RampRat74 From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 1455 posts, RR: 2 Posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 11 hours ago) and read 2713 times:
It seems UA had a big presence in ATL before deregulation. DL was always the largest. Both DL and EA added many flights after 1978. If UA didn't pull out after deregulation, and added flights alongside DL and EA. Would ATL have been a three hub airport like DEN? If EA had more competition for the second largest airline at ATL. Do you think they would moved their whole operation down to MIA?
It would of been a much needed Southeast hub that United always needed for their system.
Kkfla737 From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 1033 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 2614 times:
This isn't true. in 1977, right before deregulation Eastern's hub in Atlanta was in terms of daily departures the largest hub in the world. IRC Eastern was pretty much larger in Atlanta than Delta in terms of destinations served nonstop until the mid 1980s.
One slight correction: EA for several years was larger than DL, not by very much but still.
Now, had UA tried to keep their hub at ATL, they would likely be gone by now. Every airline that has attempted a hub or focus city in ATL in competition with DL, except Air Tran, has bitten the dust (Eastern, TWA(mini-hub in the Nineties), Air Atlanta, Air South, Vanguard, and in a way Valujet, too, as not much of them is left in FL).
727LOVER From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 5720 posts, RR: 20 Reply 3, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 2581 times:
My memory is the same as the other posters, in the 70s EA had more ATL flight than DL. Don't forget, Southern had a large presence at ATL also. I don't think UA had too large of an operation in ATL.
Hey, but remember, after EA went bust, UA had 53 gates in ATL available...they missed a great opp there.....to this day UA is relatively weak in the southeast.
Who is the t3rd carrier at DEN? If you are saying UA, CO, and old Frontier, there were never 3 hubs at once.
Srbmod From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 16888 posts, RR: 51 Reply 4, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 2526 times:
Quoting RampRat74 (reply 0):
UA must of operated a good amount of flights into ATL. You can see two large fuel tanks in the background.
Those are tanks owned by the City of Atlanta, not the airlines. On several occassions in the past, the airport put the logos of the airlines that served ATL on the tanks of the fuel farms at the airport. Another example:
SPREE34 From United States of America, joined Jun 2004, 2094 posts, RR: 10 Reply 5, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 2492 times:
727LOVER..."Who is the t3rd carrier at DEN? If you are saying UA, CO, and old Frontier, there were never 3 hubs at once."
In the 70s and 80s there were 3 hubs at DEN. (Stapleton) United, Continental, and the original Frontier.
I don't understand everything I don't know about this.
Milesrich From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 1855 posts, RR: 7 Reply 6, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 2497 times:
UA moved into Atlanta with "minihub" with their acquisition of Capital on July 1, 1961. They had flights to MOB, MSY, BHM, CLT, RDU, PBI, MIA, TPA, ORH, PHF, GSO, AVL, NYC, PHL, DCA, CLE, PIT, BUF, ROC, and CRW, operating upwards of 50 departures per day. Transitioning from Viscounts, DC-6's and Caravelles, to 727's and 737's, they maintained their presence until deregulation, when in 1980 or 1981, they actually completely pulled out of ATL. They only stayed away for a year or two and when the new midfield terminal opened they returned but only with flights to and from their hubs at DEN, ORD, IAD, and SFO, although the flights to SFO and IAD were added later. For a while in the late 80's, they had add on flights to SAV, and operated a flight to MIA after they acquired some of Pan Am's South American routes.
TAN FLYR From United States of America, joined Aug 2000, 1847 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 13 hours ago) and read 2296 times:
I must be losing my mind because I sure don't recall a UA "hub of any kind at ATL. Now, I'll admit the time frame I am thinking of is mostly from early 70's thru the initial days of deregulation (late 78-thru 1979).
Living at FWA most of that time frame, I distinctly remember UA 269 as the early am departure to CLE, with continuing service to ATL and JAX. Except for the CLE/ATL service and this single r/t to JAX as mandated by the CAB, I just don't recall all these flights several of you mention. Even flyingthru ATL a dozen times in those years I don't remember more than a minor presence for UA at ATL. Now UA did serve some of those with service that went thru the CLE hub as I recall.
Now I do recall UA dropped that JAX flight from ATL as fast as they could in early 79 or so and did start service to ORD from ATL soon thereafter.
I guess I'll have to go out to the garage tomorrow and see if I can dig out some old UA timetables from the mid-late 70's.
DCA-ROCguy From United States of America, joined Apr 2000, 4402 posts, RR: 37 Reply 8, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 2305 times:
You asked for it....
I have a United timetable for June 13, 1975 that shows the following:
Ckfred From United States of America, joined Apr 2001, 4652 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 2258 times:
Also don't forget that Private Jet tried to make ATL a hub in 1994, when it switched from a charter-only carrier to a scheduled-service carrier. I think Private Jet went under when ValuJet started to fly the same routes at lower fares.
Bohica From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 2407 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 2245 times:
I read somewhere recently that after deregulation UA moved their ATL operation to MEM. Does anyone know anything about that?
727LOVER From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 5720 posts, RR: 20 Reply 11, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 2231 times:
And let's not forget AIR ATLANTA...where did they fly to?
I thought CO didn't have a big DEN operation until after they bought Frontier's assets. I could be wrong.
