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UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, DC 20549
FORM10-K
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022
OR
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
    For the transition period from                      to              
  https://cdn.kscope.io/126376df1f2155642e7b136eb66c3959-ual-20221231_g1.jpg
    
Commission
File Number
Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter,
Principal Executive Office Address and Telephone Number
State of
Incorporation
I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.
001-06033United Airlines Holdings, Inc.Delaware36-2675207
233 South Wacker Drive,Chicago,Illinois60606
(872) 825-4000
001-10323United Airlines, Inc.Delaware74-2099724
233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago,Illinois60606
(872)825-4000
 
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
 Title of Each ClassTrading SymbolName of Each Exchange on Which Registered
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.Common Stock, $0.01 par valueUALThe Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
Preferred Stock Purchase RightsNoneThe Nasdaq Stock Market LLC
United Airlines, Inc.NoneNoneNone
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.None
United Airlines, Inc.None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.YesNoUnited Airlines, Inc.YesNo
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.YesNoUnited Airlines, Inc.YesNo
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.YesNoUnited Airlines, Inc.YesNo
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this Chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). 
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.YesNoUnited Airlines, Inc.YesNo
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company," and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.Large accelerated filerAccelerated filerNon-accelerated filerSmaller reporting companyEmerging growth company
United Airlines, Inc.Large accelerated filerAccelerated filerNon-accelerated filerSmaller reporting companyEmerging growth company
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.United Airlines, Inc.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.United Airlines, Inc.
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.United Airlines, Inc.
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b).
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.United Airlines, Inc.
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.YesNoUnited Airlines, Inc.YesNo
The aggregate market value of common stock held by non-affiliates of United Airlines Holdings, Inc. was $11.5 billion as of June 30, 2022 based on the closing sale price of $35.42 on that date. There is no market for United Airlines, Inc. common stock.
Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the registrant's classes of common stock, as of February 9, 2023.
United Airlines Holdings, Inc.327,092,997shares of common stock ($0.01 par value)
United Airlines, Inc.1,000shares of common stock ($0.01 par value) (100% owned by United Airlines Holdings, Inc.)
This combined Form 10-K is separately filed by United Airlines Holdings, Inc. and United Airlines, Inc.
OMISSION OF CERTAIN INFORMATION
United Airlines, Inc. meets the conditions set forth in General Instruction I(1)(a) and (b) of Form 10-K and is therefore filing this form with the reduced disclosure format allowed under that General Instruction.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
Certain information required by Items 10, 11, 12 and 13 of Part III of this Form 10-K is incorporated by reference for United Airlines Holdings, Inc. from its definitive proxy statement for its 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.


Table of Contents
United Airlines Holdings, Inc. and Subsidiary Companies
United Airlines, Inc. and Subsidiary Companies
Annual Report on Form 10-K
For the Year Ended December 31, 2022
 
  Page
PART I
Item 1.
Item 1A.
Item 1B.
Item 2.
Item 3.
Item 4.
PART II
Item 5.
Item 6.
Item 7.
Item 7A.
Item 8.
Item 9.
Item 9A.
Item 9B.
Item 9C.
PART III
Item 10.
Item 11.
Item 12.
Item 13.
Item 14.
PART IV
Item 15.
Item 16.


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This Annual Report on Form 10-K ("Form 10-K") contains various "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). Forward-looking statements represent our expectations and beliefs concerning future results or events, based on information available to us on the date of the filing of this Form 10-K, and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those referenced in the forward-looking statements are listed in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors and in Part II, Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations. We disclaim any intent or obligation to update or revise any of the forward-looking statements, whether in response to new information, unforeseen events, changed circumstances or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.
PART I

ITEM 1.    BUSINESS.
Overview
United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "UAL" or the "Company") is a holding company and its wholly-owned subsidiary is United Airlines, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "United"). United's shared purpose is "Connecting People. Uniting the World." United has the most comprehensive route network among North American carriers, including U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. 
As UAL consolidates United for financial statement purposes, disclosures that relate to activities of United also apply to UAL, unless otherwise noted. United's operating revenues and operating expenses comprise nearly 100% of UAL's revenues and operating expenses. In addition, United comprises approximately the entire balance of UAL's assets, liabilities and operating cash flows. When appropriate, UAL and United are named specifically for their individual contractual obligations and related disclosures and any significant differences between the operations and results of UAL and United are separately disclosed and explained. We sometimes use the words "we," "our," "us," and the "Company" in this report for disclosures that relate to all of UAL and United.
The Company's principal executive office is located at 233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60606 (telephone number (872) 825-4000). The Company's website is located at www.united.com and its investor relations website is located at ir.united.com. The information contained on or connected to the Company's websites is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered part of this or any other report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). The Company's filings with the SEC, including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and all amendments to those reports, as well as UAL's proxy statement for its annual meeting of stockholders, are accessible without charge on the Company's investor relations website, as soon as reasonably practicable, after we electronically file such material with, or furnish such material to, the SEC pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Such filings are also available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.
Operations
The Company transports people and cargo throughout North America and to destinations in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Pacific, the Middle East and Latin America. UAL, through United and its regional carriers, operates across six continents, with hubs at Newark Liberty International Airport ("EWR"), Chicago O'Hare International Airport ("ORD"), Denver International Airport ("DEN"), George Bush Intercontinental Airport ("IAH"), Los Angeles International Airport ("LAX"), A.B. Won Pat International Airport ("GUM"), San Francisco International Airport ("SFO") and Washington Dulles International Airport ("IAD").
All of the Company's domestic hubs are located in large business and population centers, contributing to a large amount of "origin and destination" traffic. The hub and spoke system allows us to transport passengers between a large number of destinations with substantially more frequent service than if each route were served directly. The hub system also allows us to add service to a new destination from a large number of cities using only one or a limited number of aircraft. As discussed under Alliances below, United is a member of Star Alliance, the world's largest alliance network.
United Next. Our United Next plan is our fundamental strategic evolution for driving future growth that we believe will have a transformational effect on the customer experience and earnings power of our business. As part of our United Next plan, in June 2021 we announced our firm order for the purchase of 270 new Boeing and Airbus aircraft, which at the time was the largest combined order in the airline's history and the biggest by an individual carrier in the last decade. In December 2022, we announced the largest widebody order by a U.S. carrier in commercial aviation history (100 Boeing 787 Dreamliners with
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options to purchase 100 more), the exercise of options to purchase 44 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for delivery between 2024 and 2026, the firm orders of 56 more Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for delivery between 2027 and 2028 and the acquisition of an additional 100 options to purchase additional Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. We now expect to take delivery of about 700 new narrow and widebody aircraft by the end of 2033.
Our groundbreaking United Next strategy is expected to increase United's average gauge in North America, to increase the total number of available seats per departure and to significantly lower carbon emissions per seat. United will retrofit 100% of its mainline, narrow-body planes with its signature interior that includes seat-back entertainment in every seat, larger overhead bins for every passenger's carry-on bag and the industry's fastest available in-flight WiFi, as well as a bright look-and-feel with LED lighting. The carrier's international widebodies will feature the United Polaris® business class seat as well as United Premium Plus® seating. The Company plans to replace older, smaller mainline jets and at least 200 single-class regional jets with larger aircraft, which we expect will lead to fuel efficiency benefits compared to older planes, including an expected 17-25% lower carbon emissions per seat compared to older planes. We believe that United Next will allow us to differentiate our network and segment our products with a greater premium offering while also maintaining fare competitiveness with low-cost carriers.
Regional. The Company's business and operations are dependent on its regional flight network, with regional capacity accounting for approximately 8% of the Company's total capacity for the year ended December 31, 2022. The Company has contractual relationships with various regional carriers to provide regional aircraft service branded as United Express. This regional service complements our operations by carrying traffic that connects to our hubs and allows flights to smaller cities that cannot be provided economically with mainline aircraft. CommuteAir LLC ("CommuteAir"), Republic Airways Inc. ("Republic"), GoJet Airlines LLC ("GoJet"), Mesa Airlines, Inc. ("Mesa"), SkyWest Airlines, Inc. ("SkyWest") and Air Wisconsin Airlines LLC ("Air Wisconsin") are all regional carriers that operate with capacity contracted to United under capacity purchase agreements ("CPAs"). The Company plans to wind down its CPA with Air Wisconsin in 2023 as part of its United Next plan to reduce service on single-cabin 50-seat regional jets. 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. In return, the regional carriers operate the capacity of the aircraft included within the scope of such CPA exclusively for United, on schedules determined by the Company. The Company also determines pricing and revenue management, assumes the inventory and distribution risk for the available seats and permits mileage accrual and redemption for regional flights through its MileagePlus loyalty program.
Alliances. United is a member of Star Alliance, a global integrated airline network and the largest and most comprehensive airline alliance in the world. In 2022, Star Alliance carriers continued to serve more than 1,200 airports in 184 countries with approximately 14,000 average daily departures. Star Alliance members, in addition to United, are Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways ("ANA"), Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Aerovías del Continente Americano S.A. ("Avianca"), Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, THAI Airways International and Turkish Airlines. In addition to its members, Star Alliance includes Shanghai-based Juneyao Airlines and Thailand-based Thai Smile Airways, a subsidiary of THAI Airways International, as connecting partners and Germany-based Deutsche Bahn, a rail company, as an intermodal partner.
United has a variety of bilateral commercial alliance agreements and obligations with Star Alliance members, addressing, among other things, reciprocal earning and redemption of frequent flyer miles, access to airport lounges and, with certain Star Alliance members, codesharing of flight operations (whereby one carrier's selected flights can be marketed under the brand name of another carrier). In addition to the alliance agreements with Star Alliance members, United currently maintains independent marketing alliance agreements with other air carriers, including Aeromar, Aer Lingus, Air Dolomiti, Airlink Proprietary Limited, Azul Linhas Aéreas Brasileiras S.A. ("Azul"), Boutique Air, Cape Air, Edelweiss, Emirates, Eurowings, Eurowings Discover, flydubai (in process of completion), Hawaiian Airlines, JetSuiteX, Inc. ("JSX"), Olympic Air, Silver Airways, Virgin Australia Airlines Pty Ltd and Vistara.
United also participates in four passenger joint business arrangements ("JBAs"): one with Air Canada and the Lufthansa Group (which includes Lufthansa and its affiliates Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Edelweiss, Eurowings, Eurowings Discover and SWISS) covering transatlantic routes, one with ANA covering certain transpacific routes, one with Air New Zealand covering certain routes between the United States and New Zealand, and one with Air Canada, established in July 2022, covering certain United States and Canada transborder routes. These passenger JBAs enable the participating carriers to integrate the services they provide in the respective regions, capturing revenue synergies and delivering enhanced customer
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benefits, such as highly competitive flight schedules, fares and services. Separate from the passenger JBAs, United also participates in cargo JBAs with ANA for transpacific cargo services and with Lufthansa for transatlantic cargo services. These cargo JBAs offer expanded and more seamless access to cargo space across the carriers' respective combined networks.
United and Emirates entered into a commercial agreement (and United and flydubai are in the process of completing a commercial agreement) to enable passengers to book travel on a single ticket making check-in and luggage transfer faster and easier. United will launch a new direct flight between Newark/New York and Dubai starting in March 2023—from there, customers can travel on Emirates or its sister airline flydubai to more than 100 different cities. This agreement will also give the loyalty program members of both airlines more opportunities for more rewards: United MileagePlus® members flying on United's Newark/New York to Dubai flight can soon earn and redeem miles when connecting beyond on Emirates and flydubai and Emirates Skywards members will be able to earn miles when they travel on United operated flights. Eligible United customers will also soon have access to Emirates lounges when connecting to and from United's new Dubai flight.
Loyalty Program. United's MileagePlus loyalty program builds customer loyalty by offering awards, benefits and services to program participants. Members in this program earn miles for flights on United, United Express, Star Alliance members and certain other airlines that participate in the program. Members can also earn miles by purchasing goods and services from our network of non-airline partners, such as domestic and international credit card issuers, retail merchants, hotels and car rental companies. Members can redeem miles for free (other than taxes and government-imposed fees), discounted or upgraded travel and non-travel awards.
United has an agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. ("Chase"), pursuant to which members of United's MileagePlus loyalty program who are residents of the United States can earn miles for making purchases using a MileagePlus credit card issued by Chase (the "Co-Brand Agreement"). The Co-Brand Agreement also provides for joint marketing and other support for the MileagePlus credit card and provides Chase with other benefits such as permission to market to the Company's customer database.
In 2022, approximately 5.6 million MileagePlus flight awards were used on United and United Express. These awards represented approximately 7.3% of United's total revenue passenger miles. Total miles redeemed for flights on United and United Express, including class-of-service upgrades, represented approximately 92% of the total miles redeemed. In addition, excluding miles redeemed for flights on United and United Express, MileagePlus members redeemed miles for approximately 1.2 million other awards. These awards include United Club memberships, car and hotel awards, merchandise and flights on other air carriers.
Air Cargo. United provides freight and mail transportation services (air cargo). The majority of air cargo services are provided to commercial businesses, freight forwarder and logistics firms as well as national postal services. Through our global network, our cargo operations are able to connect the world's major freight gateways. We generate cargo revenues in domestic and international markets through the use of cargo space on regularly scheduled passenger aircraft, and starting in 2020, the use of our passenger aircraft for cargo-only flights. The use of cargo-only flights significantly decreased in 2022 due to the return of passenger demand.
Distribution Channels. The Company's airline seat inventory and fares are distributed through the Company's direct channels, traditional travel agencies and online travel agencies ("OTA"). The use of the Company's direct sales website, www.united.com, the Company's mobile applications and alternative distribution systems provides the Company with an opportunity to de-commoditize its services, better present its content, make more targeted offerings, better retain its customers, enhance its brand and lower its ticket distribution costs. Agency sales are primarily sold using global distribution systems ("GDS"). United has developed and expects to continue to develop capabilities to sell certain ancillary products through the GDS channel to provide an enhanced buying experience for customers who purchase in that channel.
Third-Party Business. United generates third-party business revenue that includes maintenance services, frequent flyer award non-travel redemptions, flight academy and ground handling. Third-party business revenue is recorded in Other operating
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revenue. Expenses associated with third-party business, except non-travel redemptions, are recorded in Other operating expenses. Non-travel redemptions expenses are recorded to Other operating revenue.
Aircraft Fuel. The table below summarizes the fuel consumption and expense of UAL's aircraft (including the operations of our regional partners operating under CPAs) during the last three years.
YearGallons Consumed
(in millions)
Fuel Expense
(in millions)
Average Price Per GallonPercentage of Total Operating Expense
20223,608 $13,113 $3.63 31 %
20212,729 $5,755 $2.11 22 %
20202,004 $3,153 $1.57 15 %
Our operational and financial results can be significantly impacted by changes in the price and availability of aircraft fuel. The Company routinely enters into purchase contracts based on expected fuel requirements for UAL aircraft (including regional partners operating under CPAs) that are generally indexed to various market price benchmarks for aircraft fuel. These contracts customarily do not provide material protection against changes in market prices or guarantee the uninterrupted availability of adequate quantities of aircraft fuel. The price of aircraft fuel used by our operations has fluctuated substantially in the past several years. The Company's current strategy is to not enter into financial transactions to hedge the market price exposure of its expected fuel consumption, although the Company regularly reviews its strategy based on market conditions and other factors.
Industry Conditions
Domestic Competition. The domestic airline industry is highly competitive and dynamic. The Company's competitors consist primarily of other airlines and, to a certain extent, other forms of transportation. Currently, any U.S. carrier deemed fit by the U.S. Department of Transportation (the "DOT") is largely free to operate scheduled passenger service between any two points within the United States. Competition can be direct, in the form of another carrier flying the exact non-stop route, or indirect, where a carrier serves the same two cities non-stop from an alternative airport in that city or via an itinerary requiring a connection at another airport. Air carriers' cost structures are not uniform and are influenced by numerous factors. Carriers with lower costs may offer lower fares to passengers, which could have a potential negative impact on the Company's revenues. Domestic pricing decisions are impacted by intense competitive pressure exerted on the Company by other U.S. airlines. In order to remain competitive and maintain passenger traffic levels, we often find it necessary to match competitors' discounted fares. Since we compete in a dynamic marketplace, attempts to generate additional revenue through increased fares often fail.
International Competition. Internationally, the Company competes not only with U.S. airlines, but also with foreign carriers. International competition has increased and may continue to increase in the future as a result of airline mergers and acquisitions, JBAs, alliances, restructurings, liberalization of aviation bilateral agreements and new or increased service by competitors. Competition on international routes is subject to varying degrees of governmental regulation. The Company's ability to compete successfully with non-U.S. carriers on international routes depends in part on its ability to generate traffic to and from the entire United States via its integrated domestic route network and its ability to overcome business and operational challenges across its network worldwide. Foreign carriers currently are prohibited by U.S. law from carrying local passengers between two points in the United States and the Company generally experiences comparable restrictions in foreign countries. Separately, "fifth freedom rights" allow the Company to operate between points in two different foreign countries and foreign carriers may also have fifth freedom rights between the U.S. and another foreign country. In the absence of fifth freedom rights, or some other extra-bilateral right to conduct operations between two foreign countries, U.S. carriers are constrained from carrying passengers to points beyond designated international gateway cities. To compensate partially for these structural limitations, U.S. and foreign carriers have entered into alliances, immunized JBAs and marketing arrangements that enable these carriers to exchange traffic between each other's flights and route networks. Through these arrangements, the Company strives to provide consumers with a growing number of seamless, cost-effective and convenient travel options. See Alliances, above, for additional information.
Seasonality. The air travel business is subject to seasonal fluctuations. Historically, demand for air travel is higher in the second and third quarters, driving higher revenues, than in the first and fourth quarters, which are periods of lower travel demand.
Environmental, Social and Governance Approach and Highlights
Climate Strategy
The Company's commitment to operating an environmentally sustainable and responsible airline is woven into its long-term strategy and its values. The Company believes that it is critical, now more than ever, to continue to serve its purpose of connecting people and uniting the world, and is committed to finding solutions, both individually as a company, and together
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with partners in both the private and public sectors, to do so sustainably and responsibly while also achieving its financial goals. The Company is continuously looking for new ways to reduce its environmental impact in the air, on the ground and at its facilities, which benefits its employees, customers and stockholders. At the end of 2020, the Company pledged a net zero goal to eliminate its greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions by 100% by 2050 without relying on the use of traditional carbon offsets, like planting trees or purchasing voluntary offsets. United was the first airline globally to make such a commitment without relying on the use of traditional offsets. Reliance on such offsets would allow emissions derived from within the value chain of the Company to remain unabated. Given the airline industry's designation as a 'hard-to-abate sector', the Company believes that not relying on traditional carbon offsets is important and the right priority because the airline industry should focus on decarbonization within its own activities as the industry cannot afford to divert resources and attention toward offset programs that do not effectuate real progress within aviation operations.
