United Airlines

United Airlines (UAL) is an American airline, the second largest in the world. Based in Elk Grove, Illinois, near Chicago, it employs around 84,000 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 was forced into bankruptcy protection. It is set to emerge in the first half of 2004.

United Airlines Airbus A320-200. In early 2004, the color scheme shown here was superseded

Table of contents

1 Hubs and alliances
2 History

2.1 Early History
2.2 Modern History
2.3 Operation Bojinka and September 11
2.4 Bankruptcy and Reorganization

3 Aircraft Fleet
4 Destinations

4.5 Asia

4.5.1 East Asia
4.5.2 Southeast Asia

4.6 Europe
4.7 North America

4.7.3 United States, U.S. Territories, Canada, and Mexico
4.7.4 Bermuda and the Caribbean, excluding US territories
4.7.5 Central America

4.8 South America

5 Oceania
6 External links

6.9 Official Sites
6.10 History
6.11 Consumer Complaints

Hubs and alliances

United has hub operations at:

United also has significant operations at Narita International Airport in Narita, Japan.

United has the United Express airline contracted to perform its regional flying. These are small airliners operating under contract from United to fly passengers from small cities to its hubs. 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.

History

Early History

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 centered 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 [1].

Modern History

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 and September 11

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.

Bankruptcy and Reorganization

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. [1]

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 Fleet

**Current fleet by aircraft size**
(as of November 1, 2003)
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