This summer, United Airlines has 80 routes to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. According to Cirium, that's up from 65 in the summer of 2019, and seats for sale have risen by 1.4 million. In contrast, American and Delta remain down. As such, United is the largest of all airlines to Europe for the first time.
United has added many new routes, new destinations, and frequency increases. They have been announced before, but it is significant enough that it is worth recapping.
United is obviously expecting a solid recovery, and it is positioning itself to take advantage of the uptick in demand. But is it biting off more than it can chew?
New routes and destinations
Six of the following routes involve new destinations for United: Amman; Bergen; Nice; Palma; Ponta Delgada; and Tenerife South.
For Palma, Ponta Delgada, and Tenerife, the hangover from the 'experimentation' days of the pandemic – when airlines had the capacity to try routes they'd not typically – seems apparent. It'll be interesting to see how many are still served in summer 2023.
- Boston to London Heathrow: 1x daily B767-300ER; began on April 15th; last served in October 2002
- Chicago to Zurich: 1x daily B767-300ER; began on April 23rd
- Denver to Munich: 1x daily B787-9; began on April 23rd
- Newark to Nice: 1x daily B767-300ER; begins on April 29th
- Washington to Amman: 3x weekly B787-8; May 3rd
- Chicago to Milan Malpensa: 1x daily B787-8; May 6th
- Newark to Ponta Delgada: 3x weekly B737 MAX 8; May 13th
- Newark to Bergen: 3x weekly B757-200ER; May 20th
- Newark to Palma: 3x weekly B767-300ER; June 2nd
- Newark to Tenerife South: 3x weekly B757-200ER; June 9th
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A quick look at Amman
United announced Amman last October. It will be its second destination in the Middle East after Tel Aviv. Booking data shows that over 440,000 round-trip point-to-point (P2P) passengers traveled between Jordan and North America in 2019.
With over 30,000 P2P passengers, the USA's largest unserved market was Washington. It also had one of the highest average fares.
United will target visiting friends and relatives demand, growing tourism, US embassy and government travel, and those bound for nearby countries, including Lebanon, Syria, and parts of Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
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Routes with increased flights
The following seven routes all have more flights, and over half haven't had as many before. Notice Heathrow. These additional four daily flights, plus the reintroduced daily from Boston, have resulted in 22 flights each day from the London airport, its most ever.
- Newark to Dublin: 2x daily, up from 1x, began April 23rd; last 2x daily in 2017
- Denver to Heathrow: 2x daily, up from 1x, from May 7th; never 2x daily
- Washington to Accra: 1x daily, up from 3x weekly, from May 9th; last 1x daily in 2021
- Newark to Frankfurt: 2x daily, up from 1x, from May 26th; last 2x daily in 2014
- Newark to Rome: 2x daily on five days, up from 1x, from May 27th; never 2x daily
- Newark to Heathrow: 7x daily, up from 5x, from May 27th; never 7x daily
- San Francisco to Heathrow: 3x daily, up from 2x, from May 28th; never 3x daily
Will you be flying United this summer? If so, where are you going? Let us know in the comments.