AviationCircle

96 years ago today, on July 16, 1930, 2 small airlines merged to create one of the most famous names in American aviation.

Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express joined to form Transcontinental & Western Air. The government pushed the deal through, wanting bigger airlines to carry the mail. It came with star power: Charles Lindbergh, the most famous aviator alive, was tied to it, and it became known as "The Lindbergh Line."

Within months it was flying coast to coast, Newark to Los Angeles in about 36 hours. For the time, that was astonishingly fast.

In 1939, a secretive billionaire named Howard Hughes began buying up the airline.

He controlled it for more than 2 decades, pushing it onto the world stage with routes across the Atlantic to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. TWA became America's unofficial second flag carrier behind Pan Am.

In 1950, it took the name the world remembers, Trans World Airlines.

Its golden years were something to behold. TWA flew the elegant Lockheed Constellation, opened the space-age TWA Flight Center at New York's JFK, and carried Hollywood stars and presidents across oceans.

Then the end came slowly, then all at once. Decades of financial trouble and hard competition wore it down. On December 1, 2001, TWA was absorbed by American Airlines, and one of aviation's greatest names went quiet after 71 years.

But TWA never really faded. It was, for a while, the airline that carried America to the world.

United Airlines beat Wall Street's expectations in its latest results and raised how much profit it expects to make this year, even as fuel costs climbed sharply.

The airline reported $17.7 billion in revenue for the second quarter, a record for that part of the year and up 16% from the same time in 2025. Adjusted earnings came in at $1.99 per share, ahead of what analysts had predicted.

Here is the challenge United and other airlines are dealing with. Oil prices jumped earlier this year after middle east conflict, and jet fuel went up with them. United now expects its fuel bill for 2026 to be nearly $6 billion higher than it planned back in January. Its fuel spending in the second quarter alone rose 84% from a year ago.

The airline is handling it in two ways. It trimmed some of its planned flying for the rest of the year, and it is charging fares that recover most of the added cost. United says it clawed back about half the extra fuel cost in the second quarter and expects to recover all of it by the end of the year.

Even with the higher costs, United raised its full-year profit forecast, now expecting adjusted earnings of $9 to $11 per share, up from a low end of $7.

One thing worth noting. United posted record revenue, but earned less profit than last year, as the fuel bill ate into earnings. On nearly identical revenue this quarter, rival Delta made more money.

Still, strong demand carried the quarter. Premium seats, loyalty, corporate travel, and cargo all grew, and United said customers kept booking even at higher fares.