1993 at United's Headquarters in Chicago, IL. On October 1, 1994, the first "Shuttle by United" flight departed out of SFO to LAX. SFO Fire Trucks created a "water-arch" for the aircraft to taxi through. Using Oakland, CA as their new hub, United's, "Shuttle by United" offered flights to Los Angeles, Burbank and Ontario for as little as $19 one-way. Within nearly three years it had expanded to 20 cities and comprised 5% of United's total capacity. In February 1996, Rono Dutta, United's Senior Vice President of Planning, decided to return its successful "Shuttle by United" to a "hub and spoke" feeder to United's Domestic and International flights which departed primarily from LAX and SFO on the West Coast. It didn't take long for the Shuttle's schedule and reputation to collapse. SFO replaced OAK as the Shuttle's hub. Unlike OAK, when inclement weather hit SFO, arrival traffic was cut in half. This decision alone by Rono Dutta, became the straw that broke the Shuttle's back. Profits tumbled, in 1995, United lost $47 million on $3.22 billion in revenue. In 1999, United established a second base in Terminal 8 of Los Angeles International Airport, United's newest hub, by which time it also served as a feeder operation for United's transcontinental and international services. In the late 1999 its name was changed to United Shuttle. United slowly converted the "Shuttle" to a hub and spoke feeder airline for its mainline and international flights. Rescheduling Shuttle flights to meld with mainline and international flights was the demise of the Shuttle. Prices started increasing and quick turn-a-rounds disappeared. With demand for travel to the San Francisco Bay Area heavy during the Dot-com bubble, Shuttle was profitable and United regained 80% of the market share that they had lost to Southwest Airlines in the early 1990s. Rono Dutta's decision to return the Shuttle to a hub feeder airline meant the demise of the Shuttle. Cloud cover at SFO reduced arrival traffic by 50%. These frequent delays, exacerbated by Shuttle's high frequency schedule and less than adequate staffing, meant the eventual demise of the Shuttle. In 2000 two out of three flights between SFO and LAX were delayed or canceled. When air travel declined in 2001 it became evident that cost savings had not materialized to justify the Shuttle, it was folded back into the mainline United operation and in 2007, its Boeing 737 aircraft were