United
Air Lines Boeing 737-322 N328UA
(c/n 24148)
In the late1980s United, by then the world's
larget airline, standardized its medium range equipment
with the Boeing 737. It began receiving what would amount to a
very large fleet of both series 300 and
series 500 737s. Of the 100 series 300s it obtained, some
40 of them were operated by a wholly
owned
subsidiary dubbed "Shuttle by United". This was a low cost outfit
which ran services up and
down the
west coast. This subsidiary ran from 1994 to 2001 when it was
deemed that the costs
associated with it were no better or worse than that of the parent
company, and the concept was
dropped. Most of the Shuttle aircraft were never repainted,
however, and the term still is used.
It's
merely that its financial results are now part of United Air Lines'
income statement, rather than
presented as a subsidiary company.. By the early 1990s, the
airline had changed its livery from the
former
blue, red and orange of the1970s era for the smart grey and blue as
seen above. The upper
shot by
Art Brett of Photovation Images shows a typical UAL 737 as the aircraft
was departing
LAX in
February of 2005. The image below was captured by Manas Barooah
at San Jose in Sept
2005 and
shows a former Shuttle by United machine.
Boeing 737-322 N386UA (c/n 24661)