United to add 480 daily flights, will return to 60% of global network

by James Wilkinson

This coming June, United says it expects to fly its largest schedule since before the pandemic to meet growing demand for summer travel.

The airline is adding more than 480 daily flights to its U.S. schedule to offer an average of over 3,100 total daily domestic flights to more than 240 U.S. destinations.

This includes the addition of new flights to Hawaii, Alaska and Montana. Overall, United plans to fly 67% of its domestic schedule and 60% of its overall network schedule compared to its 2019 June schedule.

United will add nine brand-new routes in June, including daily flights from Denver to West Yellowstone, Mont. – the closest airport to Yellowstone National Park.

In addition, United plans to add two new direct flights to Hawaii – from Chicago to Kona, and from New York/Newark to Maui. And as peak travel season to Alaska resumes, United will restart service from Chicago to Fairbanks and from Chicago, Houston, New York/Newark and San Francisco to Anchorage. United will also introduce brand new service between Fairbanks and Anchorage in June.

“As leisure travel continues to return this summer, we are adding more flights to our June schedule to national parks, Alaska, Hawaii, Florida and other popular destinations,” said Ankit Gupta, vice president of domestic planning and scheduling at United.

“June is historically the beginning of the peak summer travel season and ramping up to over 3,500 total daily flights across the system this June underscores the continued demand for leisure travel and our responsiveness to meeting that demand.”

These new routes are part of United’s ongoing strategy to capitalise on the pent-up customer demand for leisure travel with friends and family.

Last month when United announced 26 brand new direct summer flights from Midwest cities to seven coastal destinations in the Southeast and New England, the airline received nearly 5,000 bookings for these routes in the first 48 hours.

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