United adds nearly 150 flights to warm-weather cities this winter
As demand for travel continues to build, United Airlines is expecting the resurgence to continue for winter holiday travel and is planning ahead by increasing service to cities in the U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. The airline will add nearly 150 flights to warm-weather destinations across the U.S and is increasing service to Latin beach and leisure markets by 30% compared to 2019. The airline will fly 137 more flights than it did in 2019 to places like Florida, California, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada starting this November through next March.
United has prepared for the return of air travel for more than a year, matching its flying schedule and aircraft availability to demand by maintaining close coordination between its network planning teams and the airline's operating groups. During this fourth of July travel period, United carried five times as many customers as it did over the same period in 2020 and in anticipation of that trend continuing throughout 2021, the airline is expanding its winter schedule.
"Celebrating the holidays with family and loved ones in 2020 was a challenge, and we know our customers are already eager to plan winter vacations and gatherings in person this year to make up for time that they lost," said Ankit Gupta, vice president of network planning at United. "As pandemic restrictions ease, people are becoming more confident in planning travel further in advance, so we want to make sure to offer our customers as much choice as possible."
Most of these additional flights will be operated with mainline aircraft featuring United FirstSM , Economy Plus® and standard Economy seat options and complimentary snacks and onboard Wi-Fi. The additional U.S. flights include:
- Up to 25 additional daily flights from New York/Newark to cities including Ft. Myers, Jacksonville and Savannah
- Up to 14 additional daily flights from Denver to cities including Charleston, Ft. Lauderdale and Savannah
- Up to 12 additional daily flights from Chicago to cities including Key West, Las Vegas and San Diego
- Up to 11 additional daily flights from Washington D.C. to cities including Charleston, New Orleans and Phoenix
- Up to seven additional daily flights from Houston to Florida including Miami, Orlando and Palm Beach
- Up to four additional daily flights from Los Angeles to Orlando, Tampa and Ft. Myers
- Up to four additional daily flights from Cleveland to Orlando, Tampa and Ft. Myers
- Up to three additional daily flights from San Francisco to Orlando and Ft. Myers
And as customers continue to reunite with family and friends in warm international destinations this winter, United is increasing service to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America by 30% compared to 2019. This added service includes launching 12 new routes from Denver, Los Angeles, New York/Newark, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. to destinations including Belize City, Belize; Cozumel, Mexico; Liberia, Costa Rica and Nassau, Bahamas.
These additions come on the heels of United announcing the largest fleet order in its history of more than 270 mainline aircraft.