Happy Anniversary, Shuttle!

 The Pilot Schedule, October 1999

Shuttle celebrates its five-year anniversary this month.  With Oct. 1 marking the anniversary date, and Oct. 31 marking the launch of Shuttle into Palm Springs - its 22nd market - the month provides plenty of reason for celebration.  Here we list some interesting Shuttle system schedule facts:

October 1994: Shuttle began service on Oct. 1, 1994, with 184 daily departures amidst industry skepticism.  The first nine West Coast cities included San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Las Vegas, Seattle, Ontario, Burbank, San Diego, and Sacramento.

December 1994: Shuttle adds Phoenix to its roster with additional flights from both SFO and LAX.

April 1995: Shuttle launches PDX service from the Rose City to SFO and LAX.  The addition of PDX increases Shuttle operations to 378 daily departures from 11 West Coast cities.

December 1995: Shuttle introduces city number twelve, with the introduction of nonstop service from SFO to RNO.

October 1996: Shuttle launches new jet service from SFO to: BOI, EUG, MFR, SLC, SBA and GEG.  Shuttle also increases daily service to RNO.  With this expansion, Shuttle grows to 410 daily departures to 18 cities, twice the number originally served.

February 1997: Shuttle begins DEN to PHX with 13 daily round trip departures and DEN to LAS with 12 daily roundtrip departures.

October 1997: Aiming to capture a larger share of SLC's growing business travel market, Shuttle launches nine daily nonstop flights to DEN.

September 1998: Adding nine flights between SJC and LAX nearly doubles the service offered by United in SJC and provides hassle-free connections to the South Pacific, Asia, Hawaii and Mexico.  The SJC introduction makes Shuttle the only carrier to serve all three Bay Area airports to LAX, and makes United the largest airline serving the greater Bay Area with more than 360 international and domestic flights departing out of SFO, SJC and OAK airports daily.

November 1998: United Shuttle aircraft began flying in a closed loop pattern between LAX and SFO.  This improved Shuttle performance in non SFO-LAX markets and added the benefits of flight crew scheduling efficiency and improved aircraft recovery opportunities.

June 1999: United Shuttle announces more nonstop service on intra-California routes, with new flights to SBA, MFR, RNO, SAN and PSP.  The new expanded service will add 40 daily departures for United Shuttle, bringing the total departures to 494 on Oct. 31, 1999.

October 1999: Shuttle celebrates its five-year anniversary and welcomes its 22nd destination: PSP, with four round trip LAX departures daily.