The Company's earnest intention on meeting the net zero GHG emission goal by 2050 led the Company to commit to a mid-term objective of reducing, compared to 2019, its carbon intensity by 50% by 2035. This carbon intensity target is intended to align the Company's net zero goal with the temperature limit goals of the Paris Agreement and allow the Company to show progress towards its 2050 net zero GHG emissions goal in the nearer term. In 2021, the Company also committed to validating this 2035 target with the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).
The Company is committed to redefining the future of air travel with environmental sustainability at the forefront because it believes that it is the Company's responsibility to take tangible steps to mitigate climate change impacts from its operations. In addition, the Company's climate goals and overall climate strategy are increasingly important factors in its relationships with its employees and customers. Its strategy to achieve its climate goals is centered around four key pathways, each of which is described in further detail below: (i) reducing the Company's environmental footprint, (ii) innovating for potentially transformative carbon reduction technologies, (iii) removing the Company's atmospheric carbon impacts and (iv) collaborating with employees, customers, airports, suppliers, cross-industry partners and policymakers to facilitate faster action and the commercialization of technology solutions concerning climate change. The Company's Board of Directors (the "Board"), including through its Public Responsibility Committee, provides oversight of its climate-related goals and strategy to ensure integration with its core business strategy and management periodically updates the Board on the implementation of the Company's climate-related goals and strategy. The Board, including through its Public Responsibility Committee, also oversees management's identification, evaluation and monitoring of environmental (including climate-related) trends, issues, concerns, risks and opportunities that affect or could affect the Company's reputation, business activities, strategies and performance.
Reducing Environmental Footprint: As part of this plan, the Company is focused on maximizing fuel efficiency and reducing fuel usage in its operations. The main focus in realizing this objective is reducing its fossil jet fuel consumption, which is both the largest contributor to its environmental footprint and a sizable expense for the Company. The Company's primary effort in reducing its fossil jet fuel consumption is directed on working with strategic partners to scale, employ and commercialize the use of sustainable aviation fuel ("SAF"). SAF is the most promising technology solution realized today that can abate emissions from the Company's flight operations. SAF can reduce lifecycle GHG emissions by up to 85% compared with conventional jet fuel and has the added benefits of having a limited impact on performance or safety and providing energy diversification. The Company is the U.S. aviation leader in SAF production investment based on publicly announced offtake agreements of certain airlines for future purchases of SAF as of the date hereof. However, SAF supply in the jet fuel market is constrained today and represents, according to industry estimates, far less than 1% of global commercial aviation fuel usage. Additionally, the purchase of SAF today comes with a price premium, compared to conventional jet fuel, to account for the additional costs of scaling and producing this early-stage solution. These challenges with present-day SAF have informed the Company's strategy of investing in SAF producers and technology to help scale the SAF market and unlock future supply for the Company. The Company uses SAF in its regular operations from World Energy at LAX and Neste at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and has purchased nearly 8 million gallons of SAF since 2016. However, as of December 2022, the total volume of SAF the Company used in its operations remained less than 0.1% of its total aviation fuel usage.
In 2015, the Company began its strategy of SAF investment, by making a $30 million equity investment in Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc. ("Fulcrum"), a company working to commercialize SAF production from municipal solid waste. With this investment, the Company entered into a long-term supply agreement with Fulcrum, which provides United the opportunity to purchase at least 900 million gallons of SAF.
In 2016, the Company became the first airline globally to use SAF in regular operations on an ongoing basis with SAF from World Energy.
In 2021, the Company launched its first-of-its-kind Eco-Skies Alliance program in which corporate and cargo customers agreed to collectively fund the price premium for SAF. As of the end of 2022, customers had committed to fund approximately 9 million gallons of SAF.
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In December 2021, the Company made aviation history by operating the first passenger flight using 100% SAF in one engine from Chicago to Washington, D.C. The flight showcased the safety of SAF and the potential for a dramatically reduced carbon footprint for aviation.
In 2022, the Company signed a purchase agreement with Neste for up to 52.5 million gallons of SAF for use at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and potentially other airports. With this agreement, United became the first U.S. airline to execute an international purchase agreement for SAF.
In 2022, the Company expanded its SAF investment portfolio through an investment in NEXT Renewables, becoming the first U.S. airline to invest in a biofuel refinery, which—at full production—could produce up to 50,000 barrels per day of SAF, renewable diesel and other renewable fuels.
In 2023, the Company formed a joint venture, Blue Blade Energy ("Blue Blade"), with Tallgrass Energy and Green Plains Inc. to commercialize SAF technology using ethanol as the feedstock. If the technology is successful, the Company has entered into an offtake agreement with Blue Blade to receive up to 135 million gallons of SAF annually for up to 2.7 billion gallons in total—the Company's largest offtake agreement.
Alongside developing and using SAF, the Company is concentrated on introducing newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft into its fleet as well as improving the efficiency of its existing fleet. From 1990 to 2022, the Company improved its mainline fuel efficiency by approximately 48%. In the second quarter of 2021, the Company announced its United Next plan and entered into firm narrow-body aircraft orders for 200 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and 70 Airbus A321neo aircraft. A subsequent firm order was placed in 2022 for 100 Boeing 787 aircraft (with options to purchase up to an additional 100 Boeing 787 aircraft) and the Company also exercised an option to purchase 44 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, finalized an order for an additional 56 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and increased the number of options to purchase Boeing 737 MAX aircraft by an additional 100. Collectively, the introduction of the new aircraft into the fleet is expected to result in 17%-25% lower carbon emissions per available seat-mile ("ASM") compared to older planes. In conjunction with its SAF strategy and improving the fuel efficiency of its fleet, the Company has been revamping its flight and ground operations, including implementing operational and procedural initiatives to drive fuel conservation. Over 4,100 units of the Company's ground service equipment ("GSE") around the world are electric or use alternative fuels and, as of the end of 2022, approximately 34% of its GSE fleet has been electrified. The Company has worked collaboratively across its organization and with Air Traffic Control ("ATC") providers to improve fuel efficiency through the implementation of best practices, by providing training to its pilots and dispatchers and supplying them with the tools needed to execute on those strategies.
Innovating in Carbon Reduction Technology: The Company has been forming, through its corporate venture capital arm, United Airlines Ventures ("UAV"), collaborations with, as well as investing in, early-stage climate technology companies that have the potential to scale and support the Company's climate targets or are generally supportive of advancing sustainability within the broader economy.
In 2021, the Company announced, through UAV, investments in aerospace technologies, like electric vertical takeoff and landing ("eVTOL") aircraft (through its investment in Archer Aviation), electric aircraft (Heart Aerospace) and hydrogen-electric engines (ZeroAvia) to advance technologies with a potential to help decarbonize air travel in the future, once regulatory approvals are obtained.
In September 2022, UAV announced an addition to its eVTOL investment portfolio with an investment in Eve Air Mobility ("Eve"), a company that is developing an electric four-seater aircraft. Along with the investment, the Company entered into a conditional purchase agreement for 200 aircraft with Eve, with expected first deliveries as early as 2026, once regulatory approvals are obtained.
In November 2022, UAV broadened its technology investment portfolio to include clean energy infrastructure with an investment in Natron Energy, a battery manufacturer developing novel sodium-ion batteries. Natron's technology has the potential to help reduce the GHG footprint of United's ground operations by helping to electrify its airport GSE.
Removing Carbon Impact: The Company intends to extend its environmental sustainability efforts beyond reducing emissions by also focusing on carbon removal by investing in carbon capture technologies to either sequester carbon or potentially utilize captured carbon to make low-carbon fuels. In 2020, the Company became the first airline to announce a commitment to invest in direct air capture, a carbon capture and sequestration technology, and since then has broadened its investment approach to also include technologies that can utilize captured carbon to make high-value, low-carbon products.
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In December 2021, UAV invested in Dimensional Energy ("Dimensional"), a novel technology startup that converts carbon dioxide ("CO2") and water into fuel, primarily SAF. Along with the investment, the Company and Dimensional also reached a commercial agreement for the Company to purchase at least 300 million gallons of SAF over 20 years.
In March 2022, UAV and Oxy Low Carbon Ventures announced an investment in biotech firm Cemvita Factory to commercialize the production of SAF intended to be developed through a revolutionary new process using CO2 and synthetic microbes.
In December 2022, UAV invested in Svante, a developer of carbon capture and removal technology using structured adsorbent beds, also known as filters.
It is important to note that certain of these technology solutions pertaining to both carbon reduction and carbon removal innovations need time to reach commercial viability. Despite this and other hurdles, the Company believes that these solutions show potential for scale and future reduction of GHG emissions.
Collaborating with Partners: The Company has devoted a significant amount of time and energy on defining a better future of flying by collaborating with employees, customers, airports, suppliers, cross-industry partners and policymakers to scale the supply of decarbonization technology solutions, minimize its environmental impact, boost environmental sustainability of the airline industry and protect the environment, all of which are key to advancing the Company's climate goals.
The Company has historically supported the adoption of more aggressive industry targets, with both Airlines for America ("A4A") and the International Air Transport Association committing in 2021 to net-zero emissions by 2050 for domestic and international carriers, respectively. In addition, the Company along with other A4A members have pledged to work towards the Biden Administration's SAF Grand Challenge to collectively make 3 billion gallons of SAF available domestically by 2030.
The Company worked with federal policymakers to champion passage of the Sustainable Skies Act SAF Blender's Tax Credit through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the "IRA"). This credit creates an economic incentive for increased SAF production within the United States.
The Company is a founding member of the Biden Administration's First Movers Coalition, a collective of leading companies committing to purchase low-carbon technologies in hard-to-abate sectors. As part of its membership, the Company has committed to using emerging technologies with significant emissions reductions by 2030 and has also set a target of replacing at least 5% of conventional jet fuel demand with SAF that reduces lifecycle GHG emissions by 85% or more compared with conventional jet fuel by 2030.
At the international level, the Company was the only U.S. airline that attended the 2022 UN Conference of the Parties ("COP27") climate conference, to continue its engagement with policymakers on aviation decarbonization strategies.
Additional quantitative emissions data for fiscal years 2021 and 2020 follow this paragraph. The Company believes that its absolute GHG emissions will increase in the immediate future as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's operations continues to lessen and the Company implements its United Next strategy and continues to grow. In addition, even though purchasing carbon offsets could present near-term emissions reductions, as outlined above, the Company is resolute in attaining its mid-term and long-term climate goals without relying on the use of traditional carbon offsets to support its voluntary climate targets and has made progress towards implementing solutions that are needed to permanently change aviation and reduce the environmental impact of air travel to protect our planet for generations to come. Such commitment is demonstrated by the end of the Company's customer offset program and elimination of emission reductions realized by carbon offsets as reflected in its 2021 GHG inventory.
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Carbon Emissions20212020
Direct (Scope 1) GHG Emissions in Metric Tons CO2e
Gross GHG emissions21,375,27515,490,070
SAF emissions reductions(4,790)(4,708)
Net GHG emissions21,370,48515,485,363
Indirect Emissions in Metric Tons CO2e
Indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions160,794175,087
Other indirect (Scope 3) GHG emissions5,561,7454,280,317
Total GHG Emissions in Metric Tons CO2e
Gross GHG emissions27,093,02419,940,767
Carbon offsets (a)(4,106)
Net GHG emissions27,093,02419,936,661
Carbon Emissions Intensity Rates (b)20212020
Emissions Intensity per Revenue ton-mile ("RTM")
Mainline RTMs (millions) (c)15,3719,755
Metric tons CO2e/1,000 mainline RTMs (d)
1,4011,605
Emissions Intensity per ASM
ASMs (millions) (e)178,684122,804
Regional metric tons CO2e/1,000 mainline and regional ASMs (f)
151161
(a)Offset purchases made in 2020 were part of discrete promotional campaigns. These promotions were offered prior to the Company's announcement in December 2020 of its commitment to reduce 100% of its GHG emissions by 2050 without the voluntary use of traditional offsets and are no longer part of the Company's promotional campaigns. The Company may be subject to future regulatory requirements that require the purchase of carbon offsets.
(b)Intensity rates and operational figures are calculated based on third-party verified data for 2021 and 2020.
(c)The number of mainline revenue (passenger and cargo) tons transported multiplied by the number of miles flown on each segment.
(d)Scope 1+2 emissions/mainline RTMs; metric used for tracking progress against industry goal of 1.5%/year efficiency improvement.
(e)The number of seats available for passengers multiplied by the number of scheduled miles those seats are flown.
(f)Scope 1+2+3 regional emissions/mainline+regional ASMs; metric used for tracking progress against our 2035 and 2050 climate change goals.
Additional information on United's commitment to environmental sustainability is available at united.com/sustainability. The information contained on or connected to the Company's website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered part of this or any other report filed with the SEC.
Human Capital Management and Resources
Our national campaign "Good Leads the Way" tells the story of United's leadership in areas like customer service, diversity, equity and inclusion and sustainability and captures the optimism that fuels our large ambitions at a time of unprecedented demand in air travel. Our employees around the world are joined in a shared purpose of "Connecting People. Uniting the World" by enabling connections that matter and move society—whether it is connecting people across cultures, flying a loved one to a wedding, connecting medical professionals at a breakthrough conference or getting a business traveler to an important meeting or back home in time for a child's big game. Our ability to make these connections, as well as to build long-term value for our shareholders and contribute to the broader community, depends on our commitment to attract and retain the best talent at all levels of our organization and across our global workforce. To facilitate talent attraction and retention, we strive through our human capital management strategy to create lifelong careers for the people of United. That includes professional development and promotional opportunities and the ability to qualify for retirement benefits, health and wellness benefits and, of course, travel privileges, as we remain dedicated to providing the best place for our employees to work. Our core4 (we are safe, then caring, dependable and efficient) serves as the framework for how we take care of our customers and each other and how we make decisions as a team. For United, our shared purpose is about more than getting people from one place to another and executing our strategic priorities: it means that as a global company that operates in hundreds of locations around the world with millions of customers, we have a unique responsibility and opportunity to drive meaningful change in the places where we fly by creating exciting, rewarding and long-term careers for tens of thousands of people who live in the communities that we serve.
Demographics: As of December 31, 2022, UAL, including its subsidiaries, had approximately 92,795 employees consisting of approximately 23,065 flight attendants, 16,129 passenger service agents, 15,088 ramp service agents, 13,831 pilots, 8,499 technicians and related flight simulator technicians, 965 storekeeper employees, 393 dispatchers, 336 fleet tech instructors, load
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planners, maintenance instructors and security officers and 14,489 management and other personnel. Approximately 84% of the Company's employees were represented by various U.S. labor organizations at year-end 2022.
As of December 31, 2022, of our U.S. employees, approximately 39% were female and approximately 49% self-identified as part of an underrepresented racial or ethnic group. Our workforce diversity metrics are reported regularly to the executive team and to the Board. The Board believes that its membership should continue to reflect a diversity of gender, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation and gender identity and is committed to actively seeking women and minority candidates for the pool from which director candidates are chosen in support of the Board's commitment to diversity. The following table contains aggregate information regarding certain self-identified characteristics of our U.S. employees and directors:
U.S. Employees and Directors (a)
Board of DirectorsCompany-wideFrontlineProfessional/ SupervisorySenior Professional/ LeadersSenior Leaders
Female32,925 28,845 2,772 1,228 80 
Male10 50,629 44,800 3,481 2,184 164 
Asian— 10,281 8,775 826 661 19 
American Indian/Alaska Native— 353 321 24 
Black/African American12,086 10,976 853 243 14 
Hispanic/Latino— 14,486 13,077 1,082 315 12 
Hawaiian/Pacific Island— 2,094 1,930 131 32 
Not disclosed— 1,541 1,356 123 59 
Two or more races— 1,650 1,471 131 43 
Aboriginal/VisMin Canadian — — — — 
White11 41,060 35,736 3,083 2,052 189 
(a) Diversity representation data is for U.S. workforce only, excluding employees on leave and those directly employed by United subsidiaries, as of December 31, 2022. Diversity tracking is prohibited by law in some international locations. Numbers may not sum due to rounding.
Connecting People. Uniting the World: The following programs, policies and initiatives encompass some of the objectives and measures that we continue to focus on as part of our human capital management strategy:
Workplace Safety: At United, safety is first in everything we do and is our first core4 service standard. We are focused on promoting our safety culture to ensure that every employee across the Company holds each other to the highest safety standards. Our comprehensive, formalized approach to managing the safety of everyone at the Company is through our enterprise-wide Safety Management System ("SMS"), which is governed by the Company's Chief Executive Officer, is implemented, overseen and cascaded by the Company's Corporate Safety team and is delivered by divisional teams with regular training and monitoring. The SMS helps us assure that we are adhering to our safety standards, communicating those standards across all of our divisions and departments and identifying safety hazards. The SMS also confirms that our safety risk mitigations are working properly (mainly through audits). We have also established a "United Safety Excellence Program" that recognizes United locations with exceptional safety performance and commitments to safety. As of December 31, 2022, we have certified 35 United locations, which is aligned with our certifications pre-COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, the Company has onsite clinic locations in four of its hubs that provide care to active employees, including, but not limited to, services related to occupational injury, Company-directed exams, acute care for personal illness, pre-employment exams, travel immunizations and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration ("OSHA") audiometric testing. For all other locations, United has partnered with third-party clinics to provide such services. Additionally, the Company actively follows the recommendations of the CDC and since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company has implemented additional safety measures in compliance with CDC guidelines.
The Board, including through its Public Responsibility Committee, provides oversight of the Company's policies, positioning and practices concerning various broad public policy issues, including those that relate to safety and public health (including workplace and customer safety and security), and the full Board is provided with a safety update at every Board meeting.
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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion ("DEI"): At United we are on a mission to become the best airline in the history of aviation and change the face of the aviation industry by creating pathways for a more diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace. To achieve this goal, we must ensure that our airline, team members, practices and our policies reflect our global customer base and the communities we serve. Our DEI strategy is centered around transforming the future of aviation in the following ways:
creating greater awareness, access and opportunities for underrepresented groups to create long, lucrative careers at United;
growing our uniquely inclusive culture;
offering a more accessible and culturally sensitive travel experience for all of our customers;
empowering our communities; and
modeling active leadership to build a strong pipeline for business diversity.
