for: United International Airlines

United Air Lines, Inc., trading as United Airlines (nasdaq: UAUA), is a major airline of the United States. It is a subsidiary of UAL Corporation with corporate offices in Chicago at 77 West Wacker Drive, and its operations base in nearby Elk Grove Township. United's largest hub is O'Hare International Airport, where it has 650 daily departures. United also has hubs in Denver International Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, and Los Angeles International Airport. Its largest maintenance hub is the Maintenance Operations Center at San Francisco International Airport.

As of July 31, 2006, United is the world's second largest airline by revenue-passenger-miles (behind American Airlines), third-largest by total operating revenues (behind Air France-KLM and American Airlines), and fourth-largest by total passengers transported (behind American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines). United has 56,000 employees and operates 460 (now 433) aircraft.

On February 1, 2006, United emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under which it had operated since December 9, 2002, the largest and longest airline bankruptcy case in the history of the industry.

In February 2008, UAL Corporation and Continental Airlines Inc. began advanced stages of merger negotiations and were expected to announce their decision in the immediate aftermath of a definitive merger agreement between rival Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines. The timing of the events was notable because Northwest's golden shares in Continental (that gave Northwest veto authority against any merger involving Continental) could be redeemed, freeing Continental to pursue a marriage with United. On April 27, 2008, Continental broke off merger negotiations with United and stated it was going to stand alone. Despite ending merger talks, Continental is reportedly in discussion with United about a possible switch from the SkyTeam Alliance to the Star Alliance, of which United is a member.

On April 27, 2008 it was reported that UAL Corporation and US Airways Group, Inc. were in the advanced stages of merger negotiations as well. Sources stated that a merger was expected to be announced within two weeks of the report. United pilots vociferously rejected the proposal and vowed to fight it. Star Alliance co-founder Lufthansa Airlines CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber threw his support behind a marriage of partner carriers United and US Airways.

On June 4, 2008, United announced it would close its Ted unit. The ex-Ted Airbus aircraft will be reconfigured and returned to mainline configuration; to compensate the removal of United's Boeing 737s that are set to be retired, reducing the mainline fleet from 460 to 360 aircraft and furthering the airline's goal of cutting domestic capacity by 15 percent.

Beginnings

UAL traces its claim to be the oldest commercial airline in the United States to the Varney Airlines air mail service of Walter Varney, who also founded Continental Airlines. It was founded in Boise, Idaho. Varney's chief pilot, Leon D. "Lee" Cuddeback, flew the first Contract Air Mail flight in a Swallow biplane from Varney's headquarters in Boise, Idaho to the railroad mail hub of Pasco, Washington on April 6, 1926 and returned the following day with 200 pounds of mail. April 6 is regarded in the United Airlines company history as both its own birthday and the date on which "true" airline service—operating on fixed routes and fixed schedules—began in the United States. Varney Airlines' original 1925 hangar served as a portion of the terminal building for the Boise Airport until 2003, when the structure was replaced.