United Airlines buys from outside vendors for almost everything that isn't flying the plane. Catering, cabin interiors, ground equipment, uniforms, IT services, facilities, marketing, professional services. The airline spends billions a year across that supply base, and a meaningful slice of it is steered toward small and diverse-owned businesses through a supplier diversity program that's been running for roughly 60 years. United was a founding member of the Chicago Minority Supplier Development Council. This is not a program someone bolted on last year to look good.
That history matters for one practical reason. United has a real registration process, a dedicated team, and clear rules about which certifications it recognizes. You don't have to guess who to email. Here's the path.
Start with the registration portals, not a cold emailUnited routes prospective suppliers through two front doors, and you should know which is which.
The first is the United Supplier Diversity Portal, hosted on a platform branded STARS (you'll see it at united.starssmp.com). This is where certified diverse-owned businesses register their profile and certification status with United's supplier diversity team. The same portal is where existing suppliers report their second-tier diversity spend, which we'll get to.
The second is SupplierOne, United's registration page on the Supplier.io platform (unitedairlines.supplierone.co). Supplier.io is the supplier-intelligence system United uses to discover and validate vendors, and SupplierOne is the free profile that puts you in front of United's buyers. Registering there is fast and costs nothing.
Register on both if you qualify. The supplier diversity portal puts you in front of the diversity team; the SupplierOne profile puts you in the database buyers actually search when they have a need.
For questions, United publishes a direct line: supplierdiversity@united.com, with program details at united.com/supplierdiversity. Use it. A short, specific note about what you sell and which certifications you hold lands better than a generic capability deck.
One requirement to check before you register: a US headquartersUnited's supplier diversity registration is open to companies with their corporate headquarters in the United States. If your business is headquartered abroad, the diversity track isn't the right door, though United still buys internationally through its standard procurement channels.
Confirm this before you spend time on the application. It's the most common reason a registration stalls before it starts.
Which certifications United acceptsThis is the part most owners get wrong. United does not take your word that you're a minority-owned or woman-owned business. It requires proof of certification from a recognized third-party certifying body. Self-attestation doesn't count for the diversity program.
The certifications United recognizes cover the full range of diverse and small-business categories:
- Minority-owned (MBE) through the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) and its regional affiliates
- Woman-owned (WBE) through the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC)
- LGBT-owned (LGBTBE) through the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC)
- Service-disabled and veteran-owned businesses
- Disability-owned businesses
- Disadvantaged (DBE), small (SBE), and small disadvantaged (SDB) businesses, including federal designations like SBA 8(a) and HUBZone
If you hold a current certification from NMSDC, WBENC, or NGLCC, you're already most of the way qualified to register. If you don't, that's step zero. A corporate supplier diversity program is only as useful as the certification behind it, and the big national programs at United, and at nearly every Fortune 500 buyer, run on NMSDC, WBENC, and NGLCC credentials.
If you're not certified yet and want to compress that process, CertifyAll handles the filing across the agencies you qualify for, so you're not running each application separately. Get the certification first; the United registration is quick once you have it.
What United is actually trying to do with this programWorth understanding the buyer's motivation, because it tells you what they want from you.
United set a public goal to spend at least $1 billion a year with women- and diverse-owned businesses by 2050, and it spent roughly $151 million with those businesses across 2021 and 2022 as an early marker. The airline also stated an aspiration to join the Billion Dollar Roundtable, the small club of corporations that spend $1 billion or more annually with diverse suppliers. Hitting those numbers requires adding new certified firms to the supply chain every year. United reported adding 23 new roundtable-eligible diverse firms in a single year as part of that build.
Translation: United has a standing reason to find new certified suppliers. You're not asking for a favor. You're helping a procurement team hit a target it has committed to publicly.
A note on timing. Corporate diversity programs came under political and legal pressure in 2025 and 2026. An America First Legal complaint to the Department of Labor's contract-compliance office named United among several airlines, and CEO Scott Kirby has publicly emphasized merit-based hiring. As of this writing the supplier diversity program and its registration portals remain in place, but the framing around corporate inclusion is shifting industry-wide. If you're reading this later, confirm the current program name and structure at united.com/supplierdiversity before you assume anything here is unchanged.
The realistic on-ramp: Tier 2Most diverse businesses don't win a direct (Tier 1) contract with United as their first piece of business. They get in through Tier 2.
Tier 2 is the spend United's existing prime suppliers direct to diverse subcontractors. United asks its large vendors to report, through that same supplier diversity portal, how much they spend with certified diverse businesses on United's behalf. That reporting requirement creates demand: a prime working with United has its own reason to bring certified diverse firms into its supply chain.
So your target list isn't only United's procurement department. It's also United's existing prime suppliers, the catering companies, facilities contractors, IT integrators, and marketing agencies that already hold United contracts and need diverse spend to report. Landing a subcontract with one of them is often the faster first deal, and it builds the past performance that makes a direct contract credible later.
What to have ready before you registerTreat the registration like a sales asset, not a form. Buyers and primes search these profiles by capability, so the fields you fill in are the keywords that surface you.
- Current certification documents from NMSDC, WBENC, NGLCC, or the relevant body. Active, not expired.
- A tight capability statement that says exactly what you sell and to whom, in the language a buyer would search.
- NAICS codes that match your real work, so you show up in the right category.
- Past performance with comparable buyers, especially other large corporations or airlines.
- Your differentiator in one line. Why you over an incumbent. Price, specialty, capacity, geography near United's hubs (Chicago, Houston, Newark, Denver, San Francisco, Washington Dulles).
Registration gets you into the system. Being specific is what gets you found inside it.
After you registerDon't treat the portal as a lottery ticket you check once a year.
- Keep your certification current. A lapsed certification quietly drops you out of the diverse-supplier searches. Renew on schedule.
- Pursue Tier 2 in parallel. Identify United's prime suppliers in your category and pitch them directly.
- Show up where the team is. United participates in NMSDC, WBENC, and NGLCC events and matchmaker sessions. A two-minute conversation at a council event beats a cold profile.
- Widen the funnel. United is one buyer. The same certification opens doors at dozens of corporate programs, and our corporate program directory shows you which Fortune 500 buyers accept your specific certifications and how to reach their supplier diversity teams.
If you want the broader playbook for breaking into corporate supply chains, not just United's, our guide on how to get into corporate supplier diversity programs walks through the certification, registration, and relationship steps that apply across buyers. And once you're certified, listing your business in our supplier directory puts your profile in front of buyers actively searching for diverse vendors.
United has spent decades building a program designed to find businesses like yours. The on-ramp is real. Get certified, register on both portals, work the Tier 2 angle, and keep your profile sharp.
