Supply chain resilience
Through our responsible supply chain strategy, we identify, assess and mitigate critical risks that could impact our supply chain resiliency as well as our ability to maintain a reliable supply to our operations.
Responsible supply chain strategy
Serving 175 million customers across more than 370 destinations annually presents risks and opportunities that demand a world-class global supply chain. We continue to build a responsible sourcing program that identifies, assesses and mitigates risks that could impact our supply chain resiliency by implementing fair and transparent employment and procurement practices. These practices continually evolve to ensure relevant topics are prioritized and corresponding compliance obligations are addressed. Our commitment to responsibility begins with compliance and extends to a due diligence and assessment process that requires proactive suppliers and is designed to mitigate supplier-related risks. Our responsible sourcing program also focuses on growing and cultivating relationships that are in alignment with our business objectives and strategies — all the way across our supply chain.
Partner and Supplier Guiding Principles
Our Partner and Supplier Guiding Principles outline the expectations United has for ethical conduct across our supply chain. These standards ask suppliers to comply with all applicable laws, uphold internationally recognized human rights, and maintain workplaces free from discrimination, harassment and abuse.
Suppliers are expected to meet these requirements to remain eligible for future business. This ensures that our partnerships support a safe, dependable and responsible travel experience for our customers.
Supply chain risk management
Our Supplier Risk Management (SRM) program strengthens safety, operational reliability and integrity, and supply chain performance by further embedding risk-mitigation into the procurement process. By identifying supplier risks that could disrupt operations, compromise safety or create regulatory exposure, the program helps ensure operational continuity and customer trust. Suppliers are evaluated across key risk dimensions, including ethics and compliance, financial, cybersecurity and geopolitical exposure.
We are developing and deploying technologies that enhance our understanding of potential supply chain risks to enable more timely decision-making. For instance, as of the end of 2025, we had completed approximately 1,800 data-driven assessments of our current suppliers across six risk dimensions — and around 200 internal risk evaluations capturing United-specific operational and cybersecurity exposure. These risk insights will be used to identify potential high-risk suppliers, reduce disruptions and improve supply-chain predictability. Over the next three years, we plan to broaden the categories used in our supplier assessments and extend the assessments to sub-tier suppliers across the supply chains.
Evolved Supplier Risk Management (SRM) program
to strengthen safety, reliability, integrity and supply chain performance
Benefits of SRM
helps identify potential high-risk suppliers, reduce disruptions and improve supply-chain predictability
Strengthening environmental accountability across our supply chain
United seeks to advance sustainability across our supply chain with accountability for environmental compliance at the core. Our approach to supply chain risk management requires suppliers to verify compliance with applicable environmental laws and regulations. United also aims to drive accountability by seeking transparency into prospective suppliers’ environmental impact, such as Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and environmental risk assessment in their own supply chains.
Learn more
Get more information on our environmental initiatives in the Environmental Sustainability section.
Human rights in our supply chain
We are committed to the protection and advancement of human rights in our global operations and supply chain. This commitment — along with policies and practices designed to identify and address human rights risks in our supply chain — are outlined in our downloadable Anti-Slavery and Anti-Human Trafficking Statement.
Support for small businesses
United continues to strengthen its supply chain by engaging small businesses whose innovation, agility and specialized capabilities enhance our operations. Supporting small businesses also strengthens local economies and builds resilience in the communities that we serve. In 2025, United increased its small-business spend by 24%, leveraging the scale of our supply chain and network investments to help stimulate economic development at the community level. This growth reflects our commitment to partnering with the most qualified suppliers while simultaneously building a more adaptable and inclusive supply chain.
Next steps
While we are proud of our progress to date, our responsible sourcing journey is far from over. Effective supply chain management is vital to our success. As we move into 2026 and beyond, we will continue to strengthen our supply chain resilience strategy through an expanded supplier risk management program and partnerships, reinforcement of human rights protections and partnerships with existing and new small businesses.