We are making progress in diversifying our leadership and key talent pipelines, including pilots and technicians, and we are holding ourselves accountable by setting goals tied to our executive compensation plans. Our comprehensive approach to sustainable progress includes building customized strategies for each functional area of our business to attract, develop and support diverse talent in the advancement of their careers at United.
In 2022, our new hire representation of women and people of color in management and administrative roles was higher by approximately 5% and 9%, respectively, when compared to beginning of year representation. A key contributing factor to this growth was setting a goal to have 90% of interview slates include a diverse set of candidates. In 2022, we also increased representation at the officer level where 60% of officer promotions were women and 40% were people of color. Our highly engaged employee-led Business Resource Groups ("BRG") are also helping to drive our strategies and grow our inclusive culture. Our 44 BRG chapters with 2022 memberships totaling approximately 27,000 memberships worldwide build cultural awareness and allyship for the various communities they represent—Black, LGBTQ+, multicultural, multigenerational, people with disabilities, veterans, women, and working parents and caregivers. Each of our eight BRGs is sponsored by a member of our executive team.
In the summer of 2021, United opened the United Aviate Academy (the "Academy") with a goal for at least half of the pilot graduates to be women or people of color. Since April 2021, we have received approximately 20,000 applications. The Academy has completed its first full year of operations with the inaugural graduating class in January 2023. Students enrolled in the first year of operation were 43% women and 74% people of color. The Academy is designed to set its graduates up for a career that reflects United's high standard of professionalism and deep commitment to delivering a safe, caring, dependable and efficient travel experience.
Not only does the Academy publicly establish our commitment to diversity, but our partnerships for pilot recruiting at three Historically Black Colleges and Universities ("HBCUs") enable us to support organizations that have a long history of serving underrepresented communities. The Academy's pilot recruiting program provides a new and effective path to a United flight deck and partnering with HBCUs gives United the opportunity to further our efforts to diversify our employee base and flight decks. Elizabeth City State University, Hampton University and Delaware State University are the core of the Academy's commitment to HBCUs.
We are also enhancing awareness and access for underrepresented groups to careers as aircraft maintenance technicians through Calibrate, our new in-house apprenticeship program launched in November 2022. We plan to train more than 1,000 new technicians by 2026, with a goal of at least half being women or people of color. Our first cohort was comprised of 80% people of color. In the 36-month program, apprentices will gain the skills and knowledge to obtain their A&P Certificate, including hands-on and classroom training and mentorship alongside United's experienced technicians. Calibrate plans to expand to over a dozen locations in 2023, will be open to United's global employee base and external candidates and will be key in helping United achieve its goal of hiring 7,000 maintenance technicians by 2026.
Through our skills-first hiring approach, we are prioritizing a focus on the skills, capabilities and talent a candidate brings to the table rather than categorically excluding talent for not having a four-year college degree.
We are one of over 60 leading employers who have partnered with OneTen, an organization focused on addressing the racial wealth gap through skills-first hiring. We have committed to doing our part to help the organization lead the upskilling, hiring and promotion of one million Black people without a four-year college degree into family-sustaining careers over the next 10 years. Since joining, United has hired over 2,000 employees that contribute to our partnership commitment with OneTen.
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We host two cohorts of students each year with our talent partner Year Up, a nonprofit that empowers young, talented professionals to move into careers in a single year by providing technical and professional skills training for entry-level roles and connecting them with their first corporate experience. This helps build skills and experiences that will empower them to reach their potential, while giving hiring managers access to a motivated, diverse talent pipeline. Last year, we set a goal that 80% of each cohort would be hired as United team members and we exceeded that goal in August 2022 with 100% of our cohort being hired and on the path to a long, lucrative career as highly engaged team members.
Pay equity is a key tenet of our rewards strategy because it promotes an environment in which all employees feel valued and respected. In 2021, we disclosed that we have achieved near-perfect pay equity for employees of all genders and races performing comparable work across our U.S. operations. In 2022, we continued our commitment to conducting annual reviews of our pay practices, including among managers, to maintain pay equity.
Our commitment to diversity and empowerment extends from our workforce and continues in our relationships with our suppliers as we recognize that we can meet our business needs while supporting economic growth in marginalized communities. In 2021, we announced our aspiration to become a member of the Billion Dollar Roundtable ("BDR"), a group of corporations recognized for spending at least $1 billion annually with diverse-owned businesses. We have built a strong foundation to keep us on track and are working to improve the rate of inclusion for diverse-owned businesses in our supply chain. In 2022, we more than doubled our spend with diverse and women-owned businesses and added more than 80 new diverse suppliers to our supply chain.
Board Oversight: Our Board, assisted by several of its committees, plays a key role in the strategic oversight of management regarding the development, implementation and effectiveness of the Company's policies and strategies relating to human capital management. For instance, the Board's Executive Committee oversees and reviews significant human capital strategies, including culture, talent management and DEI matters, and the Board's Public Responsibility Committee reviews and monitors the development and implementation of the Company's DEI and strategic goals and objectives. Many of our Board members have experience overseeing workforce issues as CEOs and presidents of other companies or organizations. The Compensation Committee also engages an independent compensation and benefits consulting firm to help evaluate our executive compensation and benefit programs and to provide benchmarking against a group of peer companies, including peers within the airline industry.
Career Growth and Development and Succession Planning: We offer a broad range of professional training and education for the career advancement and leadership development of our employees. In 2022, about 90% of our senior leader positions filled were internal placements and 513 frontline employees were promoted into management roles, almost three times as many as the prior year. Our key leadership development programs include structured nomination programs for high potential leaders with a focus on diverse representation and opportunities for all employees to develop their careers. Rise and LEAD are 6-month targeted programs for high-potential directors, senior managers and managers who are focused on developing strategic thinking, innovation, business acumen and executive presence skills, including through executive coaching and action learning projects. The Airport Operations Leadership Academy provides development opportunities for all employees and supports United's goal to build a robust, diverse leadership talent pipeline. The Airport Operations Leadership Academy provides courses, experiential learning and mentoring that can lead to certification in technical, technology and leadership skills. Our commitment to mentoring and sponsorship is reflected in several programs implemented through BRGs, departments such as Inflight and Airport Operations and the Academy. Succession planning provides us the opportunity to evaluate our key successors, create curated development plans for them and align on gaps to begin the process of proactively identifying external talent for director and above positions. Executives engage in succession planning by continuously evaluating, developing and mentoring our high potential talent and providing them with advancement opportunities to ensure they are prepared when executive and management positions become available. The Board also engages in annual succession planning and talent development discussions with our Chief Executive Officer, focusing on our ability to identify, attract, prepare and retain talented employees for future leadership positions.
Employee Engagement: We routinely conduct confidential employee engagement surveys of our global workforce, which provide feedback on employee satisfaction and engagement and cover a variety of topics such as company culture, safety and values, execution of our strategy, diversity, equity and inclusion and individual development, among others. Survey results are reviewed by our executive team, who analyze opportunities for progress both at a company level as well as at a function level. Individual managers also use survey results to implement actions and activities intended to increase the well-being of our employees. We believe that our employee engagement initiatives, competitive pay and benefit programs and career growth and development opportunities help increase employee satisfaction and tenure and reduce voluntary turnover.
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Talent and Pay: While our rewards package for most of our employees is defined by our collective bargaining agreements, it includes competitive base pay, travel privileges and other comprehensive benefits, including health, wellness and retirement programs for all our employees, including part-time employees. We also review both industry and local market data at least annually to identify trends and market gaps in order to maintain the competitiveness of our compensation and employee benefit programs. With respect to executives, a substantial proportion of their total rewards is variable, at-risk pay that is based on Company performance and delivered in the form of equity, supporting alignment over the long term between our executives and our shareholders. We align our executives' long-term equity compensation with our shareholders' interests by linking realizable pay with stock performance. In addition, the Company has performance-based compensation programs for other management employee leaders, including managers, supervisors and team leads.
Collective Bargaining Agreements: Collective bargaining agreements between the Company and its represented employee groups are negotiated under the Railway Labor Act ("RLA"). Such agreements typically do not contain an expiration date and instead specify an amendable date, upon which the agreement is considered "open for amendment." The following table reflects the Company's represented employee groups, the number of employees per represented group, union representation for each employee group, and the amendable date for each employee group's collective bargaining agreement as of December 31, 2022:
Employee
Group
Number of EmployeesUnionAgreement Open for Amendment
United Airlines, Inc.:
Flight Attendants 23,065Association of Flight Attendants (the "AFA")August 2021
Fleet Service15,088International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (the "IAM")December 2021
Pilots13,831Air Line Pilots AssociationJanuary 2019
Passenger Service11,649IAMDecember 2021
Technicians8,499International Brotherhood of Teamsters (the "IBT")December 2022
Storekeepers965IAMDecember 2021
Dispatchers 393Professional Airline Flight Control Association (the "PAFCA")December 2024
Fleet Tech Instructors180IAMDecember 2021
Load Planners69IAMDecember 2021
Security Officers45IAMDecember 2021
Maintenance Instructors42IAMDecember 2021
United Ground Express, Inc.:
Passenger Service 4,480IAMMarch 2025
In November 2022, United dispatchers represented by the PAFCA voted to ratify a two-year contract extension. In January 2023, United and the IBT ratified an extension to its labor contract. The agreement becomes amendable in December 2024 and includes a one-year early opener that allows for bargaining on a successor agreement to begin in December 2023.
Additional Information: See our report at crreport.united.com, for additional information on our human capital management programs, initiatives and measures. We are committed to transparency and accountability as we work to better reflect the diversity of the communities we serve in all areas of our business and, to track our progress, have committed to sharing our U.S. workforce demographic data by self-identified race, ethnicity and gender on an annual basis on our website. The information contained on or connected to the Company's website is not incorporated by reference into this Form 10-K and should not be considered part of this or any other report filed with the SEC.
Industry Regulation
Airlines are subject to extensive domestic and international regulatory oversight. The following discussion summarizes the principal elements of the regulatory framework applicable to our business. Regulatory requirements, including but not limited
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to those discussed below, affect our operations and increase our operating costs, and future regulatory developments may continue to do the same. In addition, should any of our governmental authorizations or certificates be modified, suspended or revoked, our business and competitive position could be materially adversely affected. See Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors—"The airline industry is subject to extensive government regulation, which imposes significant costs and may adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition" for additional information on the material effects of compliance with government regulations.
Domestic Regulation. All carriers engaged in air transportation in the United States are subject to regulation by the DOT. Absent an exemption, no air carrier may provide air transportation of passengers or property without first being issued a DOT certificate of public convenience and necessity. The DOT also grants international route authority, approves international codeshare arrangements and regulates methods of competition. The DOT regulates consumer protection and maintains jurisdiction over advertising, denied boarding compensation, tarmac delays, baggage liability and other areas and may add additional expensive regulatory burdens in the future. The DOT has launched investigations or claimed rulemaking authority to regulate commercial agreements among carriers or between carriers and third parties in a wide variety of contexts.
Airlines are also regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration (the "FAA"), an agency within the DOT, primarily in the areas of flight safety, air carrier operations and aircraft maintenance and airworthiness. The FAA issues air carrier operating certificates and aircraft airworthiness certificates, prescribes maintenance procedures, oversees airport operations and regulates pilot and other employee training. From time to time, the FAA issues directives that require air carriers to inspect, modify or ground aircraft and other equipment, potentially causing the Company to incur substantial, unplanned expenses. The airline industry is also subject to numerous other federal laws and regulations. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security ("DHS") has jurisdiction over virtually every aspect of civil aviation security. The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") has jurisdiction over certain airline competition matters. The U.S. Postal Service has authority over certain aspects of the transportation of mail by airlines. Labor relations in the airline industry are generally governed by the RLA, a federal statute. The Company is also subject to investigation inquiries by the DOT, FAA, DOJ, DHS, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA"), the U.S. Department of Agriculture ("USDA"), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC"), OSHA and other U.S. and international regulatory bodies.
Airport Access. Access to landing and take-off rights, or "slots," at several major U.S. airports served by the Company are subject to government regulation. Federally-mandated domestic slot restrictions that limit operations and regulate capacity currently apply at three airports: Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., and John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport in the New York City metropolitan region. Additional restrictions on takeoff and landing slots at these and other airports may be implemented in the future and could affect the Company's rights of ownership and transfer as well as its operations.
Legislation. The airline industry is subject to legislative actions (or inactions) that may have an impact on operations and costs. In 2018, the U.S. Congress approved a five-year reauthorization for the FAA that will expire in September 2023. Discussions in connection with the reauthorization could include a wide range of tax and policy issues. Potential policy changes for consideration could include airline customer service requirements, aviation safety, investments in FAA staffing and resources, advancements in improving air traffic control ("ATC") technology, labor requirements and managing new entrants in the National Air Space. These issues could impact the Company and larger airline industry. Congressional action on reauthorization is expected to occur after the September 2023 expiration date, and in that case, Congress will likely pass an extension of current law to prevent any lapse in taxing authority.
International Regulation. International air transportation is subject to extensive government regulation. In connection with the Company's international services, the Company is regulated by both the U.S. government and the governments of the foreign countries or regions the Company serves. In addition, the availability of international routes to U.S. carriers is regulated by aviation agreements between the U.S. and foreign governments and in some cases, fares and schedules require the approval of the DOT and/or the relevant foreign governments.
Legislation. Foreign countries are increasingly enacting passenger protection laws, rules and regulations that meet or exceed U.S. requirements. In cases where this activity exceeds U.S. requirements, additional burden and liability may be placed on the Company. Certain countries have regulations requiring passenger compensation from the Company and/or enforcement penalties in addition to changes in operating procedures due to overbooked, canceled or delayed flights.
Airport Access. Historically, access to foreign routes has been tightly controlled through bilateral agreements between the U.S. and each foreign jurisdiction involved. These agreements regulate the routes served, the number of carriers allowed to serve each route and the frequency of carriers' flights. Since the early 1990s, the U.S. has pursued a policy of "Open Skies" (meaning all U.S. and foreign carriers have access to the destination) under which the U.S. government has negotiated a number of bilateral agreements allowing unrestricted access between U.S. and foreign points. Currently, there are more than 100 Open Skies agreements in effect. However, even with Open Skies, many of the airports that the Company serves in Africa, the Middle
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East, Asia/Pacific, Europe, and Latin America maintain slot controls. A large number of these slot controls exist due to congestion, environmental and noise protection and reduced capacity due to runway and ATC construction work, among other reasons.
The Company's ability to serve some foreign routes and expand into certain others is limited by the absence of aviation agreements between the U.S. government and the relevant foreign governments. Shifts in U.S. or foreign government aviation policies may lead to the alteration or termination of air service agreements. Depending on the nature of any such change, the value of the Company's international route authorities and slot rights may be materially enhanced or diminished. Similarly, foreign governments control their airspace and can restrict our ability to overfly their territory, which may enhance or diminish the value of the Company's existing international route authorizations and slot rights.
Epidemics or pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, may cause governments to restrict entry of passengers and/or to impose health management rules which can include vaccinations, boosters, testing, quarantine upon arrival, health declarations and temperature screens, among others. Such requirements may result in reduced demand for travel in certain circumstances and may cause the Company to suspend certain international services. Although certain governments may grant waivers for limited periods that allow the Company to maintain existing slot rights and route authorizations while not operating at a particular foreign point, waivers are not guaranteed.
Environmental Regulation. The airline industry is subject to increasingly stringent federal, state, local and international environmental regulations, including those regulating emissions to air, water discharges, safe drinking water and the use and management of hazardous substances and wastes. The Company endeavors to comply with all applicable environmental regulations.
Climate Change. As outlined above, the Company's commitment to becoming a more environmentally sustainable company extends beyond seeking to comply with regulatory requirements. At the same time, efforts to reduce carbon emissions through environmental sustainability legislation and regulation, or non-binding standards or accords, is an increased focus of global, national and regional regulators. A policy to regulate GHG emissions from aviation known as the European Union ("EU") Emission Trading System ("ETS") was adopted in 2009, but applicability to flights arriving at or departing from airports outside the EU has been postponed several times. In December 2017, the European Parliament voted to extend exemptions for extra-EU flights until December 2023 in order to align with the completion of the pilot phase of the International Civil Aviation Organization's ("ICAO") Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation ("CORSIA"). More recently, the European Parliament and Council reached a provisional agreement to extend exemptions for extra-EU flights from 2023 to 2027. The extension of EU ETS to extra-EU flights could still occur in future years, depending on the EU government's assessment of the effectiveness of CORSIA. CORSIA, which was adopted in October 2016, is intended to create a single global market-based measure to achieve carbon-neutral growth for international aviation, through airline purchases of eligible carbon offset credits and the use of eligible sustainable fuels. The unprecedented nature of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted ICAO to include only 2019 emissions (as opposed to the originally planned average of 2019-20 emissions) as the baseline upon which offsetting obligations would be calculated for the pilot phase (2021-23) of the scheme. At the conclusion of the 2022 ICAO Assembly's 41st Session in October 2022, the ICAO Assembly passed a resolution establishing the baseline for the subsequent phases of CORSIA at 85% of 2019 emissions. This decision is expected to substantially increase United's anticipated CORSIA compliance costs as compared to a 2019-only baseline, although the exact mechanism by which CORSIA will be implemented domestically is currently unknown. Certain CORSIA program aspects could also potentially be affected by the results of the pilot phase of the program, and thus the impact of CORSIA cannot be fully predicted. Domestically, in December 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") adopted its own aircraft and aircraft engine GHG emissions standards, which are aligned with the 2017 ICAO airplane CO2 emission standards. In June 2022, the same standards were proposed by the FAA, the agency responsible for enforcing the standard at the time of aircraft certification, and are awaiting a final rule.
The Company believes that policies that incentivize the production of SAF, such as the passage of tax credit incentives for the production of SAF in the IRA, or economy-wide carbon prices or taxes, will enable the Company to decarbonize its operations more cost efficiently than a patchwork of regulatory requirements on aviation, particularly those that require airlines to reduce flights or impose the cost of transitioning to low-carbon alternatives disproportionately on airlines. The Company lauded the U.S. government's passage of the IRA and will continue to work with policymakers to adopt policies that incentivize the production of SAF to allow the industry to transition to a lower carbon future. In addition, while the Company is resolute in attaining its mid-term and long-term climate goals without relying on voluntary use of traditional carbon offsets, the Company may be subject to future regulatory requirements that require the purchase of carbon offsets, which may expose the Company to additional costs associated with the procurement of offsets or limited supply in the carbon offsets market. The Company believes that policies that incentivize in-sector emissions reductions, rather than carbon offset purchases, will better support the industry's transition to a lower carbon future.
