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Combined Notes to the Financial Statements (Unaudited)
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2020
Unusual or Infrequent Items, or Both [Abstract]  
COMBINED NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (UNAUDITED)
COMBINED NOTES TO CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (UNAUDITED)
United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "UAL" or the "Company") is a holding company and its principal, wholly-owned subsidiary is United Airlines, Inc. (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, "United"). This Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q is a combined report of UAL and United, including their respective consolidated financial statements. 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 UAL and United unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements shown here have been prepared as required by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Some information and footnote disclosures normally included in financial statements that comply with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States ("GAAP") have been condensed or omitted as permitted by the SEC. The financial statements include all adjustments, including normal recurring adjustments and other adjustments, which are considered necessary for a fair presentation of the Company's financial position and results of operations. The UAL and United financial statements should be read together with the information included in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019 (the "2019 Form 10-K"). The Company's quarterly financial data is subject to seasonal fluctuations. Historically its second and third quarter financial results have reflected higher travel demand, and were better than its first and fourth quarter financial results; however, see Part I, Item 2 of this report for additional discussion regarding trends associated with the matters discussed in the "Recent Developments" section below.
Recent Developments
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, together with the measures implemented by governmental authorities and private organizations in response to the pandemic, has had an adverse impact that has been material to the Company's business, operating results, financial condition and liquidity. Measures such as "shelter in place" or quarantine requirements, international and domestic travel restrictions or advisories, limitations on public gatherings, social distancing recommendations, remote work arrangements and closures of tourist destinations and attractions, as well as consumer perceptions of the safety, ease and predictability of air travel, have contributed to a precipitous decline in passenger demand and bookings for both business and leisure travel.
The Company began experiencing a significant decline in international and domestic demand related to COVID-19 during the first quarter of 2020. The decline in demand caused a material deterioration in our revenues in the first nine months of 2020, resulting in a net loss of $5.2 billion for that period. Although during the third quarter of 2020 the Company experienced modest improvement in demand, the full extent of the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on the Company's longer-term operational and financial performance will depend on future developments, including those outside our control related to possible increases in COVID-19 cases and/or new quarantine requirements being imposed in certain jurisdictions or other restrictions on travel, all of which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted with certainty.
In response to decreased demand, the Company cut, relative to 2019 capacity, approximately 70% of its scheduled capacity for the third quarter of 2020. The Company expects scheduled capacity to be down approximately 55% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2020. The Company plans to continue to proactively evaluate and cancel flights on a rolling 60-day basis until it sees signs of a recovery in demand and expects demand to remain suppressed and plateau at levels around 50%, relative to 2019 levels, until an accepted treatment and/or vaccine for COVID-19 is widely available. In addition, the Company does not currently expect the recovery from COVID-19 to follow a linear path. As such, the Company's actual flown capacity may differ materially from its currently scheduled capacity.
The Company has taken a number of actions in response to the decreased demand for air travel. In addition to the schedule reductions discussed above, the Company has:
reduced its planned capital expenditures and reduced operating expenditures for the remainder of 2020 and 2021 (including by postponing projects deemed non-critical to the Company's operations);
terminated its share repurchase program;
issued approximately $10.2 billion in secured notes, secured term loan facilities and new aircraft financings;
borrowed $1.0 billion under the $2.0 billion revolving credit facility of the Amended and Restated Credit and Guaranty Agreement (the "Revolving Credit Agreement");
raised approximately $1.1 billion in cash proceeds in an underwritten public offering of UAL common stock;
entered into an equity distribution agreement relating to the issuance and sale, from time to time, of up to 28 million shares of UAL common stock;
entered into agreements to finance certain aircraft currently subject to purchase agreements through sale and leaseback transactions;
elected to defer the payment of $140 million in payroll taxes incurred through September 30, 2020, as provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the "CARES Act"), until 2021 and 2022;
temporarily grounded certain of its mainline fleet; and
taken a number of actions to reduce employee-related costs, including, among other items, the Company's Chief Executive Officer and President waived 100% of their respective base salaries through 2020, other officers temporarily waived a portion of their base salaries, the Company's non-employee directors waived 100% of their cash compensation for the second and third quarters of 2020, the Company suspended merit salary increases for 2020 and implemented a temporary four-day work week for management and administrative employees and the Company offered voluntary unpaid leaves of absence.
In addition, and as announced in July 2020, the Company started the involuntary furlough process earlier this summer when issuing Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification ("WARN") Act notices to 36,000 of its employees. Since then, the Company worked to reduce the total number of furloughs to approximately 13,000 employees by working closely with its union partners, introducing new voluntary options selected by approximately 9,000 employees and proposing creative solutions that would save jobs. This workforce reduction is part of the Company's strategic realignment of its business and new organizational structure as a result of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Company's operations and cost structure.
The Company continues to focus on reducing expenses and managing its liquidity. We expect to continue to modify our cost management structure and capacity as the timing of demand recovery becomes more certain.
On March 27, 2020, the President of the United States signed the CARES Act into law. The CARES Act is intended to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the economy, public health, state and local governments, individuals, and businesses. The CARES Act also provides supplemental appropriations for federal agencies to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 20, 2020, United entered into a Payroll Support Program Agreement (the "PSP Agreement") with the U.S. Treasury Department ("Treasury") providing the Company with total funding of approximately $5.1 billion pursuant to the Payroll Support Program under the CARES Act. These funds will be used to pay for the salaries and benefits of United employees. Approximately $3.6 billion of the $5.1 billion was a direct grant and approximately $1.5 billion is in the form of a 10-year senior unsecured promissory note (the "PSP Note"). As of September 30, 2020, the Company has received the full amount of the $5.1 billion through the Payroll Support Program under the CARES Act. As of September 30, 2020, the Company recorded $3.1 billion in grant income as Special charges (credit) on the Company's statement of consolidated operations and recorded $453 million as Payroll Support Program deferred credit on the Company's consolidated balance sheet. The Company also recorded $66 million in warrants issued to Treasury, within stockholders' equity, in connection with the PSP Note. See Note 3 and Note 10 to the financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 for additional information related to these warrants and the PSP Note, respectively.
On September 28, 2020, UAL and United entered into a loan agreement with Treasury. The agreement provides for a term loan facility of up to approximately $5.2 billion (the "Term Loan Facility") pursuant to the loan program established under Section 4003(b) of the CARES Act (the "Loan Program"). The loans (the "Term Loans") may be disbursed in up to three disbursements on or before March 26, 2021. Treasury has advised United that it intends to allocate additional loan commitments under the CARES Act in October 2020, and that it expects that such additional allocations will increase the amount available under the Term Loan Facility to up to $7.5 billion in the aggregate. Such increase, and the amount thereof, are subject to final approval by Treasury and both the availability of, and agreement on, collateral. On September 28, 2020, United borrowed, and recorded as Long-term debt on the Company's consolidated balance sheet, $520 million under the Term Loan Facility, the proceeds of which were used to pay certain transaction fees and expenses, and for working capital and other general corporate purposes of the Company. See Note 3 to the financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 for a discussion on the warrants issued in connection with the Term Loans and Note 10 to the financial statements included in Part I, Item 1 for a discussion on the Term Loans.
Under the PSP Agreement and Loan Program, the Company and its business are subject to certain restrictions, including, but not limited to, restrictions on the payment of dividends and the ability to repurchase UAL's equity securities, requirements to maintain certain levels of scheduled service, requirements to maintain U.S. employment levels through September 30, 2020 and certain limitations on executive compensation.