NOTE 15 - COMMITMENTS AND CONTINGENCIES

Commitments. As of December 31, 2014, United had firm commitments to purchase aircraft from The Boeing Company (“Boeing”), Embraer and Airbus S.A.S. (“Airbus”) presented in the table below:


Aircraft Type	Number of Firm Commitments (a) (b)
Airbus A350-1000		35
Boeing 737-900ER		34
Boeing 737 MAX 9		100
Boeing 787-9/-10		51
Embraer E175		11
(a) United also has options and purchase rights for additional aircraft. (b) United also has committed to purchase two used 737-700 aircraft in 2015.

The aircraft listed in the table above are scheduled for delivery from 2015 through 2025.

The table below summarizes United’s commitments as of December 31, 2014 (including those assigned from UAL), which primarily relate to the acquisition of aircraft and related spare engines, aircraft improvements and include other commitments primarily to acquire information technology services and assets for the years ended December 31 (in billions):


2015	$	3.2
2016		2.3
2017		1.3
2018		2.2
2019		3.3
After 2019		10.7

	$	23.0

Any incremental firm aircraft orders, including through the exercise of purchase options and purchase rights, will increase the total future capital commitments of the Company.

As of December 31, 2014, United has arranged for EETC financing for 20 of our 2015 aircraft deliveries, including 11 Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, four Boeing 787-9 aircraft and five Embraer E175 aircraft. In addition, United has secured backstop financing commitments from certain of its aircraft manufacturers for a limited number of its future aircraft deliveries, subject to certain customary conditions. Financing will be necessary to satisfy the Company’s capital commitments for its firm order aircraft and other related capital expenditures.

Legal and Environmental. The Company has certain contingencies resulting from litigation and claims incident to the ordinary course of business. 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 the ultimate disposition of the litigation and claims will not materially affect the Company’s consolidated financial position or results of operations. The Company records liabilities for legal and environmental claims when a loss is probable and reasonably estimable. These amounts are recorded based on the Company’s assessments of the likelihood of their eventual disposition.

Guarantees and Indemnifications. In the normal course of business, the Company enters into numerous real estate leasing and aircraft financing arrangements that have various guarantees included in the contracts. These guarantees are primarily in the form of indemnities under which the Company typically indemnifies the lessors and any tax/financing parties against tort liabilities that arise out of the use, occupancy, operation or maintenance of the leased premises or financed aircraft. Currently, the Company believes that any future payments required under these guarantees or indemnities would be immaterial, as most tort liabilities and related indemnities are covered by insurance (subject to deductibles). Additionally, certain leased premises such as fueling stations or storage facilities include indemnities of such parties for any environmental liability that may arise out of or relate to the use of the leased premises.

As of December 31, 2014, United is the guarantor of approximately $1.8 billion in aggregate principal amount of tax-exempt special facilities revenue bonds and interest thereon. These bonds, issued by various airport municipalities, are payable solely from rentals paid under long-term agreements with the respective governing bodies. The leasing arrangements associated with $1.5 billion of these obligations are accounted for as operating leases with the associated expense recorded on a straight-line basis resulting in ratable accrual of the lease obligation over the expected lease term. These tax-exempt special facilities revenue bonds are included in our lease commitments disclosed in Note 13 of this report. The leasing arrangements associated with $290 million of these obligations are accounted for as capital leases. All of these bonds are due between 2015 and 2038.

In United’s financing transactions that include loans, United typically agrees to reimburse lenders for any reduced returns with respect to the loans due to any change in capital requirements and, in the case of loans in which the interest rate is based on LIBOR, for certain other increased costs that the lenders incur in carrying these loans as a result of any change in law, subject in most cases to obligations of the lenders to take certain limited steps to mitigate the requirement for, or the amount of, such increased costs. At December 31, 2014, the Company had $2.5 billion of floating rate debt and $159 million of fixed rate debt, with remaining terms of up to twelve years, that are subject to these increased cost provisions. In several financing transactions involving loans or leases from non-U.S. entities, with remaining terms of up to twelve years and an aggregate balance of $2.7 billion, the Company bears the risk of any change in tax laws that would subject loan or lease payments thereunder to non-U.S. entities to withholding taxes, subject to customary exclusions.

Fuel Consortia. United participates in numerous fuel consortia with other air carriers at major airports to reduce the costs of fuel distribution and storage. Interline agreements govern the rights and responsibilities of the consortia members and provide for the allocation of the overall costs to operate the consortia based on usage. The consortia (and in limited cases, the participating carriers) have entered into long-term agreements to lease certain airport fuel storage and distribution facilities that are typically financed through tax-exempt bonds (either special facilities lease revenue bonds or general airport revenue bonds), issued by various local municipalities. In general, each consortium lease agreement requires the consortium to make lease payments in amounts sufficient to pay the maturing principal and interest payments on the bonds. As of December 31, 2014, approximately $1.4 billion principal amount of such bonds were secured by significant fuel facility leases in which United participates, as to which United and each of the signatory airlines has provided indirect guarantees of the debt. As of December 31, 2014, the Company’s contingent exposure was approximately $239 million principal amount of such bonds based on its recent consortia participation. The Company’s contingent exposure could increase if the participation of other air carriers decreases. The guarantees will expire when the tax-exempt bonds are paid in full, which ranges from 2015 to 2041. The Company did not record a liability at the time these indirect guarantees were made.

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

Labor Negotiations. As of December 31, 2014, United, including its subsidiaries, had approximately 84,000 employees. Approximately 80% of United’s employees were represented by various U.S. labor organizations as of December 31, 2014. During 2014, United’s maintenance instructor, load planner, fleet technical instructor, security officer and dispatcher work groups ratified new joint labor agreements. We are in the process of negotiating joint collective bargaining agreements with our technicians and flight attendants.