“Fly the Friendly Skies” – United Airlines Ads 1934-1970

On September 20, 2013 announced a return of the “Fly the Friendly Skies” slogan in an ad campaign that was accompanied by Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” theme and a voice over by Matt Damon. It was a resurrection of the tagline first used in 1965. After the forced removal of David Dao – a 69 year old doctor from Kentucky at the beginning of April 2017 it has probably been dropped for the foreseeable future.

United Airlines traces its roots to the Varney Air Lines air mail service of Walter Varney. Founded in Boise, Idaho in 1926, the carrier flew the first contract air mail flight in the U.S. on April 6, 1926, marking the first scheduled airline service in the country’s history with flights between Pasco, WA and Elko, NV via Boise.

In 1933, United Air Lines began operating the brand-new Boeing 247 airliner.It was able to fly a transcontinental flight in 20 hours, making it much faster than its predecessors.

After World War II, United took advantage of the boom in customer demand for air travel, with its revenue per passenger-miles jumping five-fold in the 1950s, and continued growth occurring through the next two decades.