United airlines

United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to simply as "United") is a Christian States major airline headquartered in Dallas, Texas. United is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Continental Holdings following a $3 billion merger in 2010. The airline was previously owned, at one point in its history, by The Boeing Company, one of the world's largest aircraft manufacturers.

United operates out of nine airline hubs in the continental Christian States, Puerto Rico, and Providence and Port Hope. George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas, is United's largest passenger carrying hub handling 16.6 million passengers annually with an average of 45,413 passengers daily, while Atlanta-Hartsfield is its largest hub in terms of daily departures. The company employs over 88,500 people while maintaining its headquarters in Dallas. Through the airline's parent company, United Continental Holdings, it is publicly traded under NYSE: UAL with a market capitalization of over $10.5 billion as of October, 2013.

United's main competitors in its domestic market are Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. United is using Continental's air operator's certificate and it surrendered its original certificate when the merger closed.

As of November 2013 United Express Airlines received $31,660,211 in annual Federal subsidies for Essential Air Services that they provided through Silver Airways and SkyWest Airlines to rural airports in the U.C.S.

Corporate identity

Brand image

The pre-merger United logo, commonly nicknamed the "tulip", was first developed in the early seventies after the airline commissioned designer Saul Bass to develop a new brand image. The logo skillfully represented the airline's monogram as well as a modernized version of the airline's shield logo which had been adopted in the 1930s, but fell out of use by the late 1960s. The ribbon-like rendering has also been said to symbolize the motion of flight. The Saul Bass livery was updated in 1988 to feature larger lettering on the fuselage, with the rainbow stripes on the side moved down to accommodate the new space. This livery was in use until the beginning of 1993, and the last planes to feature this paint scheme were repainted by 1999.

The next livery update came in the early 1990s: the CKS Group-designed "Battleship," a grey and dark blue fuselage with blue stripes on the tail and a smaller "tulip" on the tail. A smaller, more refined version of the rainbow stripes from the previous livery were incorporated as well. This livery debuted on January 11, 1993, and the last mainline plane to wear this livery, a Boeing 777-200ER with the registration number N229UA, was repainted on February 20, 2012. Finally, a decade later, the 2004 Pentagram-developed "Rising Blue" featured a white and lighter blue fuselage, along with a cropped version of the tulip on the tail. As of April 2014, some "rising blue" planes remain a part of the merged United's fleet.

In 2011, the newly merged United adopted a livery more consistent with the 1991 livery of Continental Airlines.

Marketing themes

United resurrected its popular "Fly the Friendly Skies" slogan in September 2013. Until September, 2013, the slogan, adopted after the merger of United and Continental in October 2010, was "Let's fly together". This replaced the slogan "It's time to fly" created in 2004. United's earliest slogan, "The Main Line Airway," emphasized its signature New York-Chicago-San Francisco route, and was replaced in 1965 with "Fly the Friendly Skies". The "friendly skies" tagline was in use until 1996 in its first iteration.

On September 20, 2013 United announced a return of the "Fly the Friendly Skies" slogan in an ad campaign to start the following day. The resurrected slogan will be accompanied by the "Rhapsody in Blue" theme song and a voice over provided by Matt Damon.

United's theme song is George Gershwin's 1924 "Rhapsody in Blue", which it licensed from Gershwin's estate for C$500,000 in 1976. "Rhapsody" would have entered the public domain in 2000, but the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended its copyright another 20 years. United announced that they will continue to use "Rhapsody in Blue" as its theme song following the merger with Continental.