United Airlines has announced largest domestic schedule since the start of COVID-19 pandemic ‘to meet an expected surge in holiday travel’.
Recovery on-track
United has revealed its largest domestic schedule since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, ‘an emphasis on connecting the Midwest to warm weather cities like Las Vegas and Orlando as well as offering nearly 70 daily flights to ski destinations, including new service between Orange County and Aspen’.
United States that holiday travel flight searches on united.com and the airline’s app are up 16%, compared to 2019. The airline expects the busiest travel days for the Thanksgiving holiday will be Wednesday, 24th November and Sunday, 28th November, while popular days for winter holiday travel are expected to be Thursday, 23rd December and Sunday, 2nd January.
United will have 3,500 daily domestic flights on offer in December 2021, representing 91% of its domestic capacity compared to 2019.
Ankit Gupta, Vice President of Network Planning and Scheduling, United Airlines, said:
We’re seeing a lot of pent-up demand in our data and are offering a December schedule that centers on the two things people want most for the holidays: warm sunshine and fresh snow. We know families and friends are eager to reunite this holiday season, which is why we’re thrilled to add new flights that will help them connect and celebrate together.
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New flights and resuming suspended flights
United will start nonstop flights to Las Vegas and Phoenix from Cleveland & between Orlando and Indianapolis. The Chicago-based carrier will resume 8 nonstop flights from Midwest cities, including routes to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando and Tampa. United will offer the most mainline departures the airline has flown from Cleveland since 2014 including direct service to Nassau and Cancun. The airline will offer up to 195 daily flights to 12 destinations in Florida this winter, the most flights to the Sunshine State in company history. In addition to this, United is also resuming direct flights from Columbus, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh to Fort Myers – which it states were some of its most popular point-to-point flights last winter.
According to United, it will operate flights to ski destinations more than any other carrier this winter. United offers 66 daily flights to over a dozen ski destinations across the U.S., including brand new service beginning this December between Orange County and Aspen. This winter season, United will have flights to Aspen/Snowmass, Bishop/Mammoth, Bozeman/Big Sky, Eagle/Vail, Kalispell, Gunnison/Crested Butte, Hayden/Steamboat Springs, Jackson Hole, Montrose/Telluride, Reno/Tahoe, Sun Valley from its hub airports.
Earlier this year, United announced that it will add 150 flights to warm-weather destinations this winter season.
Meanwhile, British Airways also recently announced its largest schedule since March 2020.
Featured image by JetPhotos
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