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United actually were the first airline in the US to use a jet for domestic services, in this case the Douglas DC-8. The airline's relationship with the Long Beach manufacturer was most successful and ended only last October when the final DC-8-73 was officially retired from United service. Whilst still very useful, the DC-Bs have been returned to lessors, GPA, their role now being taken over by the Boeing 757.
United to Become World’s Largest Airline
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United on Target to Become World’s Largest Airline
After flying through its fair share of turbulence in the nineteen eighties, United Airlines has entered the century’s final decade in a revitalised form with the firm intention of becoming the world’s largest single airline, something it may well achieve during the course of this year.
United’s latest coup – the winning of a failed PanAm’s central and South American routes last December – tops off nicely the massive transatlantic network that the Chicago based airline also inherited from PanAm in 1990. In fact PanAm has been largely instrumental in establishing United in the enviable position that it enjoys today as it was also the acquisition of the defunct carrier’s Pacific network in early 1986 that initiated its foray into the international market. A move that was also eagerly copied by Delta, American, Northwest and Continental and was largely instrumental in the eventual demise of the once great airline.
Today, United is an airline of over 80,000 employees supporting a massive worldwide network, hosting over 2,000 daily departures with a fleet of more than 500 jets. The size of the airline can only best be appreciated when you considerthat forthe past two years and certainly for at least the next four,theairline will be taking delivery of an average of one new jetliner each week as it replaces its older generation fleet with state of the art jets and boosts capacity overall to accommodate an expected doubling of RPKs by the end of this decade.
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