A United Airlines plane sits on the runway at San Francisco International Airport.
Justin Sullivan | fake pictures
United Airlines said on Friday that it plans to add a small number of flights in September, remaining cautious as the coronavirus pandemic continues to depress travel demand.
The September capacity of the Chicago-based airline will be 37% of last year’s levels and an increase of 4 percentage points from its August 2020 calendar.
United has been among the most conservative airlines when it comes to restoring flights. A surge in demand recovery stalled after coronavirus cases emerged in the US, and states like New York and New Jersey issued quarantine orders for arriving travelers.
“We continue to be realistic in our approach to rebuilding our international and national schedules by closely monitoring customer demand and flying where people want to go,” Patrick Quayle, vice president of networks and international alliances at United, said in a statement.
International capacity, which has been most affected by extensive travel restrictions around the world, will be 30% of United’s September 2019 schedule, through the airline it is adding routes such as Chicago to Tel Aviv, Chicago to Hong Kong and Houston to Amsterdam, among others.
The domestic flight will be 40% of its September 2019 schedule.
United said Thursday it will consolidate its Embraer E145 flights used for short routes with only one regional partner, CommutAir, which will drop airline ExpressJet.
“We have been communicating for several months that we hope to be a smaller airline in response to the unprecedented impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our business,” United said in a statement. “In February, we took our first step to simplify our partner landscape and consolidate our E145 flight. We continue to evaluate new opportunities to improve the United Express product.”
United CEO Scott Kirby told CNBC earlier this month that he expects revenue to reach no more than half of 2019 levels without a coronavirus vaccine.
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