United Airlines has published plans to ramp up domestic and international services from May.
The US carrier will restart flights from Chicago to Tokyo Haneda, Amsterdam, Munich and Tel Aviv, and from New York Newark to Milan and Rome.
The airline also plans to offer “more than 100 per cent” of its pre-pandemic schedule to Latin America compared to 2019, including more flights to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America.
United will also launch a raft of domestic services in May ahead of Memorial Day weekend, with point-to-point flights to Charleston, SC; Hilton Head, SC; Myrtle Beach, SC.; Pensacola, Fla. and Portland, Maine from seven cities including Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio; St. Louis, Mo; Pittsburgh, Pa; Milwaukee, Wis; and Indianapolis, Ind.
“Most” of these flights will be operated by the carrier’s new 50-seater Bombardier CRJ-550 aircraft, which are configured with ten seats in first class, 20 in Economy Plus and 20 in economy.
In total United plans to operate 52 per cent of its overall schedules this May compared to the same month in 2019. In May 2020, shortly after the onset of Covid-19, this figure was just 14 per cent.
Commenting on the news Ankit Gupta, vice president of United’s domestic network planning and scheduling, said:
“In the past few weeks, we have seen the strongest flight bookings since the start of the pandemic,” said. As we rebuild our schedule to meet that demand, adding in seasonal point-to-point flying is just one of the ways we are finding opportunities to add new and exciting service.
“And as we have done throughout the entire pandemic, we will continue being nimble and strategic with our network to add the right service to the destinations our customers want to visit.”
