It looks like United Airlines is pulling the plug on flights to Glasgow, Scotland for the winter season. Flights for service on/after 28 October 2017 are now zeroed out in the booking systems. This is typically the first step in an airline cancelling operations. Presumably the schedule will be updated with the changes this weekend.
Booking systems show the flights returning in May 2018.
United has historically been the only US carrier offering year-round service to Glasgow from the USA. The airport even worked to publicize the winter service last year; apparently that wasn’t enough to build traffic.
American (PHL), Delta (JFK) and Virgin Atlantic (MCO) offer seasonal service. Air Canada Rouge is also a seasonal operator while Air Transat has one seasonal route (Vancouver) and one year-round (Toronto). That full-time service appears to be sticking around, at least for now.
With the 757-200s that United uses for these shorter Transatlantic flights in higher demand for domestic transcontinental service (as well as some Hawaii flights) it makes some sense to see the cuts in the flights to Great Britain. But that’s not particularly helpful to those who travel between the two cities. Edinburgh service remains through the winter and it isn’t horribly far away, but still not the same.
Also worth pointing out the new Norwegian service to Edinburgh from Newburgh and Providence, I suppose. That probably didn’t help United’s yields on the route.
h/t RGG for noticing this
Header image: Out the window of a United 757-200 at sunrise, something folks headed to Glasgow won’t see this winter.
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As a Scottish reader, thanks for sharing this piece of Scotland related aviation news!
Regards, Alastair Majury