RampRat74 From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 1455 posts, RR: 2 Reply 12, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 10 hours ago) and read 2203 times:
We use to ground handle Private Jet in DFW. They changed their name to National, then went under.
TAN FLYR From United States of America, joined Aug 2000, 1847 posts, RR: 0 Reply 13, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 2154 times:
Ok..I stand corrected.Thanks....guess I just did not recall it.!
Kkfla737 From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 1033 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 2066 times:
I have an EA timetable dated Jan 11, 1977 which states that EA's Atlanta hub was the largest airline hub in the world at the time.
DAL767400ER From Germany, joined Feb 2005, 5721 posts, RR: 50 Reply 15, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 3 days 19 hours ago) and read 2055 times:
Quoting Kkfla737 (reply 14): I have an EA timetable dated Jan 11, 1977 which states that EA's Atlanta hub was the largest airline hub in the world at the time.
Funny to think that ATL still is the world's largest single-airline hub, albeit now thanks to Eastern's main competitor.
Srbmod From United States of America, joined Mar 2001, 16888 posts, RR: 51 Reply 16, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 2056 times:
Quoting 727LOVER (reply 11): And let's not forget AIR ATLANTA...where did they fly to?
Routes included ATL-MEM, ATL-PHL, ATL-MIA, ATL-JFK, ATL-DTW, ATL-RSW, ATL-MCO, MCO-TPA, TPA-RSW, ATL-TPA, JFK-PHL, ATL-LWB, JFK-LWB. The last route map also showed an ATL-MSY route, but the airline went under before the route was started.
ARCJET From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 17, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 3 days 18 hours ago) and read 2048 times:
This is the United Route Map from 1969, 8 years after United absorbed Capital Airlines. Prior to 1961, United had no routes in the Southeast USA. The Atlanta operation ended in 1979 and United returned to Atlanta in 1984 with nonstops to Chicago and Denver.
Kkfla737 From United States of America, joined Oct 2004, 1033 posts, RR: 1 Reply 18, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 2011 times:
Keep in mind that Delta was a much smaller airline than Eastern until the mid 1980s, so it's logical that EAs main hub would be larger than DLs main hub. Looking at UA and AA timetables from the early 80s, I am quite sure that the two largest airline hubs in the USA were actually EA @ ATL and DL @ ATL. AA @ DFW was probably third, and then UA @ ORD. Keep in mind that about 6 airlines had smaller hubs at ORD following de-regulation so there were some cities for example that Republic or TWA flew to from Chicago which UA did not.
Tom in NO From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 7194 posts, RR: 40 Reply 19, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 3 days 17 hours ago) and read 1997 times:
Air Atlanta had an office at MSY. I recall doing an inventory of what they left behind after they went belly up.
Funny story about that project: in the process of the inventory, we came across a nose wheel tire they'd stashed in the office. We actually were considering rolling it down the ticket lobby down to, I believe, CO, and up to their ticket counter proclaiming, "are you missing this yet?". We chickened out, though.
Somewhere around the house, I've got an Air Atlanta luggage tray/box.
Tom at MSY
"The criminal ineptitude makes you furious"-Bruce Springsteen, after seeing firsthand the damage from Hurricane Katrina
September11 From United States of America, joined May 2004, 3623 posts, RR: 23 Reply 20, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 1940 times:
it is interesting that UA used to operate day long flights out of ATL to various destinations.
Gr8SlvrFlt From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 1583 posts, RR: 16 Reply 21, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 1840 times:
When UA discontinued all ATL service ('79 to '85) they still maintained their Atlanta reservations center. During that period, those employees had to drive to BHM to non-rev on UA! The center is now a Galileo sales and support office.
Junction From United States of America, joined Mar 2005, 766 posts, RR: 0 Reply 22, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 1815 times:
That route map posted in reply 17 by ARCJET is amazing! Can you even imagine UA landing at Salem, Oregon or Pendleton, Oregon today?
7E72004 From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 3586 posts, RR: 1 Reply 23, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 1794 times:
I miss seeing those eastern jets
The next generation of aircraft is just around the corner!
ARCJET From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 24, posted (8 years 2 months 2 weeks 2 days 16 hours ago) and read 1716 times:
United's east coast network, 1969
25 September11: Kansas City - Baltimore/Washington 1969 - nonstop on United 2005 - nonstop on ? I don't see Columbus, Ohio - Chicago O'Hare route on the map...
26 ARCJET: and let's not forget the great Eastern Airlines...
27 September11: Eastern Airlines 1978 Route System! ... If you never heard of Eastern Airlines
28 ARCJET: United Airlines - June 9, 1978, 4 months before the passage of the deregulation act...
29 September11: ARCJET - you get this for excellent quality of those route system images. I just can't believe United's 1978 route system!
34 Kkfla737: It's amazing how each carrier was essentialy regional- consider Continental did not even serve the Northeast and as I've pointed out over and over on
35 Tan flyr: ARCJET...thanks for the maps....really great remembering those days. I got a kick of the UA routes thru central California in those days..737's stoppi
36 7E72004: That is neat to see...i was too young to remember those days but just looking at those maps is amazing.
37 727LOVER: requesting North Central, Southern, National, and Piedmont
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