Air travel has been unstable over the past two years, largely due to impacts from the COVID pandemic. Millions of passengers have been left stranded at airports across the U.S. in the last year alone as a result of last-minute flight cancellations and delays. But if you thought that the significant progress made toward the end of the pandemic would mean the end of airlines' trouble, think again. United Airlines just announced that it's cutting flights from five major cities, with the changes set to take effect immediately. Read on to find out what routes are being affected by the carrier's most recent set of cuts.
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United Airlines just cut several routes from five different cities.
iStockAirlines are still cutting flights in 2022. United just confirmed that it is dropping 17 different domestic routes from its schedule, The Points Guy reported on Feb. 28. The more than one dozen flights are being pulled from five major cities: Denver, Newark, Washington, D.C., Houston, and Chicago. According to the travel site, Denver is losing one route to Dayton, Ohio, while Newark is losing three routes to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Omaha, Nebraska; and Knoxville, Tennessee.
From the Washington Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C., there are five cities getting routes axed—Allentown, Pennsylvania; Lexington, Kentucky; Madison, Wisconsin; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Pensacola, Florida. Flights from Houston to Alexandria, Louisiana; Columbia, South Carolina; and Akron-Canton, Ohio are also being affected by the cuts. And Chicago is losing routes to five cities as well—Bismarck, North Dakota; Charlottesville, Virginia; Jackson, Mississippi; Pasco-Tri Cities, Washington; and Redmond, Oregon.
The carrier said these cuts were based on demand.
iStockUnited Airlines told The Points Guy that these cuts are not unusual for the carrier. "United makes regular adjustments to its schedule in response to market demand and staffing resources to ensure we can best serve our customers," the airline said in a statement to the travel site.
Many of the routes being cut had also already been suspended by the carrier during the pandemic, according to The Points Guy. But former plans to restart the routes this summer are no longer in place, and they will be cut until further notice from United.
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United Airlines will no longer service one city altogether because of these cuts.
iStockWith the upcoming route cuts, United Airlines will be pulling out of one small city altogether. The airline is cutting regional flights from Houston to Alexandria, Louisiana on June 2, according to The Points Guy. On this date, both of the carrier's regional affiliates CommutAir and SkyWest Airlines will stop servicing its flights to the small city, which is located in the center of the state and about one to two hours away from Baton Rouge and Lafayette. This will remove United Airlines' service from Alexandria completely, while the 16 other markets are only being pared down.
United's CEO has not spoken optimistically about regional cities' future with the carrier.
iStockEvery route being affected by the upcoming cuts involves one of United's regional affiliate carriers. Alongside CommutAir and SkyWest Airlines, regional carriers being impacted include Republic Airways, GoJet Airlines, Air Wisconsin, and Mesa Airlines. This falls in line with recent comments from United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby about the future of the carrier's 50-seat regional planes.
In an October interview with The Points Guy, Kirby told the travel site that unfavorable economics coupled with pilot shortages could result in there not being much of a future for the airline serving certain smaller markets. United already had to ground nearly 100 regional jets at the end of 2021 due to a lack of pilots to fly.
"We’re still debating what the long-term future of 50 seaters really is," Kirby told The Points Guy. "The challenge is, do you want to serve places like Erie, Pennsylvania, at all, or Cody, Wyoming, or do those places just get cut off of the connectivity to the world?”
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