United Air Lines  Airbus A320-232  N420UA         (c/n  489)

                                      

                                           I am not entirely sure why United made such a commitment to Airbus in the early 1990s and went
                                           ahead and placed sizeable orders for their short/mid range A320s and A319s.  Clearly the strategy
                                           paid off, particularly after the airline filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 in 2002. Since
                                           then Airbus have played an important role in assisting the airline to restructure, and this has recently
                                           been accomplished (early 2006) when the airline emerged from the bankruptcy cloud, at least for
                                           now.  It would appear that the European concern were far more committeed to going out on a limb
                                           and continuing to supply aircraft to the ailing airline, more so than Boeing was (which is interesting,
                                           given that United was in the same "family" as Boeing for 75 years!).  The airline currently possesses
                                           almost 100 A320s, many of which have been seconded to low cost carrier subsidiary Ted.    ("Ted"
                                           as in UniTED). The above image is another fine Manas Barooah shot taken at LAX in October 2005.