note
United Air Lines was formed by Boeing Air Transport (Boeing aircraft co. airline), and Pratt & Whitney engine manufacturers as an airline alliance. New company purchased Stout Air Service in June 1929, Clement Keys' National Air Transport in May 1930 and Varney Airlines in June 1931. United also acquired Pacific Air Transport which operated air service between Seattle and California. All these eventually operated under United Air Lines brand. Airline's network grew rapidly after WWII and transcontinental service from New York via Chicago and Denver to Los Angeles was established. There was also branch line running from Chicago south to Dallas and from Denver northwest to Seattle as well as Pacific coast line from Seattle to San Diego. Airline used Douglas DC-3 and Boeing 247 aircraft in its first decade. United Air Lines commenced operations to Hawaii using Douglas DC-4 aircraft First jet, a Douglas DC-8 was delivered in May 1959. In June 1961, UAL purchased Pittsburgh based Capital Airlines which gave United dense network east of Mississippi. In October 1963 first Boeing 727 joined the fleet. This type formed backbone of United's fleet until well into 1980s. First wide-body, a Boeing 747, was delivered in July 1970 and was used on flights to Hawaii. United has become one of the world's largest airlines and serves dense coast to coast network as well as Canada, Mexico, Alaska and Hawaii. In 1985 United purchased PAN AM's Pacific network. This made United an intercontinental carrier. In 1990 route to Paris from Chicago and Washington DC was inaugurated. After demise of PAN AM in 1991, United purchased PAN AM's London routes. In 1992 United opened its South American network starting with Caracas, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires. In 1995 UAL inaugurated New Delhi route. In May 1997 UAL founded together with Lufthansa, Air Canada, Thai International and SAS, world's largest airline alliance - Star Alliance. Financial difficulties following this expansion culminated in 1994 selling of majority stake in the airline to its employees in exchange for pay reductions. UAL has become largest employee owned company in the world. In the wake of September 11th 2001 attacks, United entered its most difficult period to date. In 2002 UAL lost $2.1 billion resulting in having to enter chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December 2002. In 2009 UNITED recorded over $5 billion loss (half of it due to accounting write offs). Company early retired its Boeing 737 fleet as well as some Boeing 747s and integrated its Ted subsdiary back into mainline. UAL carried over 81 million passengers (including UAExpress contracts) with over 81% passenger load and employed 46,000 people of which 5632 were pilots. On October 1, 2010 Continental Airlines became a wholly owned subsidiary of UAL Corp. which subsequently changed its name to United Continental Holdings. New company employs 87,000 people and operates 5,800 flights to 371 destinations daily. The two airlines combined onto Continental's FAA operating certificate on November 30, 2011, but continued to operate as separate entities. Passenger services were merged on March 3, 2012. On March 31, 2013, United Air Lines merged into Continental and Continental changed its name to United Airlines. The United DOT certificate was retired.
founded - demised (age)
February 1 1929 - present (96years)
headquarters
PO Box 66100, IL 60666, Chicago
web
base airports
related operators
current /stored fleet (1037)
