{"id":34039,"date":"2026-02-02T17:50:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=34039"},"modified":"2026-02-02T17:54:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:54:35","slug":"the-skys-first-chapter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/national-news\/the-skys-first-chapter\/%20","title":{"rendered":"The Sky\u2019s First Chapter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before the sky was crowded with aircraft, before airports had terminals or gates, before flying was routine, flight was still an experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early aircraft operated at the edge of what was possible. Pilots flew without instruments or reliable maps, never fully certain how or where they would land. The sky wasn\u2019t yet a place of trust. It was something to be tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what tested it first wasn\u2019t people. It was mail.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, the government carried the sky alone. When airmail began in 1918, the Postal Service flew the routes and shouldered the risk, proving that flight could connect a nation. But the sky quickly asked for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As routes stretched and demand grew, it became clear that airmail needed partners. In 1925, the Kelly Act opened the door to private operators and with it, a new chapter of aviation began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of those early contracts found its way west, to a modest airmail operator navigating wide skies and uncertain routes. It didn\u2019t set out to build an airline. It set out to move mail, reliably and on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That operation was Varney Air Service, the first chapter in what would become United Airlines<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cOne of United\u2019s earliest flights carried U.S. mail,\u201d said Stephanie Giraldi, Senior Manager of Postal Network Optimization & Performance at United Cargo. \u201cThat partnership with the Postal Service isn\u2019t just part of our history. It\u2019s the foundation of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A hundred years later, mail is still moving beneath United\u2019s passenger cabins, quietly and consistently, across a global network early airmail pilots could never have imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, United Cargo supports domestic, international, and regional postal operations through long-standing contracts with the USPS and partnerships with more than 20 international postal authorities. What began as mailbags strapped into open cockpits has evolved into a highly coordinated operation operating at massive scale. From 2020 through mid-2025 alone, United Cargo carried more than 340 million kilograms of mail, generating over $970 million in postal revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the heart of the work hasn\u2019t changed.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the earliest days of airmail, pilots followed railroad tracks through fog because airways didn\u2019t yet exist. Some landed in open fields when weather closed in. Others slept beside their aircraft and flew again at dawn, because the mail could not wait. Mail didn\u2019t just move through the sky. It forced aviation to grow up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople think of United as a passenger airline,\u201d said Kelly Feeney, Manager of Domestic and AMOT Postal Sales and Operations. \u201cBut there\u2019s a whole world moving underneath those flights that most people never see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, that world is defined by precision. Every piece of mail is scanned, tracked, and handed off with care. Domestic routes connect cities overnight. International exchanges cross oceans. Military shipments reach service members stationed thousands of miles from home. Final-mile partnerships complete journeys that may span continents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe technology would absolutely amaze those early pilots,\u201d Giraldi said. \u201cBut the responsibility would feel familiar. You\u2019re still being trusted with something that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That expectation shaped the airline United would become.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe take mail very seriously at United,\u201d Giraldi added. \u201cThis isn\u2019t something we treat as an afterthought. It\u2019s about performance. It\u2019s about doing it right, every time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Kate Hurley, International Postal Operations and Sales Manager, the meaning of that legacy becomes clearest when it reaches people who rely on mail the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMail is often the strongest physical connection to home for military members overseas,\u201d she said. \u201cCare packages. Letters. Familiar things. That matters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurley sees the arc of change every day. What began with small planes flying short routes now spans continents on widebody aircraft. Mail that once crossed a few states now crosses hemispheres, tracked digitally from handoff to delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe scale is what\u2019s changed,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cThe purpose is still the same. You\u2019re moving something people are waiting for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the purpose has endured. The aircraft may be larger. The routes longer. The technology more advanced. But the promise made on those first short flights still applies: what\u2019s sent will arrive. Through wars, economic shifts, pandemics, and technological revolutions, mail has remained a constant thread in United\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As United enters its second century, the story of mail reminds us why aviation exists in the first place. What began as mail, became a century of connection, still moving every day beneath the wings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before the sky was crowded with aircraft, before airports had terminals or gates, before flying was routine, flight was still an experiment. Early aircraft operated at the edge of what was possible. Pilots flew without instruments or reliable maps, never fully certain how or where they would land. The sky wasn\u2019t yet a place of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34040,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[143,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-airlines","category-national-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/The-Skys-First-Chapter.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34039"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34044,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34039\/revisions\/34044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}