Ted Airlines was a subsidiary of United Airlines, representing a brand that competed with other low cost airline markets. The airline was named after the last three letters in its parent company and marketed the flight experience as more personal than traditional legacy liners. Ted ceased operations on January 6, 2009.
Ted began service on February 12, 2004. Its first market was located in Denver in an effort to compete against Frontier Airlines. As the brand grew, it expanded into other markets to compete against JetBlue and Southwest.
United Airlines crew members operated all the Ted flights since the airline was never actually certified on its own. During its five years of operations, the Ted aircraft were substituted for United Airlines flights and vice versa. The company never became fully independent.
When Ted Airlines made its way back into the full United brand, it was flying to 23 destinations throughout the United States and Mexico. Its major hubs were Denver, Chicago O'Hare, San Francisco and Washington Dulles.
Ted operated a total of 57 different planes, each one an Airbus A320-200. These could service all routes needed for the airline and seat 156 passengers. By the time Ted was decommissioned the average age of the fleet was 8.7 years.
The concept of Ted was to offer low-cost, economy flights. In the cabin, the seats were divided between two classes: economy and economy plus. Each plane was equipped with 20 overhead TVs and each seat had stereo headphone system.
