Houston sets special facilities revenue bond sale for United Airlines

Houston will sell up to $690 million of special facilities revenue bonds for United Airlines later this month after the city council approved the debt issuance on Wednesday.

The bonds, which are subject to the alternative minimum tax, are secured by United’s special facility lease payments, according to city council documents.

About $220 million of bonds will finance a larger catering operations facility for United at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, while another approximately $180 million of bonds will finance construction and equipping of a replacement ground services equipment facility for the airline, which is the airport’s biggest carrier. 

Up to $290 million of bonds will defease and refund outstanding Series 2011 and Series 2015B-1 AMT bonds that financed terminal projects for Continental Airlines and United.

The bonds are scheduled to price Nov. 18 with Bank of America Securities leading an underwriting team consisting of senior managers JPMorgan, Loop Capital Markets, Raymond James, and Morgan Stanley, and co-managers RBC Capital Markets, Siebert Williams Shank, and Mesirow Financial.

In November 2024, Houston sold its biggest special facilities revenue bond sale — a $1.1 billion AMT issue backed by junk-rated United to finance terminal projects. Those bonds were rated BB-minus by Fitch Ratings. Moody’s Ratings gave the deal a Ba3 rating, which was a notch below United’s corporate rating of Ba2.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, United guaranteed about $2.9 billion of tax-exempt special facility revenue bonds issued for various airports.