposes of calculating these estimates, we have assumed (1) the number of block hours flown is based on our anticipated level of flight activity or at any contractual minimum utilization levels if applicable, whichever is higher, (2) that we will reduce the fleet as rapidly as contractually allowed under each CPA, (3) that aircraft utilization, stage length and load factors will remain constant, (4) that each carrier's operational performance will remain at recent historic levels and (5) an annual projected inflation rate. These amounts exclude variable pass-through costs such as fuel and landing fees, among others. Based on these assumptions as of December 31, 2024, our estimated future payments through the end of the terms of our CPAs are presented in the table below (in billions):
|  | 2025 |  | 2026 |  | 2027 |  | 2028 |  | 2029 |  | After 2029 |  | Total
Future commitments under CPAs |  | $ | 2.7 |  |  | $ | 2.8 |  |  | $ | 2.1 |  |  | $ | 1.8 |  |  | $ | 1.4 |  |  | $ | 4.1 |  |  | $ | 14.9 |
As of December 31, 2024, United had 207 call options to purchase regional jet aircraft being operated by certain of its regional carriers with contract dates extending until 2036. These call options are exercisable upon wrongful termination or breach of contract, among other conditions. Legal and Environmental. The Company has certain contingencies resulting from litigation and claims incident to the ordinary course of business. As of December 31, 2024, 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 contingencies to which the Company is subject and prior experience, that its defenses and assertions in pending legal proceedings have merit and t he 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 and environmental claims when it is probable that a loss has been incurred and the amount is reasonably estimable. These amounts are recorded based on the Company's assessments of the likelihood of their eventual disposition. Guarantees and Indemnifications. In the normal course of business, the Company enters into numerous real estate leasing and aircraft financing arrangements that have various guarantees included in the contracts. These guarantees are primarily in the form of indemnities under which the Company typically indemnifies the lessors and any tax/financing parties against liabilities that arise out of or relate to the use, operation or maintenance of the leased premises or financed aircraft. Currently, the Company believes that any future payments required under these guarantees or indemnities would be immaterial, as most liabilities and related indemnities are covered by insurance (subject to deductibles). Additionally, certain real estate leases include indemnities for any environmental liability that may arise out of or relate to the use of the leased premises. As of December 31, 2024, United is the guarantor of approximately $2.9 billion in aggregate principal amount of tax-exempt special facility revenue bonds and interest thereon. These bonds, which in most instances are 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 and the related obligations are included in our lease related disclosures in Note 11. All of these bonds mature between 2027 and 2041. As of December 31, 2024, United had $396 million of surety bonds securing various insurance related obligations with expiration dates through 2028. 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 SOFR, 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 December 31, 2024, the Company had $8.5 billion of floating rate debt with remaining terms of up to approximately 12 years that are subject to these increased cost provisions. In several financing transactions involving loans from non-U.S. entities, with remaining terms of up to approximately 12 years and an aggregate balance of $5.3 billion, the Company bears the risk of any change in tax laws that would subject loan payments thereunder to non-U.S. entities to withholding taxes, subject to customary exclusions. Fuel Consortia. United participates in numerous fuel consortia with other air carriers at major airports to reduce the costs of fuel distribution and storage. Interline agreements govern the rights and responsibilities of the consortia members and provide for the allocation of the overall costs to operate the consortia based on usage. The consortia (and in limited cases, the participating carriers) have entered into long-term agreements to lease certain airport fuel storage and distribution facilities that are typically financed through various debt obligations. In general, each consortium lease agreement requires the consortium to make lease payments in amounts sufficient to pay the maturing principal and interest payments on these debt obligations. As of December 31, 2024, approximately $2.7 billion principal amount of such loans was secured by significant fuel facility leases in which United participates, as to which United and each of the signatory airlines has provided indirect guarantees of the debt. As of December 31, 2024, the Company's contingent exposure was approximately $504 million principal amount of such obligations based on its recent consortia participation. The Company's contingent exposure could increase if the participation of other air carriers decreases. The guarantees will expire when these obligations are paid in full, which ranges from 2027 to 2056. The Company concluded it was not necessary to record a liability for these indirect guarantees. 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 current level of Unrestricted Liquidity is substantially in excess of these minimum levels. Labor Negotiations. As of December 31, 2024, United, including its subsidiaries, had approximately 107,300 employees. Approximately 82% of United's employees were represented by various U.S. labor organizations.

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