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Other Regulations. Our operations are subject to a variety of other environmental laws and regulations both in the United States and internationally. These include noise-related restrictions on aircraft types and operating times and state and local air quality initiatives which have resulted, or could in the future result in curtailments in services, increased operating costs, limits on expansion, or further emission reduction requirements. Certain airports and/or governments, both domestically and internationally, either have established or are seeking to establish environmental fees and other requirements applicable to carbon emissions, local air quality pollutants and/or noise. The implementation of these requirements is expected to result in restrictions on mobile sources of air pollutants such as cars, trucks and airport ground support equipment in corresponding locations.
Various states have passed legislation restricting the use of Class B fire-fighting foam agents that contain intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances ("PFAS"), which are requiring the Company to continue to incur costs to convert existing fixed foam fire suppression systems to accommodate PFAS-free firefighting foam agents. In addition, the EPA has developed the PFAS Strategic Roadmap, which includes regulatory actions across a wide spectrum of its statutory authorities, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ("CERCLA"), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Clean Water Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. In August 2022, EPA proposed to designate two PFAS substances, perfluorooctanoic acid (“PFOA”) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (“PFOS”) as hazardous substances under CERCLA. The proposed rule would authorize the EPA to order cleanup actions and hold responsible parties liable under CERCLA's joint and several liability scheme. The proposed rule would also require the Company to immediately report releases that meet or exceed the reportable quantity of PFOA or PFOS to the EPA and any other applicable state and local agencies. The Company expects these broad regulatory policies will increase the risk of incurring remediation costs and/or liabilities at current and former locations at which the Company currently or historically used fire-fighting foam agents containing PFOA, PFOS or other PFAS substances. To mitigate these risks, the Company is working to remove PFAS-containing fire-fighting foam from its hangars and other assets through a phased retrofit/replacement strategy, and is committed to transitioning to PFAS-free materials for fire suppression. Finally, environmental cleanup laws could require the Company to undertake (or subject the Company to liability for costs associated with) investigation and remediation actions at certain owned or leased locations or third-party disposal locations. Because PFOA, PFOS and other PFAS substances are expected to be regulated under CERCLA and have been regulated other environmental cleanup laws, the Company may become subject to potential liability for its historic usage of PFAS-containing materials, although such potential liability is not expected to be significant. Until the applicability of new regulations to our specific operations is better defined and/or until pending regulations are finalized, future costs to comply with such regulations will remain uncertain but are likely to increase our operating costs over time.
While the Company is required to comply with numerous applicable environmental regulations, the Company believes that these regulations and programs, including the pilot phase of CORSIA, EPA regulations regarding PFAS and GHG emissions, and other existing environmental regulations, are not reasonably likely to have a material effect on the Company's results or competitive position. However, the precise nature of future requirements and their applicability to the Company are difficult to predict, and the financial impact to the Company and the aviation industry could be significant.
Information about Our Executive Officers
Below is a list of the Company's executive officers as of the date hereof, including their name, office(s) held and age.
NamePositionAge
Torbjorn (Toby) J. EnqvistExecutive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer51
Kate GeboExecutive Vice President Human Resources and Labor Relations54
Brett J. HartPresident53
Gregory L. HartExecutive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer57
Linda P. JojoExecutive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer57
J. Scott KirbyChief Executive Officer55
Gerald LadermanExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer65
Andrew NocellaExecutive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer53
Set forth below is a description of the background of each of the Company's executive officers. Executive officers are elected by UAL's Board for an initial term that continues until the first Board meeting following the next Annual Meeting of Shareholders and thereafter, are elected for a one-year term or until their successors have been chosen, or until their earlier death, resignation or removal. Executive officers serve at the discretion of the Board. Unless otherwise stated, employment is by UAL and United. There are no family relationships between any executive officer or director of UAL.
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Torbjorn (Toby) J. Enqvist. Mr. Enqvist has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of UAL and United since July 2022. From June 2021 to July 2022, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer of UAL and United. From August 2018 to May 2021, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer of UAL and United. From December 2017 to August 2018, he served as Senior Vice President of Network Operations and Customer Solutions of UAL and United. From July 2017 to December 2017, he served as Senior Vice President of Customer Solutions and Recovery of UAL and United. From December 2015 to June 2017, he served as Vice President Hubs Domestic & International Line Stations. From January 2014 to November 2015, he served as Vice President Project Quality. From November 2011 to December 2013, he served as Vice President Newark Hub. From January 2010 to October 2011, he served as Vice President Security & Environment Affairs. Mr. Enqvist joined Continental Airlines, Inc. ("Continental") in 1996.
Kate Gebo. Ms. Gebo has served as Executive Vice President Human Resources and Labor Relations of UAL and United since December 2017. From November 2016 to November 2017, Ms. Gebo served as Senior Vice President, Global Customer Service Delivery and Chief Customer Officer of United. From October 2015 to November 2016, Ms. Gebo served as Vice President of the Office of the Chief Executive Officer of United. From November 2009 to October 2015, Ms. Gebo served as Vice President of Corporate Real Estate of United.
Brett J. Hart. Mr. Hart has served as President of UAL and United since May 2020. From March 2019 to May 2020, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of UAL and United. From May 2017 to March 2019, he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel of UAL and United. From February 2012 to May 2017, he served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of UAL and United. Mr. Hart served as acting Chief Executive Officer and principal executive officer of the Company, on an interim basis, from October 2015 to March 2016. From December 2010 to February 2012, he served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of UAL, United and Continental. From June 2009 to December 2010, Mr. Hart served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Sara Lee Corporation, a consumer food and beverage company. From March 2005 to May 2009, Mr. Hart served as Deputy General Counsel and Chief Global Compliance Officer of Sara Lee Corporation.
Gregory L. Hart. Mr. Hart has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer of UAL and United since May 2022. From January 2022 to May 2022, he served as Executive Vice President United Next of UAL and United. From June 2020 to January 2022, he served as Executive Vice President, Strategy and Planning of UAL and United. From February 2014 to May 2020, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of UAL and United. From December 2013 to February 2014, he served as Senior Vice President Operations of UAL and United. From October 2012 to December 2013, he served as Senior Vice President Technical Operations of United. From October 2010 to September 2012, he served as Senior Vice President Network of United and Continental. From September 2008 to September 2010, he served as Vice President Network of Continental. Mr. Hart joined Continental in 1997.
Linda P. Jojo. Ms. Jojo has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Customer Officer of UAL and United since July 2022. From June 2017 to July 2022, she served as Executive Vice President Technology and Chief Digital Officer of UAL and United. From November 2014 to June 2017, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of UAL and United. From July 2011 to October 2014, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Rogers Communications, Inc., a Canadian communications and media company. From October 2008 to June 2011, she served as Chief Information Officer of Energy Future Holdings, a Dallas-based privately held energy company and electrical utility provider.
J. Scott Kirby. Mr. Kirby has served as Chief Executive Officer of UAL and United since May 2020. Mr. Kirby served as President of UAL and United from August 2016 to May 2020. Prior to joining the Company, from December 2013 to August 2016, Mr. Kirby served as President of American Airlines Group and American Airlines, Inc. Mr. Kirby also previously served as President of US Airways from October 2006 to December 2013. Mr. Kirby held significant other leadership roles at US Airways and at America West prior to the 2005 merger of those carriers, including Executive Vice President—Sales and Marketing (2001 to 2006); Senior Vice President, e-business (2000 to 2001); Vice President, Revenue Management (1998 to 2000); Vice President, Planning (1997 to 1998); and Senior Director, Scheduling and Planning (1995 to 1998). Prior to joining America West, Mr. Kirby worked for American Airlines Decision Technologies and at the Pentagon.
Gerald Laderman. Mr. Laderman has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of UAL and United since August 2018. Mr. Laderman served as Senior Vice President Finance, Procurement and Treasurer for UAL and United from 2013 to August 2015, and again from August 2016 to May 2018. Mr. Laderman additionally was acting Chief Financial Officer from August 2015 to August 2016 and from May 2018 to August 2018. Mr. Laderman served as Senior Vice President Finance and Treasurer for the Company from 2010 to 2013. From 2001 to 2010, Mr. Laderman served as Senior Vice President of Finance and Treasurer for Continental. Mr. Laderman joined Continental in 1988 as senior director legal affairs, finance and aircraft programs.
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Andrew Nocella. Mr. Nocella has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of UAL and United since September 2017. From February 2017 to September 2017, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer of UAL and United. Prior to joining the Company, from August 2016 to February 2017, Mr. Nocella served as Senior Vice President, Alliances and Sales of American Airlines, Inc. From December 2013 to August 2016, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of American Airlines, Inc. From August 2007 to December 2013, he served as Senior Vice President, Marketing and Planning of US Airways.
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ITEM 1A.    RISK FACTORS.
Any of the risks and uncertainties described below could significantly and negatively affect our business operations, financial condition, operating results (including components of our financial results), cash flows, prospects, reputation or credit ratings, which could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline significantly. Additional risks and uncertainties that are not presently known to us, or risks that we currently consider immaterial, could also impair our business operations, financial condition, operating results, cash flows, prospects, reputation or credit ratings.
Strategic and Business Development Risks
We may not be successful in executing elements of our strategic operating plan, which may have a material adverse impact on our business, financial results and market capitalization.
In June 2021, the Company announced its United Next plan, including initial firm orders of 270 aircraft, retrofitting plans and plans to increase mainline daily departures and available seats across the Company's North American network. In developing our United Next plan, we made certain assumptions including, but not limited to, those related to the duration and scope of the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, customer demand (in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation and changing economic conditions), fuel costs, delivery of aircraft, labor market constraints and related costs, supply chain constraints, inflationary pressures, voluntary or mandatory groundings of aircraft, our regional network, competition, market consolidation and other macroeconomic and geopolitical factors. Actual conditions may be different from our assumptions and could cause the Company to adjust its strategic operating plan. In addition, we cannot provide any assurance that we will be able to successfully execute our strategic plan, our strategic plan will not result in additional unanticipated costs, the growth that we anticipate will occur through execution of our strategic plan will not exacerbate any other risk described in this Form 10-K (especially relating to fuel costs, the impact of inflationary pressures, our supply chain or our ability to attract, train and retain talent), our suppliers will timely provide adequate products or support for our products (including delivery of aircraft) or our strategic plan will result in improvements in future financial performance. If we do not successfully execute our United Next or other strategic plans, or if actual results vary significantly from our expectations, our business, operating results, financial condition and market capitalization could be materially and adversely impacted. The failure to successfully structure our business to meet market conditions could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
Changes in the Company's network strategy over time or other factors outside of the Company's control may make aircraft on order less economic for the Company, result in costs related to modification or termination of aircraft orders or cause the Company to enter into orders for new aircraft on less favorable terms, and any inability to accept or integrate new aircraft into the Company's fleet as planned could increase costs or affect the Company's flight schedules.
The Company's orders for new aircraft are typically made years in advance of actual delivery of such aircraft, and the financial commitment required for purchases of new aircraft is substantial. As a result of our network strategy changing or our demand expectations not being realized, our preference for the aircraft that we previously ordered may decrease; however, the Company may be responsible for material liabilities to its counterparties if it were to attempt to modify or terminate any of its existing aircraft order commitments and our financial condition could be adversely impacted. These risks are heightened as a result of the Company's United Next orders in the second quarter of 2021 and the fourth quarter of 2022. Additionally, the Company may have a need for additional aircraft that are not available under its existing orders and may seek to acquire aircraft from other sources, such as through lease arrangements, which may result in higher costs or less favorable terms, or through the purchase or lease of used aircraft. The Company may not be able to acquire such aircraft when needed on favorable terms or at all.
Furthermore, if, for any reason, the Company is unable or does not want to accept deliveries of new aircraft or integrate such new aircraft into its fleet as planned, the Company may face higher financing and operating costs than planned or litigation risks, or be required to seek extensions of the terms for certain leased aircraft or otherwise delay the exit of other aircraft from its fleet. Unanticipated extensions or delays may require the Company to operate existing aircraft beyond the point at which it is economically optimal to retire them, resulting in increased maintenance costs, or reductions to the Company's schedule, thereby reducing revenues.
The imposition of new tariffs, or any increase in existing tariffs, on the importation of commercial aircraft that the Company orders may also result in higher costs.
Failure to effectively manage acquisitions, divestitures, investments, joint ventures and other portfolio actions could adversely impact our operating results. In addition, any businesses or assets that we acquire in the future increase our exposure to unknown liabilities or other issues and also may underperform as compared to expectations.
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Although we are committed to reducing our debt over the long term, an important part of the Company's strategy to expand its global network has included making significant investments, both domestically and in other parts of the world, including in other airlines and other aviation industry participants, producers of SAF and manufacturers of electric and other new generation aircraft. The Company plans to continue to make additional investments through its corporate venture capital arm, UAV. However, increased competition in forming and maintaining relationships with other airlines (since there are a limited number of potential arrangements and other airlines and industry participants seek to enter into similar relationships) may make it difficult for the Company to complete strategic investments on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
These investments are inherently risky and may not be successful. Future revenues, profits and cash flows of these and future investments and repayment of invested or loaned funds may not materialize due to safety concerns, regulatory issues, supply chain constraints or other factors beyond our control. Where we acquire debt or equity securities as all or part of the consideration for business development activities, such as in connection with a joint venture, the value of those securities will fluctuate and may depreciate in value. We may not control the companies in which we make investments, and as a result, we will have limited ability to determine their management, operational decisions, internal controls and compliance and other policies, which can result in additional financial and reputational risks. Further, acquisitions and investments create exposure to assumed litigation and unknown liabilities, as well as undetected internal control, regulatory compliance or other issues, or additional costs not anticipated at the time the transaction was completed, and our due diligence efforts may not identify such liabilities or issues, or they may not be disclosed to us.
From time to time we also divest assets. We may not be successful in separating any such assets, and losses on the divestiture of, or lost operating income from, such assets may adversely affect our earnings. Any divestitures also may result in continued financial exposure to the divested businesses following the transaction, such as through guarantees or other financial arrangements or potential litigation.
In addition, we may incur asset impairment charges related to acquisitions, divestitures, investments or joint ventures that reduce our earnings. For example, in 2020, United recorded a full credit loss allowance against the $515 million carrying value of the Term Loan Agreement with, among others, BRW Aviation Holding LLC and BRW Aviation LLC ("BRW"), as guarantor and borrower, respectively, and the related receivable. Moreover, new or revised accounting standards, rules and interpretations could result in changes to the recognition of income and expense that may materially and adversely affect our financial results.
If the execution or implementation of acquisitions, divestitures, investments, joint ventures and other portfolio actions is not successful, it could adversely impact our financial condition, cash flows and results of operations. In addition, due to the Company's substantial amount of debt, there are certain limitations on the Company's business development capacity. Further, pursuing these opportunities may require us to obtain additional equity or debt financing and could result in increased leverage and/or a downgrade of our credit ratings.
Business, Operational and Industry Risks
The COVID-19 pandemic, and related governmental regulations and restrictions, has materially and adversely impacted our business, operating results, financial condition and liquidity. The full extent of the impact will depend on future developments, among other things. If the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic extend beyond our assumed timelines, our actual results may vary significantly from our expectations.
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted governments and businesses to take unprecedented measures in response that have included international and domestic travel restrictions or advisories, restrictions on business operations, limitations on public gatherings, social distancing recommendations, temporary closures of businesses, remote work arrangements, closures of tourist destinations and attractions as well as quarantine and shelter-in-place orders. As a result, we experienced a precipitous decline in passenger demand and bookings for both business and leisure travel, which had an adverse impact that was material to the Company's business, operating results, financial condition and liquidity and materially disrupted our strategic operating plans. In 2022, the Company saw increasing demand for travel both domestically and internationally; however, as the situation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic remains fluid, the pandemic has continued to negatively impact travel demand. It remains difficult to reasonably predict the full extent of the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's longer-term operational and financial performance, which will depend on a number of future developments, many of which are outside the Company's control, such as the ultimate duration of and factors impacting the recovery from the pandemic (including the efficacy and speed of vaccination programs in curbing the spread of the virus in different markets, the efficacy and availability of various treatment options, the introduction and spread of new variants of the virus that may be resistant to currently approved vaccines or treatment options and the continuation of existing or implementation of new government travel restrictions), the volatility of aircraft fuel prices, customer behavior and preference changes and whether such changes are temporary or permanent, and fluctuations in demand for air travel, among others. The COVID-19 pandemic, the measures taken in response
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and related macroeconomic effects may continue to impact many aspects of our business, operating results, financial condition and liquidity in a number of ways, including labor market constraints and related costs (which impact available staffing and therefore the Company's flight schedules and reputation), facility closures and related costs, disruptions to the Company's and its business partners' operations, reduced travel demand and consumer spending, increased fuel and other operating costs (including due to rising inflationary pressures), supply chain constraints, logistics constraints, volatility in the price of our securities, our ability to access capital markets and volatility in the global economy and financial markets generally. If the negative impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic extend beyond our assumed timelines, our actual results may vary significantly from our expectations.
Our level of indebtedness has increased as we managed through the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and positioned the Company for recovery. As a result of the Company's various financing activities in response to the pandemic, the Company is subjected to more substantial risk of default, cross-default and cross-acceleration in the event of breach of its covenants under such financings. For example, under certain of the Company's credit card processing agreements with financial institutions, the financial institutions in certain circumstances have the right to require that the Company maintain certain cash or other collateral reserves related to advance ticket sales.
It is possible that COVID-19 could exacerbate any of the other risks described in this Form 10-K as well. At this time, we cannot predict the full extent of the negative impact that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on our business, operating results, financial condition, and liquidity.
The Company could experience adverse publicity, harm to its brand, reduced travel demand, potential tort liability and operational restrictions as a result of an accident, catastrophe or incident involving its aircraft or its operations or the aircraft or operations of another airline, which may result in a material adverse effect on the Company's business, operating results or financial condition.
