A United Airlines Holdings Inc. Bombardier CRJ-550 plane is parked at a gate at O’Hare International Airport (ORD) in Chicago, Illinois.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images
United Airlines is adding more than two dozen nonstop Midwest routes to coastal cities popular with tourists during the summer, a bet that travelers will continue to gravitate towards the outdoors.
The Chicago-based airline said on Thursday that its overall May schedule will be 52% of what flew in May 2019, which will happen in more than a year, when the pandemic ended business and many air travel. Last May, it flew 14% of its capacity in May 2019. Its domestic schedule in May will be 58% of its capacity in May 2019.
The plans show the operator’s focus on domestic tourists for another summer, usually the most profitable season for airlines. Air travel has steadily increased, as more people have been vaccinated in the past month, but business travel and international travel are still falling sharply compared to domestic vacation locations.
“We wanted to point our assets to where the demand is,” said Ankit Gupta, vice president of network planning and programming at United. He said the airline’s capacity for Florida is almost back to the same level as 2019.
As of May 27, United plans to add new nonstop flights from Cleveland, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Indianapolis. Destinations and frequencies vary by market two to four times a week and include Portland, Maine, Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and Pensacola, Florida.
Most of the service will be on its 50-passenger CRJ-550 jet.
Other new nonstop flights include Houston to Kalispell, Montana, Washington to Bozeman, Montana and Chicago to Nantucket, Massachusetts
Other operators are also chasing customers eager to leave home. Delta Air Lines last week announced a series of summer services to destinations such as Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Glacier Park, Montana.
Leisure-oriented low-cost airlines, such as Spirit Airlines, are also planning to grow this summer, while low-cost airline Southwest Airlines is entering United territory by entering the O’Hare International Airport hubs in Chicago and from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
“There will be significant competition for all customers in the United States,” said Gupta. “We believe that we have all the right ingredients.”
International travel continues to lag behind domestic travel due to continued travel restrictions and weak demand. United’s international schedule in May is 46% of the May 2019 schedule, although flights to Latin America and the Caribbean surpass May 2019 levels as travelers look for vacations and visit friends and family.