Boeing 777ER United Airlines. Planes at Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci airport.
Massimo Insábato Portfolio Mondadori | fake images
united airlines is planning another big increase in schedules for transatlantic travel, in a bet that consumers will continue to pay for international travel, some of which they had put off for years.
Next summer, United says it will fly to 37 cities in Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East, a total it said is more than other US carriers combined. It will also bring return destinations, including a nonstop flight from its Newark Liberty International Airport hub in New Jersey and Stockholm in a boeing 757 on May 27. She last served that city in 2019.
Airline executives recently reported a good summer for European travel in particular. United said demand was up 20% from 2019 during the summer peak. Ticket sales have been strong through the fall, prompting some carriers to Maintain more off-peak flights to chase that income.
Despite strong demand and high fare revenue, airlines were hampered by a number of challenges this summer, including Aircraft delivery delays and shortages, and the chaos of staff shortages in major European hubs like London and Amsterdam, leading airlines to curb ability.
“This is a schedule that we think we can operate,” Patrick Quayle, United’s senior vice president of global network planning and alliances, told reporters. He said the airline is working closely with airports and other industry members to ensure it doesn’t overdo it.
Inflation, a slower pick-up in business travel and other issues still loom over demand by 2023. London Heathrow Airport warned on tuesday that travel demand is “uncertain”.
When demand was weakest in the pandemic, United experimented with its route map, offering destinations such as Palma de Mallorca in Spain and Ponta Delgada in the Azores of Portugal. Those flights return even though service to Bergen, Norway, missed the cutoff for 2023.
United said Wednesday it will start flights May 25 between San Francisco and Rome on a 777-200ER, part of the airline’s large investment in service to Italy. On the same day, it will begin seasonal service to Shannon, Ireland from Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on a Boeing 757 and daily flights to Barcelona from Chicago on a 787 Dreamliner.
It will also offer flights from Washington Dulles International Airport to Berlin on a Boeing 767 beginning May 25. The airline plans to fly 23 daily flights to London Heathrow next summer.
On March 25, United will begin service between Newark and Dubai on a Boeing 777-200ER, flights it announced last month under a New partnership with Emirates.
delta airlines it is also ramping up service to Europe for next spring and summer, increasing its transatlantic capacity by 8% from 2022.
Its additions include nonstop service from Geneva, more service to London and the resumption of daily flights to Berlin, all from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