An accident, catastrophe or incident involving an aircraft that the Company operates, or an aircraft or aircraft type that is operated by another airline, or an incident involving the Company's operations, or the operations of another airline, could have a material adverse effect on the Company if such accident, catastrophe or incident created a public perception that the Company's operations, or the operations of its codeshare partners or regional carriers, are not safe or reliable, or are less safe or reliable than other airlines. Further, any such accident, catastrophe or incident involving the Company, its regional carriers or its codeshare partners could expose the Company to significant liability. Although the Company currently maintains liability insurance in amounts and of the type the Company believes to be consistent with industry practice to cover damages arising from any such accident, catastrophe or incident, and the Company's codeshare partners and regional carriers carry similar insurance and generally indemnify the Company for their operations, if the Company's liability exceeds the applicable policy limits or the ability of another carrier to indemnify it, the Company could incur substantial losses from an accident, catastrophe or incident, which may result in a material adverse effect on the Company's business, operating results or financial condition. In addition, any such accident, catastrophe or incident involving the Company, its regional carriers or its codeshare partners could result in operational restrictions on the Company, including voluntary or mandatory groundings of aircraft. Voluntary or involuntary groundings have also impacted, and could in the future impact, the Company's financial results and operations in numerous ways, including reduced revenue, redistributions of other aircraft and deferrals of capital expenditure and other spending. For example, in February 2021, the FAA issued an Emergency Airworthiness Directive regarding certain Boeing 777 Pratt & Whitney powered aircraft, which required the Company to keep more than 50 aircraft out of service until required repairs were made to improve the safety of the engines. A prolonged period of time operating a reduced fleet in these circumstances could result in a material adverse effect on the Company's business, operating results or financial condition.
The global airline industry is highly competitive and susceptible to price discounting and changes in capacity, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
The airline industry is highly competitive, marked by significant competition with respect to routes, fares, schedules (both timing and frequency), services, products, customer service and frequent flyer programs. Consolidation in the airline industry, the rise of well-funded government sponsored international carriers, changes in international alliances, swaps of landing and slots and the creation of immunized JBAs have altered and are expected to continue to alter the competitive landscape in the industry, resulting in the formation of airlines and alliances with increased financial resources, more extensive global networks and services and competitive cost structures. Open Skies agreements, including the longstanding agreements between the United States and each of the EU, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Colombia and Panama, as well as the more recent agreements between the United States and each of Mexico, Brazil and the UK, may also give rise to better integration opportunities among international carriers. Movement of airlines between current global airline alliances could reduce joint network coverage for members of such alliances while also creating opportunities for JBAs and bilateral alliances that did not exist before such realignment. Further airline and airline alliance consolidations or reorganizations could occur in the future, and other airlines participating in such activities may significantly improve their cost structures or revenue generation
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capabilities, thereby potentially making them stronger competitors of the Company and impairing the Company's ability to realize expected benefits from its own strategic relationships.
Airlines also compete by increasing or decreasing their capacity, including route systems and the number of destinations served. Several of the Company's domestic and international competitors have increased their international capacity by including service to some destinations that the Company currently serves, causing overlap in destinations served and, therefore, increasing competition for those destinations. This increased competition in both domestic and international markets may have a material adverse effect on the Company's business, operating results and financial condition.
The Company's U.S. operations are subject to competition from traditional network carriers, national point-to-point carriers and discount carriers, including low-cost carriers and ultra-low-cost carriers that may have lower costs and provide service at lower fares to destinations also served by the Company. The significant presence of low-cost carriers and ultra-low-cost carriers, which engage in substantial price discounting, may diminish our ability to achieve sustained profitability on domestic and international routes and has also caused us to reduce fares for certain routes, resulting in lower yields on many domestic markets. Our ability to compete in the domestic market effectively depends, in part, on our ability to maintain a competitive cost structure. If we cannot maintain our costs at a competitive level, then our business, operating results and financial condition could continue to be materially and adversely affected. In addition, our competitors have established new routes and destinations, including some at our hub airports, in light of the expansion opportunities presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, which may compete with our existing routes and destinations and expansion plans.
Our international operations are subject to competition from both foreign and domestic carriers. For instance, competition is significant from government-subsidized competitors from certain Middle East countries. These carriers have large numbers of international widebody aircraft on order and are increasing service to the U.S. from their hubs in the Middle East. The government support provided to these carriers has allowed them to grow quickly, reinvest in their product, invest in other airlines and expand their global presence. We also face competition from foreign carriers operating under "fifth freedom" rights permitted under international treaties that allow certain carriers to provide service to and from stopover points between their home countries and ultimate destinations, including points in the United States, in competition with service provided by us.
Through alliance and other marketing and codesharing agreements with foreign carriers, U.S. carriers have increased their ability to sell international transportation, such as services to and beyond traditional global gateway cities. Similarly, foreign carriers have obtained increased access to interior U.S. passenger traffic beyond traditional U.S. gateway cities through these relationships. In addition, several JBAs among U.S. and foreign carriers have received grants of antitrust immunity allowing the participating carriers to coordinate schedules, pricing, sales and inventory. If we are not able to continue participating in these types of alliance and other marketing and codesharing agreements in the future, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.
Our MileagePlus frequent flyer program benefits from the attractiveness and competitiveness of United Airlines as a material purchaser of award miles and the majority recipient for mileage redemption. If we are not able to maintain a competitive and attractive airline business, our ability to acquire, engage and retain customers in the loyalty program may be adversely affected, which could adversely affect the loyalty program's and our operating results and financial condition.
Further, our MileagePlus frequent flyer program also faces significant and increasing direct competition from the frequent flyer programs offered by other airlines, as well as from similar loyalty programs offered by banks and other financial services companies. Competition among loyalty programs is intense regarding customer acquisition incentives, the value and utility of program currency, rewards range and value, fees, required usage, and other terms and conditions of these programs. If we are not able to maintain a competitive frequent flyer program, our ability to attract and retain customers to MileagePlus and United alike may be adversely affected, which could adversely affect our operating results and financial condition.
Substantially all of the Company's aircraft, engines and certain parts are sourced from a limited number of suppliers; therefore, the Company would be materially and adversely affected if it were unable to obtain timely deliveries, additional equipment or support from any of these suppliers.
The Company currently sources substantially all of its aircraft and many related aircraft parts from The Boeing Company ("Boeing") or Airbus S.A.S. ("Airbus"). In addition, our aircraft suppliers are dependent on other suppliers for certain other aircraft parts. Therefore, if the Company is unable to acquire additional aircraft at acceptable prices from Boeing or Airbus, or if Boeing or Airbus fails to make timely deliveries of aircraft (whether as a result of any failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval or certification for new model aircraft, such as the 737 MAX 10 aircraft, which has not yet been certified, or manufacturing delays or otherwise) or to provide adequate support for its products, including with respect to the aircraft subject to firm orders under our United Next plan, the Company's operations could be materially and adversely affected. The Company is also dependent on a limited number of suppliers for engines and certain other aircraft parts and could, therefore, also be materially and adversely affected in the event of the unavailability or increased cost of these engines and other aircraft parts.
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Many of our suppliers are experiencing inflationary pressures, as well as disruptions due to the lingering impacts of COVID-19, global supply chain and labor market constraints and related costs. If one or more of our suppliers, our contractors or their subcontractors continue to experience financial difficulties, delivery delays or other performance problems, they may be unable to meet their commitments to us and our financial position, results of operations and cash flows may continue to be adversely impacted.
Disruptions to our regional network and United Express flights provided by third-party regional carriers could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
While the Company has contractual relationships that are material to its business with various regional carriers to provide regional aircraft service branded as United Express that include contractually agreed performance metrics, each regional carrier is a separately certificated commercial air carrier, and the Company does not control the operations of these carriers. A number of factors may impact the Company's regional network, including weather-related effects, seasonality, equipment or software failures and cybersecurity attacks and any significant declines in demand for air travel services, including as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, the decrease in qualified pilots driven primarily by changes to federal regulations has adversely impacted and could continue to adversely impact the Company's regional flying. For example, the FAA's expansion of minimum pilot qualification standards, including a requirement that a pilot have at least 1,500 total flight hours, as well as the FAA's revised pilot flight and duty time requirements under Part 117 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, have contributed to a smaller supply of pilots available to regional carriers. The decrease in qualified pilots resulting from the regulations as well as other factors, including a decreased student pilot population and a shrinking U.S. military from which to hire qualified pilots, has led to increased competition from large, mainline carriers attempting to meet their hiring needs and has adversely impacted our regional carriers. United Express regional carriers have been unable to hire adequate numbers of pilots to meet their needs, resulting in a reduction in the number of flights offered, disruptions in scheduled flights, increased costs of operations, financial difficulties and other adverse effects and these circumstances may become more severe in the future and could cause a material adverse effect on our business. In response, the Company has been and may in the future be required to provide additional financial compensation and other support to its regional carriers or reduce its regional carrier flying, which could require the Company to fly routes at a greater cost, reduce the number of destinations the Company is able to serve or lead to negative public perceptions of the Company.
Disruptions to our regional networks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, pilot shortage or other factors could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.
Unfavorable economic and political conditions, in the United States and globally, may have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition.
The Company's business and operating results are significantly impacted by U.S. and global economic and political conditions. The airline industry is highly cyclical, and the level of demand for air travel is correlated to the strength of the U.S. and global economies. Robust demand for air transportation depends largely on favorable economic conditions, including the strength of the domestic and foreign economies, low unemployment levels, strong consumer confidence levels and the availability of consumer and business credit. Air transportation is often a discretionary purchase that leisure travelers may limit or eliminate during difficult economic times. Short-haul travelers, in particular, have the option to replace air travel with surface travel. In addition, during periods of unfavorable economic conditions, business travelers historically have reduced the volume of their travel, either due to cost-saving initiatives, the replacement of travel with alternatives such as videoconferencing or as a result of decreased business activity requiring travel. In addition, an increase in price levels generally or in price levels in a particular sector (such as current rising inflationary pressures related to domestic and global supply chain constraints, which have led to both overall price increases and pronounced price increases in certain sectors) could result in a shift in consumer demand away from both leisure and business travel. Reduced or flat consumer spending may drive us and our competitors to reduce or offer promotional prices, which would negatively impact our gross margin. In addition, if inflation continues to rise, we may not be able to adjust prices sufficiently to offset the effect without further negatively impacting travel demand or our gross margin. Any of the foregoing would adversely affect the Company's business and operating results. Significant declines in industry passenger demand, particularly with respect to the Company's business and premium cabin travelers and a reduction in fare levels, could lead to a material reduction in revenue, changes to the Company's operations and deferrals of capital expenditure and other spending. Additionally, any deterioration in global trade relations, such as increased tariffs or other trade barriers, could result in a decrease in the demand for international air travel.
The Company's business relies extensively on third-party service providers, including certain technology providers. Failure of these parties to perform as expected, or interruptions in the Company's relationships with these providers or their
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provision of services to the Company, could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business, operating results and financial condition.
The Company has engaged third-party service providers to perform a large number of functions that are integral to its business, including regional operations, operation of customer service call centers, distribution and sale of airline seat inventory, provision of information technology infrastructure and services, transmitting or uploading of data, provision of aircraft maintenance and repairs, provision of various utilities and performance of airport ground services, aircraft fueling operations and catering services, among other vital functions and services. Although generally the Company enters into agreements that define expected service performance and compliance requirements, there can be no assurance that our third-party service providers will adhere to these requirements. Accordingly, any of these third-party service providers may materially fail to meet its service performance commitments to the Company or may suffer disruptions to its systems that could impact its services. For example, failures in certain third-party technology or communications systems may cause flight delays or cancellations. The failure of any of the Company's third-party service providers to perform their service obligations adequately, or other interruptions of services, may reduce the Company's revenues and increase its expenses, prevent the Company from operating its flights and providing other services to its customers or result in adverse publicity or harm to our brand. We may also be subject to consequences from any illegal conduct of our third-party service providers, including for their failure to comply with anti-corruption laws, such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In addition, the Company's business and financial performance could be materially harmed if its customers believe that its services are unreliable or unsatisfactory.
The Company may also have disagreements with such providers or such contracts may be terminated or may not be extended or renewed. For example, the number of flight reservations booked through third-party GDSs or OTAs may be adversely affected by disruptions in the business relationships between the Company and these suppliers. Such disruptions, including a failure to agree upon acceptable contract terms when contracts expire or otherwise become subject to renegotiation, may cause the Company's flight information to be limited or unavailable for display by the affected GDS or OTA operator, significantly increase fees for both the Company and GDS/OTA users and impair the Company's relationships with its customers and travel agencies. Any such disruptions or contract terminations may adversely impact our operations and financial results.
If we are not able to negotiate or renew agreements with third-party service providers, or if we renew existing agreements on less favorable terms, our operations and financial results may be adversely affected.
Extended interruptions or disruptions in service at major airports where we operate could have a material adverse impact on our operations, including our ability to operate our existing flight schedule and to expand or change our route network in the future, and space, facility and infrastructure constraints at our hubs or other airports may prevent the Company from maintaining existing service and/or implementing new service in a commercially viable manner.
The airline industry is heavily dependent on business models that concentrate operations in major airports in the United States and throughout the world. For example, we have a significant portion of our maintenance operations at our SFO airport hub and any disruption or interruption at our SFO hub could have a serious impact on our overall operations. An extended interruption or disruption at one of our hubs or other airports where we have a significant presence resulting from ATC delays, weather conditions, natural disasters, growth constraints, relations with third-party service providers, failure of computer systems, disruptions to government agencies or personnel (including as a result of government shutdowns), disruptions at airport facilities or other key facilities used by us to manage our operations, labor relations and market constraints, power supplies, fuel supplies, terrorist activities, international hostilities or otherwise could result in the cancellation or delay of a significant portion of our flights and, as a result, could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results and financial condition. We have minimal control over the operation, quality or maintenance of these services or whether vendors will improve or continue to provide services that are essential to our business. For example, because we prioritize operational excellence and continually work to optimize our route network and schedule, in light of the industry-wide operational challenges at airports in our network that have limited our system-wide capacity (one of the more prominent being the grounding of a number of the Company's transatlantic flights in response to the capacity cut by London Heathrow airport during the summer of 2022), in 2022 we decided to reconfigure our proposed flight schedule and capacity to help improve our operational performance and our customers' experience. These industry-wide operational challenges had a negative impact on our business and operating results and are expected to continue. In the future, we may not be able to adjust our operations to mitigate their effect in the future, which may have a negative impact on our business, operating results, financial condition and liquidity and limit our ability to expand or change our route network in the future and execute our United Next strategy.
In addition, as airports around the world become more congested, space, facility and infrastructure constraints at our hubs or other airports may prevent the Company from maintaining existing service and/or implementing new service in a commercially viable manner because of a number of factors, including capital improvements at such airports being imposed by the relevant airport authority without the Company's approval. Capital spending projects of airport authorities currently underway and additional projects that we expect to commence over the next several years is expected to result in increased costs to airlines
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and the traveling public that use those facilities as the airports seek to recover their investments through increased rental, landing and other facility costs. These actions have caused and may continue to cause the Company to experience increased space rental rates at various airports in its network, including a number of our hubs and gateways, and increased operating costs. Furthermore, the Company is not able to control decisions by other airlines to reduce their capacity, causing certain fixed airport costs to be allocated among fewer total flights and resulting in increased landing fees and other costs for the Company. Although we currently have sufficient slots or analogous authorizations to operate our existing flights and we have generally, but not always, been able to obtain the rights to expand our operations and to change our schedules.
Geopolitical conflict, terrorist attacks or security events may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As a global business with operations outside of the United States from which it derives significant operating revenues, volatile conditions in certain international regions may have a negative impact on the Company's operating results and its ability to achieve its business objectives. The Company's international operations are a vital part of its worldwide airline network. Political disruptions and instability in certain regions have negatively impacted the demand and network availability for air travel, as well as fuel prices, and may continue to have a negative impact on these and other items. Terrorist attacks or international hostilities, even if not made on or targeted directly at the airline industry, or the fear of or the precautions taken in anticipation of such attacks (including elevated national threat warnings, travel restrictions, selective cancellation or redirection of flights and new security regulations) could materially and adversely affect the Company and the airline industry. The Company's financial resources and insurance coverage may not be sufficient to absorb the adverse effects of any future terrorist attacks, international hostilities or other security events, which could have a material adverse impact on the Company's financial condition, liquidity and operating results. In addition, due to threats against the aviation industry, the Company has incurred, and may continue to incur, significant expenditures to comply with security-related requirements to mitigate threats and protect the safety of our employees and customers.
Any damage to our reputation or brand image could adversely affect our business or financial results.
We operate in a public-facing industry and maintaining a good reputation is critical to our business. The Company's reputation or brand image could be adversely impacted by any failure to maintain satisfactory practices for all of our operations and activities; any failure to achieve and/or make progress toward our environmental, safety, diversity, equity and inclusion or other social and governance ("ESG") goals, which are subject to risks and uncertainties that are outside of our control; our stakeholders not being satisfied with our ESG goals or strategy or efforts to meet the goals; public pressure from investors or policy groups to change our policies; customer perceptions of our advertising campaigns, sponsorship arrangements or marketing programs, including greenwashing concerns regarding our advertising campaigns and marketing programs related to our sustainability initiatives; or customer perceptions of statements made by us, our employees and executives, agents or other third parties. Damage to our reputation or brand image or loss of customer confidence in our services could adversely affect our business and financial results, as well as require additional resources to rebuild our reputation.
Regulators, customers, investors, employees and other stakeholders are focusing more on ESG impacts of operations and related disclosures, which are subject to rules, regulations and standards for collecting, measuring and reporting that are still developing, involve internal controls and processes that continue to evolve, depend in part on third-party performance or data that is outside the Company's control and have resulted in, and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and increased management time and attention spent complying with or meeting such expectations, rules, regulations and standards. The ongoing relevance of our brand may depend on our ability to achieve our ESG goals, further our ESG initiatives and comply with related federal, state and international binding or non-binding legislation, regulation, standards and accords as well as on the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of our disclosures relating to our ESG goals and initiatives and progress against those goals.
Information Technology, Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Risks
The Company relies heavily on technology and automated systems to operate its business and any significant failure or disruption of, or failure to effectively integrate and implement, these technologies or systems could materially harm its business.
The Company depends on technology and automated systems to operate its business, including, but not limited to, computerized airline reservation systems, electronic tickets, electronic airport kiosks, demand prediction software, flight operations systems, in-flight wireless internet, cloud-based technologies, technical and business operations systems and commercial websites and applications, including www.united.com and the United Airlines mobile app. These systems could suffer substantial or repeated disruptions due to various events, some of which are beyond the Company's control (including natural disasters (which may occur more frequently or intensely as a result of the impacts of climate change), power failures, terrorist attacks, dependencies on third-party technology services, equipment or software failures, cybersecurity attacks or other
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security breaches and the deployment by certain wireless carriers of "5G" service networks), which could reduce the attractiveness of the Company's services versus those of our competitors, materially impair our ability to market our services and operate our flights, result in the unauthorized release of confidential or sensitive information, or information that should be protected from inadvertent disclosures, negatively impact our reputation among our customers and the public, subject us to liability to third parties, regulatory action or contract termination and result in other increased costs, lost revenue and the loss of, or compromise to the integrity, availability or confidentiality of, important data. As a result, substantial or repeated systems failures or disruptions may adversely affect the Company's business, operating results and financial condition. We have cybersecurity frameworks, resiliency initiatives and disaster recovery plans in place to prevent and mitigate disruptions, and we continue to invest in improvements to these initiatives and plans. We also maintain property and business interruption insurance. However, these measures may not be adequate to prevent or mitigate disruptions or provide coverage for all of the Company's associated costs, some of which may be unforeseeable.
