Originally Posted by
kenhawk
When UA's new livery was introduced, the company never announced that they would paint all planes at once. What they did say was that they would paint them during a certain maintenance check, to save money.
This is correct, and we see the outcome of that decision 6 years later when barely over half the fleet has been repainted. To be sure, the mix of UA liveries would definitely not have helped United's "case" in keeping its colors post-merger.