United Airlines is apparently adding non-hub service between New York’s LaGuardia Airport and Raleigh-Durham starting with the winter season schedule this year; first flights are on 30 October 2016. The new service is loaded into the timetable and bookable now, though the company has not made a formal announcement that I’ve seen.
United will be competing with both American Airlines (8x daily) and Delta (5x daily) on the route. And it offers zero connecting flow for United at either end. In that context it seems a strange route to add, both from a fleet utilization/routing perspective and a service demand perspective. But here we are.
Also unclear is where United is getting the slots to operate the service. A quick scan of the timetable shows 37 peak daily departures from LaGuardia for the company this summer:
- ORD – 15
- DEN – 6
- IAH – 8
- CLE – 6
- IAD – 2
Looking at the winter schedule those frequencies all appear to still be intact. Something will have to give to add these three new flights, however. I’m betting it is ORD or CLE or some combination thereof. I could also see LGA-IAD service getting scrubbed completely.
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Seth, do you think this could just be retaliation for DL launching RDU-EWR?
Glad to see UA hit back at DL!!!
You don’t mention, but this appears to be a response to DL’s addition of EWR-RDU
Yeah, but that’s a silly reason to do it. Especially when DL has some (though not a ton) of connectivity at both ends and UA has nil.
Yeah, but a silly response IMO. It doesn’t really push at Delta in a meaningful way.
Didn’t say it wasn’t silly. Always enjoy watching any airline take a swipe at DL
Disappointed that UA didn’t invite you into their planning meetings.
Hehehe….clearly not gonna happen, but I struggle to see how this obviously retaliatory move makes sense. DL has a bit of feed at either end; UA is going on strictly O/D. There’s gotta be another anything UA could launch which would poke at Delta and have a better chance of financial success.
I asked UA for CLE-RDU ?✈️
Right after YROC – PDX ???
I believe you have your answer
GOOD, mayb now when those cheap fares from NYC-Europe happen It won’t cost an arm and leg for stagging
oh it will still cost a ton. unless you buy them as separate tickets of course 😉
Jacob Jou always separate-adds to CO club funds
They could’ve leased slots from other carriers right? Doesn’t VX have a few unused LGA slots?
Maybe the current Port Authority head bought a house in Rayleigh? 🙂
Nope – he is still down here in Aiken 😉
Come on UA LGA hub!! 😛