United Airlines celebrates 100 years today, Monday, April 6, 2026 and joins a growing select group of other airlines which are now part of the elite century club of continuously being in business — including Lufthansa, which basically shares the exact same anniversary date.
United Airlines Celebrates 100 Years Today.
Varney Air Lines was founded as an airmail carrier by Walter Varney on Tuesday, April 6, 1926 in Boise in Idaho. Four years later in 1930, Varney Air Lines was acquired by a company called United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, which itself was formed as the result of a merger of Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, and folded into its airlines group along with Boeing Air Transport, Pacific Air Transport, and National Air Transport — all of which were also acquired and became part of this entity. United Airlines was created approximately one year later in 1931 to manage a group of airlines that were controlled by William Edward Boeing as a subsidiary of the huge conglomerate…
…but as a result of the Air Mail scandal of 1934, United Aircraft and Transport Corporation was forced to be divided into three separate companies which are known today as RTX Corporation, The Boeing Company, and United Airlines, which claims that it is currently the largest airline in the world.
United Airlines joins the growing list of companies which have celebrated 100 years in business:
- Lufthansa
- Delta Air Lines
- Finnair
- Qantas Airways
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
- Hilton
- The Hertz Corporation
- The Boeing Company
- British Airways
- Commercial aviation itself
- Nathan’s Famous frankfurters
- Grand Central Terminal in New York
- The Canarsie Courier in Brooklyn
- The National Park Service of the United States…
…and even though it is not a company, let us not forget 100 years of the “Mile High Club”.
Final Boarding Call
Strangely enough — unless I simply could not find it — United Airlines does not seem to have created a special Internet web site that is devoted to commemorate its anniversary of 100 years in business…
…but what are the chances of two of the five founding member airlines of Star Alliance sharing the same anniversary?
Anyway, congratulations to United Airlines for being in business over the past 100 years. May your next 100 years be even more successful.
All photographs ©2024 by Brian Cohen.