The Company may also face challenges in implementing, integrating and modifying the automated systems and technology required to operate its business, which may require significant expenditures, human resources, the development of effective internal controls and the transformation of business and financial processes. If the Company is unable to timely or effectively implement, integrate or modify its systems and technology, the Company's operations could be adversely affected.
Increasing privacy and data security obligations or a significant data breach may adversely affect the Company's business.
In our regular business operations, we collect, process, store and transmit to commercial partners sensitive data, including personal information of our customers and employees such as payment processing information and information of our business partners, to provide our services and operate our business.
The Company must manage increasing legislative, regulatory and consumer focus on privacy issues, data security and cybersecurity risk management in a variety of jurisdictions across the globe. For example, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation imposes significant privacy and data security requirements, as well as potential for substantial penalties for non-compliance that have resulted in substantial adverse financial consequences to non-compliant companies. Depending on the regulatory interpretation and enforcement of emerging data protection regulations and industry standards, the Company's business operations could be impacted, up to and including being unable to operate, within certain jurisdictions. Also, some of the Company's commercial partners, such as credit card companies, have imposed data security standards that the Company must meet. The Company will continue its efforts to meet its privacy, data security and cybersecurity risk management obligations; however, it is possible that certain new obligations or customer expectations may be difficult to meet and could require changes in the Company's operating processes and increase the Company's costs.
Additionally, the Company must manage the increasing threat of continually evolving cybersecurity risks. Our network, systems and storage applications, and those systems and applications maintained by our third-party commercial partners (such as cloud computing companies, credit card companies, regional airline carriers and international airline partners) may be subject to attempts to gain unauthorized access, breach, malfeasance or other system disruptions, including those involving criminal hackers, denial of service attacks, hacktivists, state-sponsored actors, corporate espionage, employee malfeasance and human or technological error. In some cases, it is difficult to anticipate or to detect immediately such incidents and the damage caused thereby. In addition, as attacks by cybercriminals become more sophisticated, frequent and intense, the costs of proactive defense measures have increased and may continue to increase. In addition, several large organizations recently have been affected by "ransomware" attacks, and these highly publicized events may embolden individuals or groups to target our systems or third-party systems on which we rely. Furthermore, the Company's remote work arrangements may make it more vulnerable to targeted activity from cybercriminals and significantly increase the risk of cyberattacks or other security breaches. While we continually work to safeguard our network, systems and applications, including through risk assessments, system monitoring, cybersecurity and data protection policies, processes and technologies and employee awareness and training, and seek to require third-parties adhere to security standards, there is no assurance that such actions will be sufficient to prevent cybersecurity incidents or data breaches or the damages that result therefrom.
Any such cybersecurity incident or data breach could result in significant costs, including monetary damages, operational impacts, including service interruptions and delays, and reputational harm. Furthermore, the loss, disclosure, misappropriation of or access to sensitive Company information, customers', employees' or business partners' information or the Company's failure to meet its privacy obligations could result in legal claims or proceedings, penalties and remediation costs. A significant data breach or the Company's failure to meet its obligations may adversely affect the Company's operations, reputation, relationships with our business partners, business, operating results and financial condition.
Increased use of social media platforms present risks and challenges.
We are increasing our use of social media to communicate Company news and events. The inappropriate and/or unauthorized use of certain media vehicles could cause brand damage or information leakage or could lead to legal implications, including
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from the improper collection and/or dissemination of personally identifiable information from employees, customers or other stakeholders. In addition, negative or inaccurate posts or comments about us on any social networking website could damage our reputation, brand image and goodwill. Further, the disclosure of non-public Company-sensitive information by our workforce or others, whether intentional or unintentional, through external media channels could lead to information loss.
Human Capital Management Risks
Union disputes, employee strikes or slowdowns, and other labor-related disruptions or regulatory compliance costs could adversely affect the Company's operations and could result in increased costs that impair its financial performance.
United is a highly unionized company. As of December 31, 2022, the Company and its subsidiaries had approximately 92,800 employees, of whom approximately 84% were represented by various U.S. labor organizations (See Part I, Item 1. Business—Human Capital Management and Resources, of this report for additional information on our represented employee groups and collective bargaining agreements). There is a risk that unions or individual employees might pursue judicial or arbitral claims arising out of changes implemented as a result of the Company entering into collective bargaining agreements with its represented employee groups. There is also a possibility that employees or unions could engage in job actions such as slowdowns, work-to-rule campaigns, sick-outs or other actions designed to disrupt the Company's normal operations, in an attempt to pressure the Company in collective bargaining negotiations. Although the Railway Labor Act makes such actions unlawful until the parties have been lawfully released to self-help, and the Company can seek injunctive relief against premature self-help, such actions can cause significant harm even if ultimately enjoined. Similarly, if the operations of our third-party regional carriers, ground handlers or other vendors are impacted by labor-related disruptions, our operations could be adversely affected. In addition, collective bargaining agreements with the Company's represented employee groups increase the Company's labor costs, and such costs could become material. Furthermore, there is increasing litigation in the airline industry over the application of state and local employment and labor laws to airline employees, particularly those based in California. Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court denied review of a Ninth Circuit ruling which held that federal law did not preempt California state meal and rest break laws from applying to certain California based flight attendants. This decision adversely affects the Company's defenses with respect to certain employee groups in California, and it may give rise to additional litigation in these and other areas previously found to be preempted by federal law. The Company is a defendant in a number of proceedings regarding alleged non-compliance with wage and hour laws. Adverse decisions in these cases could adversely impact our operational flexibility, uniform application of our negotiated collective bargaining agreements, and result in imposition of damages and fines which could be significant.
If we are unable to attract, train or retain skilled personnel, including our senior management team or other key employees, our business could be adversely affected.
Much of our future success is largely dependent on our continued ability to attract, train and retain skilled personnel with industry experience and knowledge, including our senior management team and other key employees. Competition for qualified talent in the aviation industry is intense and labor market constraints have impacted our operations in 2022, which may continue during 2023. If we are unable to attract, train and retain talented, highly qualified employees or experience a shortage of skilled labor, the cost of hiring and retaining quality talent could materially increase and our operations could continue to be impacted, which could impair our ability to adjust capacity or otherwise execute our strategic operating plan. In addition, if we are unable to effectively provide for the succession of senior management or other key employees, our business, ability to execute our strategic operating plan or company culture may be adversely affected.
Regulatory, Tax, Litigation and Legal Compliance Risks
The airline industry is subject to extensive government regulation, which imposes significant costs and may adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
Airlines are subject to extensive regulatory and legal oversight. Compliance with U.S. and international regulations imposes significant costs and may have adverse effects on the Company.
United provides air transportation under certificates of public convenience and necessity issued by the DOT. If the DOT modified, suspended or revoked these certificates, it could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business. The DOT also regulates consumer protection and, through its investigations or rulemaking authority (including, for example, any rulemakings or initiatives in response to the Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy issued by the President on July 9, 2021), could impose restrictions that materially impact the Company's business. United also operates pursuant to an air carrier operating certificate issued by the FAA, and FAA orders and directives have previously resulted in the temporary grounding of an entire aircraft type when the FAA identifies design, manufacturing, maintenance or other issues requiring immediate corrective action (including the FAA Emergency Airworthiness Directive grounding our Boeing 777 Pratt
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& Whitney powered aircraft), which has had an effect that has been material to the Company's business, operating results and financial condition.
In 2018, the U.S. Congress approved a five-year reauthorization for the FAA, which encompasses a range of policy issues related to aviation tax, airline customer service and aviation safety. Depending on how the issues are implemented, our operations and costs could be materially impacted. Additionally, the U.S. Congress may consider legislation related to environmental issues relevant to the airline industry, such as implementation of CORSIA, or increases to the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate, as outlined in the proposed Build Back Better Act or otherwise, which could negatively impact the Company and the airline industry.
The Company's operations may also be adversely impacted due to the existing antiquated ATC system utilized by the U.S. government and regulated by the FAA, which may not be able to effectively handle projected future air traffic growth. The outdated ATC system has led to short-term capacity constraints imposed by government agencies and has resulted in delays and disruptions of air traffic during peak travel periods in certain markets due to its inability to handle demand and reduced resiliency in the event of a failure causing flight cancellations and delays. Failure to update the ATC system in a timely manner and the substantial funding requirements of a modernized ATC system that may be imposed on air carriers may have an adverse impact on the Company's financial condition or operating results.
Access to slots at several major U.S. airports and many foreign airports served by the Company is subject to government regulation on airspace management and competition that might limit the number of slots or change the rules on the use and transfer of slots. If slots are eliminated at one of our hubs or other airports, or if the number of hours of operation governed by slots is reduced at an airport, the lack of controls on take-offs and landings could result in greater congestion both at the affected airport and in the regional airspace and could significantly impact the Company's operations. Similarly, a government or regulatory agency, including DOT, could choose to impose slots at one of our hubs or other airports or grant increased access to another carrier and limit or reduce our operations at an airport, whether or not slot-controlled, which could have significant impact on our operations. The DOT (including FAA) may limit the Company's airport access by limiting the number of departure and arrival slots at congested airports, which could affect the Company's ownership and transfer rights, and local airport authorities may have the ability to control access to certain facilities or the cost to access their facilities, which could have an adverse effect on the Company's business. If the DOT were to take actions that adversely affect the Company's slot holdings, the Company could incur substantial costs to preserve its slots or may lose slots.
The Company currently operates a number of flights on international routes under government arrangements, regulations or policies that designate the number of carriers permitted to operate on such routes, the capacity of the carriers providing services on such routes, the airports at which carriers may operate international flights or the number of carriers allowed access to particular airports. Applicable arrangements between the United States and foreign governments (such as Open Skies) may be amended from time to time, government policies with respect to airport operations may be revised and the availability of appropriate slots or facilities may change, which could have a material adverse impact on the Company's financial condition and operating results and could result in the impairment of material amounts of related tangible and intangible assets. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased regulatory burdens in the U.S. and around the globe, which include closure of international borders to flights and/or passengers from specific countries, passenger and crew quarantine requirements and other regulations promulgated to protect public health but that have had and may continue to have a negative impact on travel and airline operations.
In addition, disruptions to the Company's business could result from the deployment by certain wireless carriers of "5G" cellular networks, which, due to potential interference with aircraft systems, could cause flights to be cancelled or diverted, which in turn could affect consumer perceptions of the safety of air travel. Thus far, regulators have addressed potential "5G" interference on a temporary and piecemeal basis tailored to specific aircraft and airports and uncertainty over the nature, extent, timing and duration of limitations on aircraft operations as a result of "5G" deployment is anticipated to continue over the near term. Systematic regulation of "5G" cellular networks may not occur in the near term, or may not involve terms that are favorable to the Company.
In addition, competition from revenue-sharing JBAs and other alliance arrangements by and among other airlines could impair the value of the Company's business and assets on the Open Skies routes. The Company's plans to enter into or expand U.S. antitrust immunized alliances and JBAs on various international routes are subject to receipt of approvals from applicable U.S. federal authorities and other applicable foreign government clearances or satisfaction of other applicable regulatory requirements. There can be no assurance that such approvals and clearances will be granted or will continue in effect upon further regulatory review or that changes in regulatory requirements or standards can be satisfied.
See Part I, Item 1. Business—Industry Regulation, of this report for additional information on government regulation impacting the Company.
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Current or future litigation and regulatory actions, or failure to comply with the terms of any settlement, order or agreement relating to these actions, could have a material adverse impact on the Company.
From time to time, we are subject to litigation and other legal and regulatory proceedings relating to our business or investigations or other actions by governmental agencies, including as described in Part I, Item 3. Legal Proceedings, of this report. In addition, the Company is subject to an increased risk of litigation and other proceedings as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and responsive measures. For example, the Company is involved in litigation relating to its vaccination requirements for employees. No assurances can be given that the results of these or new matters will be favorable to us. An adverse resolution of lawsuits, arbitrations, investigations or other proceedings or actions could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and operating results, including as a result of non-monetary remedies, and could also result in adverse publicity. Defending ourselves in these matters may be time-consuming, expensive and disruptive to normal business operations and may result in significant expense and a diversion of management's time and attention from the operation of our business, which could impede our ability to achieve our business objectives. Additionally, any amount that we may be required to pay to satisfy a judgment, settlement, fine or penalty may not be covered by insurance. If we fail to comply with the terms contained in any settlement, order or agreement with a governmental authority relating to these matters, we could be subject to criminal or civil penalties, which could have a material adverse impact on the Company. Under our charter and certain indemnification agreements that we have entered into (and may in the future enter into) with our officers, directors and certain third parties, we could be required to indemnify and advance expenses to them in connection with their involvement in certain actions, suits, investigations and other proceedings. Any of these payments may be material.
We are subject to many forms of environmental regulation and liability and risks associated with climate change and may incur substantial costs as a result. In addition, failure to achieve or demonstrate progress towards our climate goals may expose us to liability and reputational harm.
Many aspects of the Company's operations are subject to increasingly stringent federal, state, local and international laws protecting the environment, including those relating to water discharges, safe drinking water and the use and management of hazardous materials and wastes. Compliance with existing and future environmental laws and regulations can require significant expenditures and operational changes and violations can lead to significant fines and penalties and reputational harm. In addition, from time to time we are identified as a responsible party for environmental investigation and remediation costs under applicable environmental laws due to the disposal of hazardous substances generated by our operations. We could also be subject to environmental liability claims from various parties, including airport authorities and other third parties, related to our operations at our owned or leased premises or the off-site disposal of waste generated at our facilities.
As discussed in Part I, Item 1. Business—Environmental, Social and Governance Approach and Highlights—Climate Strategy, the Company has made several commitments regarding its intended reduction of carbon emissions, including eliminating its GHG emissions by 100% by 2050 and by reducing its carbon intensity by 50% by 2035 compared to 2019. The Company has incurred, and expects to continue to incur, costs to achieve its goal of net zero carbon emissions, which will involve a transition to lower-carbon technologies (such as SAF), and to comply with environmental sustainability legislation and regulation and non-binding standards and accords. Such activity may require the Company to modify its supply chain practices, make capital investments to modify certain aspects of its operations or increase its operating costs (including fuel costs). The potential transition cost to a lower-carbon economy could be prohibitively expensive without appropriate government policies and incentives in place. The precise nature of future binding or non-binding legislation, regulation, standards and accords in this area of increased focus by global, national and regional regulators is difficult to predict and the financial impact to the Company would likely be significant if future legal standards do not align with the Company's plans to achieve its climate goals or if proposed U.S. legislation to accelerate the production of SAF development fails to be enacted into law. For instance, CORSIA-related costs cannot be fully predicted at this time, but the program is expected to increase operating costs for airlines that operate internationally. There is also a risk that the increased regulatory focus on airline GHG emissions could result in a patchwork of inconsistent or conflicting regional requirements that could unduly shift excessive cost burden to airlines and inhibit the development of carbon reduction technologies that the Company needs to reach its climate goals. The Company believes that strategic opportunities exist for it as a result of climate change and that the sustainability-related solutions being pursued to advance its climate goals will help mitigate several of these potential risks posed by the transition to a lower-carbon economy.
There can be no assurance of the extent to which any of our climate goals will be achieved or that any current or future investments that we make in furtherance of achieving our climate goals will produce the expected results or meet increasing stakeholder expectations. Moreover, future events could lead the Company to prioritize other nearer-term interests over progressing toward our current climate goals based on business strategy, economic, regulatory and social factors or pressure from investors, activist groups or other stakeholders. If we fail—or are perceived to fail—to meet or properly report on our progress toward achieving our climate change goals and commitments, we could face adverse publicity and reactions from other investors, activist groups, or other stakeholders, which could result in reputational harm or other adverse effects to the
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Company. In addition, the Company believes it is possible that, in the future, segments of the public may choose to fly less frequently as a result of negative perception of the environmental impact of air travel or fly on an airline based on carriers' GHG emissions or which carrier they perceive as operating in a manner that is more sustainable to the climate, which presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the Company and is why the Company is resolute in attaining its mid-term and long-term climate goals; if this trend materializes, the Company's results of operations could be adversely impacted and those impacts could be exacerbated if the Company fails to meet or properly report on its climate change goals and commitments. Moreover, the Company's primary effort with respect to one of its key pathways to achieving its climate goals is reducing its fossil jet fuel consumption by working with strategic partners to employ and commercialize the use of SAF, which is aligned with the sustainability commitments of the Company's corporate customers to mitigate their travel emissions in accordance with their respective climate goals. The Company has been able to increase its purchases of SAF in recent years due to its corporate customers' funding of the price premium for SAF through the Company's Eco-Skies Alliance, but the willingness of corporate customers to fund the price premium for SAF in the future could decrease, including based on economic factors or concerns regarding the validity of a book and claim approach for claiming the emissions reductions from SAF.
The Company may incur substantial costs and operational disruptions as a result of both its physical risks (such as extreme weather conditions or rising sea levels) and transition risks (such as regulatory or technological changes) associated with climate change. Climate change is expected to increase the frequency, severity, unpredictability and duration of severe weather events and other natural cycles and could affect travel demand as well as result in increases in delays and cancellations, turbulence-related injuries and fuel consumption to avoid such weather, any of which could result in a significant loss of revenue and higher costs. In addition, certain of our operations and facilities around the world are in locations that may be impacted by the physical impacts of climate change, increasing global chemical restrictions and bans and water and waste requirements and we could incur significant costs to improve the climate resiliency of our infrastructure and supply chain and otherwise prepare for, respond to, and mitigate the effects of climate change. We are not able to reasonably predict the future materiality of any potential losses or costs associated with the effects of climate change.
See Part I, Item 1. Business—Industry Regulation—Environmental Regulation, of this report for additional information on environmental regulation impacting the Company.
Market, Liquidity, Accounting and Financial Risks
High and/or volatile fuel prices or significant disruptions in the supply of aircraft fuel could have a material adverse impact on the Company's strategic plans, operating results, financial condition and liquidity.
