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United Airlines (UAL) is an American airline, the second largest in the world, after American Airlines. Based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, near Chicago, it employs around 62,000 people and operates around 540 aircraft (Jan 2002). In 1994, 55% of company stock was given to employees as part of a pay cut, called ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). This made it the largest employee-owned company in the world.
The shares have now been sold for pennies on the dollar, and the ESOP program has been terminated. In 2001 the company lost $2,137 million on revenues of $16,138 million and in 2002 the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It is set to emerge in the first half of 2004.
United has hub operations at:
United also has significant operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, Newark International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport, Seattle/Tacoma International Airport, Heathrow International Airport in London, and Hong Kong International Airport.
United Express perform regional flights for United. United Express are small airliners operating under contract from United to fly passengers from small cities to its hubs. United Express also operates fequent non-stops between business centres in the United States and Canada. Although the aircraft are painted in United colours, they are separate companies with different pilots and management.
UA is part of the Star Alliance and currently codeshares with SNCF French Rail to stations in France.
UAL originated in the air mail service of Walter Varney, founded in 1926 in Boise, Idaho. Varney Airlines' original hanger served as a portion of the terminal building for the Boise Municipal Airport until 2003, when the structure was replaced.
In only four years the company included a number of airlines, aero manufacturing companies and several airports and was also closely associated with the new firm of William Boeing. Following the Air Mail Scandal of 1930, by 1934 the company still held its airlines routes but had lost all its non-airline holdings and had a new president in William A. Patterson (who remained in that office until 1963).
United's early routes operated in and around the West Coast, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic states. It operated transcontinental flights through Denver, Colorado, which remains a major United hub to this day.
During World War II United was involved in the training of ground crews and material transportation. Post-war United benefited from the boom in demand for air travel.
On November 1, 1955, United Airlines Flight 629, which was flying from Stapleton Airport in Denver to Portland, Oregon was bombed, killing everyone on board. The bomb was planted by a man named Jack Graham, who was executed a year after the explosion .
The company merged with Capital Airlines on June 1, 1961, making it the world's largest commercial airline and giving it a route network covering the entire United States.
In 1968 the company reorganized, creating UAL, Inc., with United as a wholly owned subsidiary. United also began to seek overseas routes in the 1960s, but the Transpacific Route Case (1969) denied them this expansion and it did not gain an overseas route until 1983, when they began flights to Tokyo. By the end of the year, United had flights to 13 Pacific destinations, many of which were with route contracts purchased from the ailing Pan Am.
The economic turmoil from the 1970s and the pressures of the Airline Deregulation Act (1978) affected the company, with losses and a greatly increased turnover in top management. The company also diversified and changed its name twice before returning to its airline business in 1987. In 1990 the company initially expanded aggresively, purchasing Pan Am's rights at London Heathrow Airport and paving the way for the company's first trans-Atlantic flights. However, the aftermath of the Gulf War and increased competition led to losses of $332m in 1991 and $957m in 1992.
Another reorganization changed the company into majority employee-owned in 1994. In 1997 it joined the Star Alliance with Air Canada, Lufthansa, SAS and Thai Airways.
United was a launch customer of the Boeing 777, and was the first to introduce the twin-jet in commercial service.
Operation Bojinka, Ramzi Yousef and Khalid Sheik Mohammed's terrorist plot against a large number of airliners, targeted eight United aircraft flying transpacific routes on January 21, 1995. While this attack was prevented by an apartment fire in Manila, a "descendant" of the project perfected by Sheik Mohammed would cause tragedy six years later.
As part of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack, two United Airlines planes were hijacked, a Boeing 767 (United Airlines Flight 175) that crashed into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and a Boeing 757 (United Airlines Flight 93) that is suspected to have been directed towards either the White House or Camp David by the hijackers. It is thought that the passengers succeeded in preventing this action when the aircraft crashed in a small Pennsylvania town.
In December of 2002, UAL Corporation filed for chapter 11 protection against bankruptcy. It has been commented that this development was triggered in part by the repercussions that the events of September 11th had on the North American airline industry as a whole and on United in particular. However the rise of low-cost competitors and problems with unions and within the management structure of the company were also significant. The immediate reason for the filing was the US government's refusal to grant United a $1.5 billion loan from the government airline aid program. The company was then forced to seek debtor-in-possession financing from commercial sources to cover the expected future loses.
United has continued operations during its bankruptcy, but was forced to reorganize in order to cut costs. Most notably, it currently plans to eliminate its Latin American gateway and flight crew base at Miami International Airport on May 1, 2004. On June 30, 2004, United Airlines announced the application of a 5% fare hike on most flights to foreign destinations, (all destinations overseas) citing rising fuel costs.
However, United continues to invest in new projects. On November 12, 2003, it launched a new low-cost carrier, Ted, to compete with Frontier Airlines at the Denver hub. United has also continued its commitment to a new passenger terminal at JFK Airport in New York.
| Aircraft | Number | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Airbus A319 | 55 | Short haul / domestic |
| Airbus A320 | 98 | Short haul / domestic |
| Boeing 737 | 150 | Short haul / domestic |
| Boeing 747 | 31 | Long haul |
| Boeing 757 | 96 | Long haul |
| Boeing 767 | 48 | Long haul |
| Boeing 777 | 56 | Long haul |
The list does not include cities only served by United Express
United Airlines uses the IATA designator code UA.
United Airlines uses the ICAO designator code UAL.
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