United's fortunes changed in 1970 when the company posted a loss of $46 million just two years after making record profits. The company ran through a string of six presidents between 1970 and 1989, and changed its name twice as it continued its corporate expansion until forced to divest and return to its core airline business in 1987. It was a period of major hurdles for the airline's senior management team, which faced its biggest challenge when the industry was deregulated in 1978.

Winds of Change...
In 1970, United posted a $46 million net loss, a massive turnaround from the $45 million profit it reported the previous year. What went wrong?

Airline observers cited various causes, including higher costs, lower fares and a flattened market. In addition, the Civil Aeronautics Board's Transpacific Route Case decision in mid-1969 cost United its bid for international routes and drained profits from the airline's lucrative U.S. Mainland-Hawaii operation. Finally, there was the premature introduction of the jumbo Boeing 747. But there were other causes, too, many of them internal.

Between 1970 and 1989, United made six changes in the office of the president, including the arrival of Western International Hotels executives Edward Carlson and Richard Ferris, who played significant roles in the acquisition and divestiture of United's principal subsidiaries during those two decades. In that period, also, UAL, Inc. changed its name twice -- Allegis Corporation in 1986, then to UAL Corporation in 1988.

With management changes came new directions and a new image. UAL, Corp. reached beyond the airline industry to acquire non-airline enterprises. United, itself, went beyond U.S. borders -- first, via new route authority to serve Tokyo from Seattle in 1983, and, two years later, through the purchase of Pan American Airways' Pacific Division.

To reflect its new direction, United changed its logo and aircraft livery and incorporated the design and color scheme in its employee uniforms, ground equipment and corporate signage. Before the turbulent era passed, United's parent company was forced by a major investor group to divest itself of its non-airline subsidiaries. UAL Corporation once again became involved exclusively in air transport operations.

In 1978, the U.S. Congress passed the Airline Deregulation Act and airlines were free to compete for passenger and freight business in an open market. Seven years later, the Civil Aeronautics Board went out of existence and air mail contracts - -the last regulatory domain of the CAB - - also were opened to free-market competition.