Aircraft fuel is critical to the Company's operations and is one of our largest operating expenses. During the year ended December 31, 2022, the Company's fuel expense was approximately $13.1 billion. The timely and adequate supply of fuel to meet operational demand depends on the continued availability of reliable fuel supply sources as well as related service and delivery infrastructure. Although the Company has some ability to cover short-term fuel supply and infrastructure disruptions at some major demand locations, it depends significantly on the continued performance of its vendors and service providers to maintain supply integrity. Consequently, the Company can neither predict nor guarantee the continued timely availability of aircraft fuel throughout the Company's system.
Aircraft fuel has historically been the Company's most volatile operating expense due to the highly unpredictable nature of market prices for fuel. The Company generally sources fuel at prevailing market prices, which have historically fluctuated substantially in short periods of time and continue to be highly volatile due to a multitude of unpredictable factors beyond the Company's control, including changes in global crude oil prices, the balance between aircraft fuel supply and demand, natural disasters, prevailing inventory levels and fuel production and transportation infrastructure. Prices of fuel are also impacted by indirect factors, such as geopolitical events, economic growth indicators, fiscal/monetary policies, fuel tax policies, changes in regulations, environmental concerns and financial investments in energy markets. Both actual changes in these factors, as well as changes in related market expectations, can potentially drive rapid changes in fuel prices in short periods of time. Rising fuel prices can also lead to constraints on the Company's regional partners, reduced capital available for other spending or other outcomes that could adversely impact the Company.
Given the highly competitive nature of the airline industry, the Company historically had limited ability to, and may not be able to in the future, increase its fares and fees sufficiently to offset the full impact of increases in fuel prices, especially if these increases are significant, rapid and sustained. Further, any such fare or fee increase may not be sustainable, may reduce the general demand for air travel and may also eventually impact the Company's operations, strategic growth and investment plans for the future. In addition, decreases in fuel prices for an extended period of time may result in increased industry capacity, increased competitive actions for market share and lower fares or surcharges. If fuel prices were to then subsequently rise quickly, there may be a lag between the rise in fuel prices and any improvement of the revenue environment.
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The Company does not currently hedge its future fuel requirements. However, to the extent the Company decides to start a hedging program to hedge a portion of its future fuel requirements, such hedging program may not be successful in mitigating higher fuel costs and any price protection provided may be limited due to the choice of hedging instruments and market conditions, including breakdown of correlation between hedging instrument and market price of aircraft fuel and failure of hedge counterparties. To the extent that the Company decides to use hedge contracts that have the potential to create an obligation to pay upon settlement if fuel prices decline significantly, such hedge contracts may limit the Company's ability to benefit fully from lower fuel prices in the future. If fuel prices decline significantly from the levels existing at the time the Company enters into a hedge contract, the Company may be required to post collateral (margin) beyond certain thresholds. There can be no assurance that the Company's hedging arrangements, if any, would provide any particular level of protection against rises in fuel prices or that its counterparties will be able to perform under the Company's hedging arrangements. Additionally, deterioration in the Company's financial condition could negatively affect its ability to enter into hedge contracts in the future.
The Company has a significant amount of financial leverage from fixed obligations and insufficient liquidity may have a material adverse effect on the Company's financial condition and business.
The Company has a significant amount of financial leverage from fixed obligations, including aircraft lease and debt financings, leases of airport property, secured bonds, secured loan facilities and other facilities, and other material cash obligations. In addition, the Company has substantial noncancelable commitments for capital expenditures, including for the acquisition of new aircraft and related spare engines. If the Company's liquidity is materially diminished, the Company's substantial level of indebtedness, the Company's non-investment grade credit ratings and the lack of availability of Company assets as collateral for loans or other indebtedness may make it difficult for the Company to raise additional capital if needed to meet its liquidity needs on acceptable terms, or at all, and the Company may not be able to timely pay its leases and debts or comply with material provisions of its contractual obligations, including covenants under its financing and credit card processing agreements.
In addition to the foregoing, the degree to which we are leveraged could have important consequences to holders of our securities, including the following: (1) we must dedicate a substantial portion of cash flow from operations to the payment of principal and interest on applicable indebtedness, which, in turn, reduces funds available for operations and capital expenditures; (2) our flexibility in planning for, or reacting to, changes in the markets in which we compete may be limited; (3) we may be at a competitive disadvantage relative to our competitors with less indebtedness; (4) we are rendered more vulnerable to general adverse economic and industry conditions; (5) we are exposed to increased interest rate risk given that a portion of our indebtedness obligations are at variable interest rates; and (6) our credit ratings may be reduced and our debt and equity securities may significantly decrease in value.
See Part II, Item 7., Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, of this report for additional information regarding the Company's liquidity.
Agreements governing our debt include financial and other covenants. Failure to comply with these covenants could result in events of default.
Our financing agreements include various financial and other covenants. Certain of these covenants require UAL or United, as applicable, to maintain minimum liquidity and/or minimum collateral coverage ratios. UAL's or United's ability to comply with these covenants may be affected by events beyond its control, including the overall industry revenue environment, the level of fuel costs and the appraised value of the collateral. In addition, our financing agreements contain other negative covenants customary for such financings. If we fail to comply with these covenants and are unable to remedy or obtain a waiver or amendment, an event of default would result.
If an event of default were to occur, the lenders could, among other things, declare outstanding amounts immediately due and payable. In addition, an event of default or declaration of acceleration under one financing agreement could also result in an event of default under other of our financing agreements due to cross-default and cross-acceleration provisions. The acceleration of significant amounts of debt could require us to renegotiate, repay or refinance the obligations under our financing arrangements, and there can be no assurance that we will be able to do so on commercially reasonable terms or at all.
The MileagePlus Financing agreements in particular contain stringent covenants, limit our flexibility to manage our capital structure and limit our ability to make financial and operational changes to the MileagePlus program. If we were to default under the MileagePlus Financing agreements, the lenders' exercise of remedies could result in our loss of the MileagePlus program, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. As a result we may take actions to ensure that the MileagePlus Financing debt is satisfied or that the lenders' remedies under such debt are not exercised, potentially to the detriment of our other creditors.
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The proposed phase out of the London interbank offer rate could have a material adverse effect on us.
The Company is subject to market risks relating to the phase out of the London interbank offered rates ("LIBOR") and the transition into an index calculated by short-term repurchase agreements – the Secured Overnight Financing Rate ("SOFR") or another alternate reference rate. As of December 31, 2022, the Company had $12.8 billion in variable rate indebtedness, a significant portion of which still uses LIBOR as a benchmark for establishing applicable rates. In July 2017, the United Kingdom regulator that regulates LIBOR announced its intention to phase out LIBOR rates by the end of 2021. Subsequently, the ICE Benchmark Administration, in its capacity as administrator of USD-LIBOR, announced an extension of the publication of USD-LIBOR (other than one-week and two-month tenors) by 18 months through June 2023. Notwithstanding this extension, a joint statement by key regulatory authorities called on banks to cease entering into new contracts that use USD-LIBOR as a reference rate by no later than December 31, 2021. The Alternative Reference Rates Committee, a steering committee comprised of large U.S. financial institutions, has proposed replacing USD-LIBOR with SOFR. In March 2022, the U.S. enacted the Adjustable Interest Rate (LIBOR) Act, with publication in December 2022 by the Federal Reserve Board of related implementing rules, intended to provide a statutory framework to replace USD-LIBOR with a benchmark rate based on SOFR for contracts governed by U.S. law that have no or ineffective fallback provisions. Since January 1, 2022, our new floating rate debt facilities have generally utilized SOFR-based rates as the initial reference rate. However, we still have variable rate debt based on LIBOR. We have commenced the process of replacing LIBOR as a benchmark in such existing floating rate obligations, but there is no assurance that such replacements will be concluded, or will be concluded prior to LIBOR rates ceasing to be published. While many of our remaining LIBOR-based obligations provide for alternative methods of calculating the interest rate payable if LIBOR is not published, the extent and manner of any future changes with respect to methods of calculating LIBOR or replacing LIBOR with SOFR or with another benchmark remain uncertain. Although the Adjustable Interest Rate (LIBOR) Act provides for a SOFR fallback for certain such agreements, uncertainty exists around the extent to which this transition from USD-LIBOR, whether by amendment or application of this statute, will affect the interest rates in those agreements. We also have certain agreements that look to SOFR as an alternative interest rate method to LIBOR, with the potential for spread adjustments, and we cannot predict what the impact of these agreements and any transition to or use of SOFR could have on us. Although SOFR seems to be the most widely accepted replacement to LIBOR and SOFR based rates are presently the primary such replacement benchmark being implemented by the Company, both the application and the future of SOFR remain uncertain. We may be negatively impacted by renegotiated terms in connection with any replacements to LIBOR as a benchmark, which may adversely affect our interest rates and result in higher borrowing costs that we cannot predict.
The Company's ability to use its net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes to offset future taxable income for U.S. federal income tax purposes may be significantly limited due to various circumstances, including certain possible future transactions involving the sale or issuance of UAL common stock, or if taxable income does not reach sufficient levels.
As of December 31, 2022, UAL reported consolidated U.S. federal net operating loss ("NOL") carryforwards of approximately $13.2 billion. The Company's ability to use its NOL carryforwards and certain other tax attributes will depend on the amount of taxable income it generates in future periods and, as a result, certain of the Company's NOL carryforwards and other tax attributes may expire before it can generate sufficient taxable income to use them in full. In addition, the Company's ability to use its NOL carryforwards and certain other tax attributes to offset future taxable income may be limited if it experiences an "ownership change" as defined in Section 382 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. Potential future transactions involving the sale or issuance of UAL common stock may increase the possibility that the Company will experience a future "ownership change" under Section 382. Such transactions may include the exercise of warrants issued in connection with the CARES Act programs, the issuance of UAL common stock for cash, the conversion of any future convertible debt, the repurchase of any debt with the Company's common stock, the acquisition or disposition of any stock by a stockholder owning 5% or more of the outstanding shares of UAL common stock, or a combination of the foregoing.
The Company's stockholders approved a tax benefits preservation plan (the "Plan") in order to preserve the Company's ability to use its NOLs and certain other tax attributes to reduce potential future income tax obligations. The Plan is designed to reduce the likelihood that the Company experiences an "ownership change" by deterring certain acquisitions of Company securities. There is no assurance, however, that the deterrent mechanism in the Plan will be effective, and such acquisitions may still occur. In addition, the Plan may adversely affect the marketability of UAL common stock by discouraging existing or potential investors from acquiring UAL common stock or additional shares of UAL common stock because any non-exempt third party that acquires 4.9% or more of the then-outstanding shares of UAL common stock would suffer substantial dilution of its ownership interest in the Company.
The Company may never realize the full value of its intangible assets or its long-lived assets causing it to record impairments that may negatively affect its financial condition and operating results.
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In accordance with applicable accounting standards, the Company is required to test its indefinite-lived intangible assets for impairment on an annual basis, or more frequently where there is an indication of impairment, and certain of its other assets for impairment where there is any indication that an asset may be impaired. The Company may be required to recognize losses in the future due to, among other factors, extreme fuel price volatility, tight credit markets, government regulatory changes, decline in the fair values of certain tangible or intangible assets, such as our aircraft, route authorities, airport slots and frequent flyer database, unfavorable trends in historical or forecasted results of operations and cash flows and an uncertain economic environment, as well as other uncertainties. For example, during 2021, the Company recorded $97 million of impairments, which includes impairments resulting from current market conditions for used aircraft that are being held for sale and the decision to retire single-cabin 50-seat regional aircraft as a result of the 2021 United Next order. Also in 2020, the Company recognized $130 million of impairment charges related to its China routes, which were primarily caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company's subsequent suspension of flights to China and a further delay in the expected return of full capacity to the China markets. Adverse changes to our forecasted results could require the Company to recognize additional impairments to its China route indefinite-lived intangible assets in future periods. The Company can provide no assurance that a material impairment loss of tangible or intangible assets will not occur in a future period.
The price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly.
The closing price for our common stock has varied between a high of $53.12 and a low of $30.54 in the year ended December 31, 2022. Volatility in the market price of our common stock may prevent holders from selling shares at or above the prices paid for them. The market price of our common stock could fluctuate significantly for various reasons which include: the market reaction to another COVID-19-like pandemic and our responses thereto; the sale of substantial amounts of our common stock; changes in the prices or availability of oil or jet fuel; our quarterly or annual earnings or those of other companies in our industry; the public's reaction to our press releases, our other public announcements and our filings with the SEC; changes in our earnings or recommendations by research analysts who track our common stock or the stock of other airlines; changes in general conditions in the United States and global economy, financial markets or airline industry, including those resulting from changes in fuel prices or fuel shortages, war, incidents of terrorism, pandemics or responses to such events; changes in the competitive landscape for the airline industry, including any changes resulting from industry consolidation whether or not involving our Company; our liquidity position; and the other risks described in these "Risk Factors."
In addition, in recent periods, the stock market has experienced extreme declines and volatility. This volatility has had a significant negative impact on the market price of securities issued by many companies, including us and other companies in our industry.
The Company's operating results fluctuate due to seasonality and other factors associated with the airline industry, many of which are beyond the Company's control.
Due to greater demand for air travel during the spring and summer months, revenues in the airline industry in the second and third quarters of the year are generally stronger than revenues in the first and fourth quarters of the year, which are periods of lower travel demand. The Company's operating results generally reflect this seasonality but have also been impacted by numerous other factors that are not necessarily seasonal, including, among others, extreme or severe weather, outbreaks of disease, public health issues (including global health epidemics or pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the potential increased government restrictions and regulation), ATC congestion, geological events, political instability, terrorism, natural disasters, changes in the competitive environment due to industry consolidation, tax obligations, general economic conditions and other factors, as well as related consumer perceptions. As a result, the Company's quarterly operating results are not necessarily indicative of operating results for an entire year, and historical operating results in a quarterly or annual period are not necessarily indicative of future operating results. Major global public health issues, including pandemics such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have adversely affected, and could in the future adversely affect, the Company.
Increases in insurance costs or inadequate insurance coverage may materially and adversely impact our business, operating results and financial condition.
The Company maintains insurance policies, including, but not limited to, terrorism, aviation hull and liability, workers' compensation and property and business interruption insurance, but we are not fully insured against all potential hazards and risks incident to our business. If the Company is unable to obtain sufficient insurance with acceptable terms, the costs of such insurance increase materially, or if the coverage obtained is unable to pay or is insufficient relative to actual liability or losses that the Company experiences, whether due to insurance market conditions, policy limitations and exclusions or otherwise, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.
ITEM 1B.    UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS.
None.
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ITEM 2.    PROPERTIES.
Fleet. As of December 31, 2022, United's mainline and regional fleets consisted of the following:
Aircraft TypeTotalOwnedLeasedSeats in Standard Configuration Average Age
(In Years)
Mainline: 
777-300ER22 22 — 350 5.0 
777-200ER55 54 276-36222.8 
777-20019 19 — 364 25.5 
787-1019 19 — 318 2.5 
787-938 34 257 5.3 
787-812 12 — 243 9.5 
767-400ER16 16 — 231-24021.3 
767-300ER37 37 — 167-21426.8 
757-30021 12 234 20.3 
757-20040 36 169-17625.9 
737 MAX 948 32 16 179 2.0 
737 MAX 832 16 16 166 0.7 
737-900ER136 136 — 179 10.0 
737-90012 179 21.3 
737-800141 109 32 166 18.8 
737-70040 35 126 23.8 
A320-20099 86 13 150 24.4 
A319-10081 52 29 126 21.1 
Total mainline868 732 136 16.7 
In addition to the aircraft presented in the table above, United is leasing one Boeing 767-200 that is being subleased to a third party as of December 31, 2022.
Aircraft TypeTotalOwnedOwned or Leased by Regional CarrierRegional Carrier Operator and Number of AircraftSeats in Standard Configuration
Regional:  
Embraer E175/E175LL183 81 102 SkyWest:
Mesa:
Republic:
89
63
31
70/76
Embraer 17035 — 35 Republic:35 70 
CRJ70020 — 20 SkyWest:20 70 
CRJ55036 34 GoJet:36 50 
CRJ200133 — 133 SkyWest:
Air Wisconsin:
70
63
50 
Embraer ERJ 145XR63 63 — CommuteAir:63 50 
Total regional470 146 324 
In addition to the aircraft presented in the table above, United owned or leased the following regional aircraft as of December 31, 2022:
• 23 CRJ550s,18 Embraer E175LLs and 38 Embraer ERJ 145s that were temporarily grounded; and
• 8 CRJ700s awaiting conversion to CRJ550s.
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Firm Order and Option Aircraft. As of December 31, 2022, United had firm commitments to purchase aircraft from Boeing and Airbus presented in the table below:
Scheduled Aircraft Deliveries
Aircraft TypeNumber of Firm
 Commitments (a)
20232024After 2024
787102 92 
737 MAX433 135 88 210 
A321neo70 12 31 27 
A321XLR50 — — 50 
A35045 — — 45 
(a) United also has options and purchase rights for additional aircraft.
The aircraft listed in the table above are scheduled for delivery through 2033. 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. Airbus notified United that eight Airbus A321neo aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2023, as shown in the table above, are now expected to deliver in 2024, and Boeing notified United that 37 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2023, as shown in the table above, are now expected to deliver in 2024. Also, United estimates that an additional six Boeing 737 MAX aircraft scheduled for delivery in 2023, as shown in the table above, will deliver in 2024.
See Note 12 to the financial statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this report for additional information.
Facilities. United leases gates, hangar sites, terminal buildings and other airport facilities in the municipalities it serves. United has major terminal facility leases at SFO, IAD, ORD, LAX, DEN, EWR, IAH and GUM with expiration dates ranging from 2023 through 2053. Substantially all of these facilities are leased on a net-rental basis, resulting in the Company having financial responsibility for maintenance, insurance and other facility-related expenses and services.
United also maintains administrative, catering, cargo, training, maintenance and other facilities to support its operations in the cities it serves. In addition, United has multiple leases, which expire from 2029 through 2033, for its principal executive office and operations center in downtown Chicago and administrative offices in downtown Houston.
In 2022, United expanded its club footprint with new United Clubs in EWR, ORD and Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, as well as a new Polaris Club at IAD and announced a planned club expansion at DEN. United also added new operational support facilities with a new Inflight Training Center at IAH and new widebody hangar in LAX. Additionally, in January 2023, United opened new gates in DEN and ORD as well as EWR's New Terminal A.
ITEM 3.    LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.
