Further, Congress has proposed the FAIR Fees Act, which would direct the DOT to prescribe regulations prohibiting an air carrier from imposing change or cancellation fees that are unreasonable or disproportional to the costs incurred by the carrier, as well as establish standards for assessing whether all other fees are reasonable and proportional to the costs incurred by the air carrier.

Present and potential future security requirements can have the effect of imposing costs and inconvenience on travelers, potentially reducing the demand for air travel.

Thehundreds of flights traversing the greater Washington, D.C. airspace.

provides airlines from the U.S. and EU member states open access to each other’s markets, with freedom of pricing and unlimited rights to fly from the U.S. to any airport in the EU, including LHR. As a result of the agreement, we face increased competition in these markets, including LHR. ChangesThe pending withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU, commonly referred to as Brexit, will mandate further modification in the current regulatory regime. Among other things, Brexit will likely require a transition arrangement or new air services agreement involving the U.S. and United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom and EU, to permit our current air services (including those involving our joint business and code share partners) to continue as we currently conduct them. More generally, changes in U.S. or foreign government aviation policies could result in the alteration or termination of such agreements, diminish the value of route authorities, slots or other assets located abroad, or otherwise adversely affect our international operations. The U.S. government has negotiated “open skies” agreements with many countries, which allow unrestricted route authority access between the U.S. and the foreign markets. While the U.S. has worked to increase the number of countries with which open skies agreements are in effect, a number of markets important to us, including China, do not have open skies agreements.

The

the U.S., the EU or in other areas in which we do business. However, such climate change-related regulatory activity in the future may adversely affect our business and financial results by requiring us to reduce our emissions, purchase allowances or otherwise pay for our emissions. Such activity may also impact us indirectly by increasing our operating costs, including fuel costs.

We rely heavily on technology and automated systems to operate our business, and any failure of these technologies or systems could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We are highly dependent on technology and automated systems to operate our business. These technologies and systems include our computerized airline reservation system, flight operations systems, financial planning, management and accounting systems, telecommunications systems, website, maintenance systems andcheck-in kiosks. In order for our operations to work efficiently, our website and reservation system must be able to accommodate a high volume of traffic, maintain secure information and deliver flight information, as well as issue electronic tickets and process critical financial information in a timely manner. Substantially all of our tickets are issued to passengers as electronic tickets. We depend on our reservation system, which is hosted and maintained under a long-term contract by a third-party service provider, to be able to issue, track and accept these electronic tickets. If our automated systems are not functioning or if our third-party service providers were to fail to adequately provide technical support, system maintenance or timely software upgrades for any one of our key existing systems, we could experience service disruptions or delays, which could harm our business and result in the loss of important data, increase our expenses and decrease our revenues. In the event that one or more of our primary technology or systems vendors goes into bankruptcy, ceases operations or fails to perform as promised, replacement services may not be readily available on a timely basis, at competitive rates or at all, and any transition time to a new system may be significant.

Our automated systems cannot be completely protected against other events that are beyond our control, including natural disasters, power failures, terrorist attacks, cyber-attacks, data theft, equipment and software failures, computer viruses or telecommunications failures. Substantial or sustained system failures could cause service delays or failures and result in our customers purchasing tickets from other airlines. We cannot assure you that our security measures, change control procedures or disaster recovery plans are adequate to prevent disruptions or delays. Disruption in or changes to these systems could result in a disruption to our business and the loss of important data. Any of the foregoing could result in a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

from the Chapter 11 Cases and US Airways Group experienced an ownership change in connection with the Merger. The general limitation rules for a debtor in a bankruptcy case are liberalized where the ownership change occurs upon emergence from bankruptcy. We elected to be covered by certain special rules for federal income tax purposes that permitted approximately $9.0 billion (with $8.9$8.4 billion of unlimited NOL still remaining at December 31, 2016)2017) of our federal NOL Carryforwards to be utilized without regard to the annual limitation generally imposed by Section 382. If the special rules are determined not to apply, our ability to utilize such federal NOL Carryforwards may be subject to limitation. Substantially all of our remaining federal NOL Carryforwards (attributable to US Airways Group and its subsidiaries) are subject to limitation under Section 382 as a result of the Merger; however, our ability to utilize such NOL Carryforwards is not anticipated to be effectively constrained as a result of such limitation. Similar limitations may apply for state income tax purposes.

repurchase program and any future dividends could cause our stock price to be higher than it would otherwise be and could potentially reduce the market liquidity for our stock. Additionally, our share repurchase programs and any future repurchases of common stock or dividends will diminish our cash reserves, which may impact our ability to finance future growth and to pursue possible future strategic opportunities and acquisitions. Further, our share repurchase programsof common stock may fluctuate such that our cash flow may be insufficient to fully cover our share repurchases. Although our share repurchase programs are intended to enhance long-term stockholder value, there is no assurance that it will do so because the market price of our common stock may decline below the levels at which we repurchased shares of stock and short-term stock price fluctuations could reduce the program’s effectiveness.