The Company is involved in legal proceedings, including litigation, arbitration and other claims, and investigations, inspections, subpoenas, audits, inquiries and similar action, involving its passengers, customers, suppliers and employees as well as government agencies arising in the ordinary course of business and that have not been fully resolved. Legal proceedings, in general, and securities, class action and multi-district litigation, in particular, can be expensive and disruptive. Some of these suits may purport or may be determined to be class actions and/or involve parties seeking large and/or indeterminate amounts, including punitive or exemplary damages, and may remain unresolved for several years. Additionally, from time to time, the Company becomes aware of potential non-compliance with applicable environmental regulations, which have either been identified by the Company (through internal compliance programs such as its environmental compliance audits) or through notice from a governmental entity. In some instances, these matters could potentially become the subject of an administrative or judicial proceeding and could potentially involve monetary sanctions.
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 the ultimate disposition of any pending matter will not materially affect the Company's financial position, results of operations or cash flows. However, the ultimate resolutions of the Company's legal proceedings and other contingencies are inherently unpredictable and subject to significant uncertainties. There can be no assurance that there will not be an increase in the scope of one or more of these pending matters or any other or future lawsuits, claims, government investigations or other legal proceedings will not be material to the Company's financial position, results of
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operations or cash flows for a particular period. As such, the Company's financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected in any particular period by the unfavorable resolution of one or more of these matters.
Antitrust Litigation
On June 30, 2015, UAL received a Civil Investigative Demand ("CID") from the Antitrust Division of the DOJ seeking documents and information from the Company in connection with a DOJ investigation related to statements and decisions about airline capacity. The Company has completed its response to the CID. The Company is not able to predict what action, if any, might be taken in the future by the DOJ or other governmental authorities as a result of the investigation. Beginning on July 1, 2015, subsequent to the announcement of the CID, UAL and United were named as defendants in multiple class action lawsuits that asserted claims under the Sherman Antitrust Act, which have been consolidated in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The complaints generally allege collusion among U.S. airlines on capacity impacting airfares and seek treble damages. The Company is vigorously defending against the class action lawsuits.

ITEM 4.    MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES.
Not applicable.
PART II
 
ITEM 5.    MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES.
Market Information for Common Stock
UAL's common stock is listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market ("Nasdaq") under the symbol "UAL."
Holders of Common Stock
As of February 9, 2023, there were 5,885 holders of record of UAL common stock.
The number of record holders is based upon the actual number of holders registered on our books at such date based on information provided by Computershare Investor Services, our transfer agent, and does not include holders of shares in "street name" or other holders identified in security position listings maintained by depository trust companies.
Dividend Policy
There were no cash dividend payments during the year ended December 31, 2022 and we do not expect to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Future decisions to pay cash dividends continue to be at the discretion of the Board and will be dependent on our profitability expectations, net income, operating performance, financial condition, capital expenditure requirements and other factors that the Board considers relevant.
Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
In 2020, the Company's Board of Directors terminated the Company's share repurchase program. As such, the Company did not make any purchases of its common stock during the three months ended December 31, 2022.
Recent Sale of Unregistered Securities and Use of Proceeds
The Company did not sell any securities that were not registered under the Securities Act during the period covered by this report that have not been previously disclosed on a Form 10-Q or Form 8-K.
Stock Performance Graph
The following graph compares the cumulative total stockholder return during the period from December 31, 2017 to December 31, 2022 of UAL's common stock to the Standard and Poor's 500 Index ("SPX") and the NYSE Arca Airline Index ("XAL"). The comparison assumes $100 was invested on December 31, 2017 in our common stock and in each of the foregoing indices and assumes that all dividends were reinvested.
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https://cdn.kscope.io/126376df1f2155642e7b136eb66c3959-ual-20221231_g2.jpg
Note: The stock price performance shown in the graph above should not be considered indicative of potential future stock price performance. The foregoing performance graph is being furnished as part of this report solely in accordance with the requirement under Rule 14a-3(b)(9) to furnish our stockholders with such information, and therefore, shall not be deemed to be filed or incorporated by reference into any filings by the Company under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act.
ITEM 6.    [RESERVED]        


ITEM 7.    MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.
Management's discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations is provided as a supplement to and should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Form 10-K and the description of our business and reportable segments in Part I, Item 1. Business of this Form 10-K to enhance the understanding of our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.
This section generally discusses 2022 and 2021 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2022 and 2021. Discussions of 2020 items and year-to-year comparisons between 2021 and 2020 are not included in this Form 10-K and can be found in "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in Part II, Item 7 of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on February 18, 2022 (the "2021 Annual Report").
Executive Summary
Overview
United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "UAL" or the "Company") is a holding company and its wholly-owned subsidiary is United Airlines, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "United").
As UAL consolidates United for financial statement purposes, disclosures that relate to activities of United also apply to UAL, unless otherwise noted. United's operating revenues and operating expenses comprise nearly 100% of UAL's revenues and operating expenses. In addition, United comprises approximately the entire balance of UAL's assets, liabilities and operating
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cash flows. When appropriate, UAL and United are named specifically for their individual contractual obligations and related disclosures and any significant differences between the operations and results of UAL and United are separately disclosed and explained. We sometimes use the words "we," "our," "us," and the "Company" in this report for disclosures that relate to all of UAL and United.
Our business and operating results for 2022 continued to be negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the first half of the year. Given the more significant impact of the pandemic on our business and operating results in 2020 and 2021, we believe that a comparison of our 2022 results to 2019 for certain key metrics in this financial overview discussion is more reflective of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our current expectations described below are forward-looking statements and our actual results and timing may vary materially based on various factors that include, but are not limited to, those discussed below under "Economic and Market Factors" and "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K.
Strategy
Our shared purpose is "Connecting People. Uniting the World." We have the most comprehensive route network among North American carriers, including U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Our United Next plan is our fundamental strategic evolution for driving future growth that we believe will have a transformational effect on the customer experience and earnings power of our business. As part of our United Next plan, in June 2021 we announced our firm order for the purchase of 270 new Boeing and Airbus aircraft, which at the time was the largest combined order in the airline's history and the biggest by an individual carrier in the last decade. In December 2022, we announced the largest widebody order by a U.S. carrier in commercial aviation history (100 Boeing 787 Dreamliners with options to purchase 100 more), the exercise of options to purchase 44 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for delivery between 2024 and 2026, the firm orders of 56 more Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for delivery between 2027 and 2028 and the acquisition of an additional 100 options to purchase additional Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. We now expect to take delivery of about 700 new narrow and widebody aircraft by the end of 2033.
Our groundbreaking United Next strategy is expected to increase United's average gauge in North America, to increase the total number of available seats per departure and to significantly lower carbon emissions per seat. United will retrofit 100% of its mainline, narrow-body planes with its signature interior that includes seat-back entertainment in every seat, larger overhead bins for every passenger's carry-on bag and the industry's fastest available in-flight WiFi, as well as a bright look-and-feel with LED lighting. The carrier's international widebodies will feature the United Polaris® business class seat as well as United Premium Plus® seating. The Company plans to replace older, smaller mainline jets and at least 200 single-class regional jets with larger aircraft, which we expect will lead to fuel efficiency benefits compared to older planes, including an expected 17-25% lower carbon emissions per seat compared to older planes. We believe that United Next will allow us to differentiate our network and segment our products with a greater premium offering while also maintaining fare competitiveness with low-cost carriers.
The Company remains squarely focused on delivering on four strategic pillars:
United Next: Along with the items mentioned above, additional elements of the United Next plan include hiring over 50,000 new employees, expanding our leading global network to underserved countries and making significant technology changes designed to improve the customer experience and drive operational efficiency.
Operational excellence: The most important factor for customer satisfaction is on-time flights. We face some unique challenges in this respect because we operate hubs in the most congested and constrained airports in the country. That backdrop means that United needs to be a leader at using technology to overcome these challenges. We believe that we have been doing that, but we have a lot of ideas to continue making advancements in this area.
Adjusted cost per available seat mile ("CASM-ex"): We believe that our CASM-ex (a non-GAAP financial measure defined as cost or operating expense per available seat mile ("CASM") excluding fuel, profit sharing, third-party business expense and special charges (credits)) targets in connection with our United Next plan will be key in driving absolute and relative margin improvement. Moreover, having best-in-class CASM-ex performance is expected to provide the cash flow needed to support our planned investments in growth.
Customer service: We believe that excellent customer service is part of de-commoditizing air travel. Our people are our greatest asset and they are by far the most important part of our product. A great route network, new aircraft, great
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Wi-Fi, etc. are a necessary but not sufficient condition for a great brand. Ultimately our people provide customers with the service they expect.
Economic and Market Factors
The airline industry is highly competitive, marked by significant competition with respect to routes, fares, schedules (both timing and frequency), services, products, customer service and frequent flyer programs. We, like other companies in our industry, have been subject to these and other industry-specific competitive dynamics. In addition, our operations, supply chain, partners and suppliers have been subject to various global macroeconomic factors. We expect to continue to remain vulnerable to a number of industry-specific and global macroeconomic factors that may cause our actual results of operations to differ from our historical results of operations or current expectations. The factors and trends that we currently believe are or will be most impactful to our results of operations and financial condition include the following: the execution risks associated with our United Next plan; the impact on the Company of significant operational challenges by third parties on which we rely; rising inflationary pressures; labor market and supply chain constraints and related costs affecting us and our partners; volatile fuel prices; aircraft delivery delays; the lasting effects of the COVID-19 global pandemic and related governmental regulations and restrictions, that we believe will change how our customers fly in ways that we expect to be both positive and negative for the Company, including the lingering impact of the pandemic on the return of business and international—especially in our China market— travel demand to pre-COVID-19 levels; the closure of our flying airspace and termination of other operations due to regional conflicts, including the continuation of the suspension of our overflying in Russian airspace as well as third-party general sales agent services in Russia as a result of the Russia-Ukraine military conflict and an escalation of the broader economic consequences of the conflict beyond their current scope; and changes in general economic conditions in the markets in which the Company operates, including an economic downturn leading to a decrease in demand for air travel or fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates that may impact international travel demand. We continue to monitor the potential favorable or unfavorable impacts of these and other factors on our business, operations, financial condition and future results of operations, which are dependent on future developments, including as a result of those factors discussed in Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K. Our future results of operations may be subject to volatility and our growth plans may be delayed, particularly in the short term, due to the impact of the above factors and trends. For instance, we have delayed a portion of our previously planned capacity increases for full year 2023 in response to several factors and trends noted above and may need to implement further modifications. However, based on the current trend of our business operations, the Company believes that the long-term outlook for the Company remains positive due to the expected continued return of travel demand and the anticipated benefits by the United Next plan. Absent significant and prolonged COVID-19 relapses or global economic disruptions, we believe that the expected long-term increase in travel demand will offset increased costs and that the expected operational challenges can be managed in a manner that will allow us to support increased demand.
Despite the lingering effects of COVID-19 induced business interruptions, which has caused the Company's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic not to follow a linear path, we have seen increasing demand for travel both domestically and internationally in countries where entry is permitted as we operated at approximately 87% of our 2019 capacity during 2022. However, it remains difficult to reasonably assess or predict the full extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the broader economy and how consumer behavior may change—and whether such change is temporary or permanent. As a result, the Company's operational and financial performance, particularly in the short-term, may be subject to volatility in the future. Risks and uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic are further described in Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors.
Results of Operations
Select financial data and operating statistics are provided in the tables below:
(in millions)2022202120202019
Operating revenue$44,955 $24,634 $15,355 $43,259 
Operating expense42,618 25,656 21,714 38,958 
Operating income (loss)2,337 (1,022)(6,359)4,301 
Nonoperating expense, net(1,347)(1,535)(2,463)(387)
Income tax expense (benefit)253 (593)(1,753)905 
Net income (loss)$737 $(1,964)$(7,069)$3,009 

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2022202120202019
Passengers (thousands) (a)144,300104,08257,761162,443
Revenue passenger miles ("RPMs") (millions) (b)206,791128,97973,883239,360
Available seat miles ("ASMs") (millions) (c)
247,858178,684122,804284,999
Cargo revenue ton miles (millions) (d)3,0413,2852,7113,329
Passenger load factor (e)83.4 %72.2 %60.2 %84.0 %
Passenger revenue per available seat mile ("PRASM") (cents)16.1511.309.6113.90
Total revenue per available seat mile ("TRASM") (cents)18.1413.7912.5015.18
Average yield per revenue passenger mile ("Yield") (cents) (f)19.3615.6615.9816.55
CASM (cents)17.1914.3617.6813.67
CASM-ex (Non-GAAP) (cents)11.7312.9617.1310.21
Average stage length (miles) (g)1,4371,3151,3071,460
Employee headcount, as of December 3192,80084,10074,40095,900
(a)The number of revenue passengers measured by each flight segment flown.
(b)The number of scheduled miles flown by revenue passengers.
(c)The number of seats available for passengers multiplied by the number of scheduled miles those seats are flown.
(d)The number of cargo revenue tons transported multiplied by the number of miles flown.
(e)RPMs divided by ASMs.
(f)The average passenger revenue received for each revenue passenger mile flown.
(g)Average stage length equals the average distance a flight travels weighted for size of aircraft.
Operating Revenue. The table below illustrates the year-over-year percentage change in the Company's operating revenues for the years ended December 31 (in millions, except percentage changes):
20222021Increase (Decrease)% Change
Passenger revenue$40,032 $20,197 $19,835 98.2 
Cargo2,171 2,349 (178)(7.6)
Other operating revenue2,752 2,088 664 31.8 
Total operating revenue$44,955 $24,634 $20,321 82.5 
The table below presents passenger revenue and select operating data of the Company, broken out by geographic region, expressed as year-over-year changes:
Increase (decrease) from 2021:
DomesticAtlanticPacific
Latin
Total
Passenger revenue (in millions)$11,104 $5,634 $1,513 $1,584 $19,835 
Passenger revenue74.9 %244.3 %247.2 %64.3 %98.2 %
Average fare per passenger31.2 %21.6 %4.8 %35.4 %43.0 %
Yield27.0 %31.8 %(15.1)%24.6 %23.6 %
PRASM36.0 %80.9 %100.0 %50.5 %42.9 %
Passengers33.3 %183.1 %231.5 %21.4 %38.6 %
RPMs37.8 %161.3 %309.0 %31.8 %60.3 %
ASMs28.7 %90.3 %73.4 %9.1 %38.7 %
Passenger load factor (points)5.6 22.5 39.3 14.4 11.2 
Passenger revenue increased $19.8 billion, or 98.2%, in 2022 as compared to 2021, primarily due to the ongoing recovery in air travel which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and strength in the pricing environment as a result of inflationary pressures on fuel prices and other costs.
Cargo revenue decreased $178 million, or 7.6%, in 2022 as compared to 2021, primarily due to lower yields as a result of increased market capacity. Cargo revenue was especially high in 2021 due to the limited market capacity, lower passenger load factors and the utilization of cargo-only flights in the first half of 2021.
Other operating revenue increased $664 million, or 31.8%, in 2022 as compared to 2021, primarily due to an increase in mileage revenue from non-airline partners, including credit card spending recovery with our co-branded credit card partner,
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JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. ("Chase"), as well as an increase in the purchases of United Club memberships and lounge passes in the current year.
Operating Expense. The table below includes data related to the Company's operating expense for the years ended December 31 (in millions, except percentage changes):
20222021Increase (Decrease)% Change
Aircraft fuel$13,113 $5,755 $7,358 127.9 
Salaries and related costs11,466 9,566 1,900 19.9 
Landing fees and other rent2,576 2,416 160 6.6 
Depreciation and amortization2,456 2,485 (29)(1.2)
Regional capacity purchase2,299 2,147 152 7.1 
Aircraft maintenance materials and outside repairs2,153 1,316 837 63.6 
Distribution expenses1,535 677 858 126.7 
Aircraft rent252 228 24 10.5 
Special charges (credits)140 (3,367)(3,507)NM
Other operating expenses6,628 4,433 2,195 49.5 
Total operating expenses$42,618 $25,656 $16,962 66.1 
Aircraft fuel expense increased $7.4 billion, or 127.9%, in 2022 as compared to 2021, primarily due to both a higher average price per gallon of fuel and increased consumption from higher flight activity. The table below presents the significant changes in aircraft fuel cost per gallon for the years ended December 31 (in millions, except percentage changes and per gallon data):
20222021% Change
Fuel expense$13,113 $5,755 127.9 
Total fuel consumption (gallons)3,608 2,729 32.2 
Average price per gallon$3.63 $2.11 72.0 
Salaries and related costs increased $1.9 billion, or 19.9%, in 2022 as compared to 2021, primarily due to an approximately 10% increase in headcount, volume-driven pay from increased flight activity, an increase in employee incentive accruals due to current year profitability (including profit sharing of $133 million in 2022) and $405 million of employee retention credits under the CARES Act in 2021 that did not reoccur in 2022.
Landing fees and other rent increased $160 million, or 6.6%, in 2022 as compared to 2021, primarily due to an increase in landed weight volume as a result of increased flight activity.
Regional capacity purchase costs increased $152 million, or 7.1%, in 2022 as compared to 2021, primarily due to rate increases.
Aircraft maintenance materials and outside repairs increased $837 million, or 63.6%, in 2022 as compared to 2021, primarily due to higher volumes of flying, increased engine overhauls, higher repair volumes, heavy airframe checks and contractual rate escalations.
Distribution expenses increased $858 million, or 126.7%, in 2022 as compared to 2021, primarily due to higher credit card fees, higher travel agency commissions and higher volumes of global distribution fees as a result of the overall increase in passenger revenue. Distribution expenses were also impacted by a higher proportion of business travel as compared to leisure travel, which can result in higher cost distribution channels and forms of payment.
The table below presents special charges (credits) recorded by the Company during the years ended December 31 (in millions):
20222021
CARES Act grant$— $(4,021)
Severance and benefit costs— 438 
Impairment of assets— 97 
(Gains) losses on sale of assets and other special charges140 119 
Total special charges (credits)$140 $(3,367)
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See Note 13 to the financial statements included in Part II, Item 8 of this report for additional information.
Other operating expenses increased $2.2 billion, or 49.5%, in 2022 as compared to 2021, primarily due to increases in ground handling, passenger services, food and beverage offerings, navigation fees and personnel-related costs as a direct result of the increase in flight activity and inflationary pressures and higher expenditures on information technology projects and services.
Nonoperating Income (Expense). The following table illustrates the year-over-year dollar and percentage changes in the Company's nonoperating income (expense) for the years ended December 31 (in millions, except percentage changes):
20222021Increase (Decrease)% Change
Interest expense$(1,778)$(1,657)$121 7.3 
Interest income298 36 262 NM
Interest capitalized105 80 25 31.3 
Unrealized gains (losses) on investments, net20 (34)(54)(158.8)