Summary
- United Airlines has removed 161 flights to China from its March schedule, affecting multiple airports including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington DC.
- The routes with the most flights removed were from Newark Liberty International Airport to Beijing and Shanghai, resulting in a loss of over 6,000 passengers on each route.
- The delay in consistent service to China is not new for United Airlines, as they previously cut routes in December and faced further setbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
United Airlines is once again removing flights to China from its upcoming schedule. Per Cirium data, the airline has removed a total of 161 flights from its list of scheduled flights in March. This includes flights coming from New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington DC. The destinations in China include Beijing, Shanghai, and Chengdu.
Removal of flights
Per Cirium data, United Airlines has made changes to seven different operations, each of which had 23 flights removed from its schedule. The only unaffected services were connecting San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU), which only has one scheduled service, and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK), which operates as a daily service and carries over 10,000 passengers monthly.
Photo: Greg K__ca I Shutterstock
Two of the affected routes originate from Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR). United Airlines has removed 23 flights from each route to Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK) and Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG). This is a total loss of just over 6,000 passengers on each route. United Airlines kept two services each on the schedule for March, with just 500 passengers on each route.
Two other services were reduced from Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD). These routes were also to Beijing and Shanghai. Each route had a total of 23 flights removed, which is just under 5,600 passengers on each route.
The remaining routes came from three other airports in the United States. United Airlines removed 23 flights each from its service connecting San Francisco to Shanghai, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Shanghai, and Dulles International Airport (IAD) to Beijing. This removes 6,348, 5,911, and 5,589 passengers from each of the three routes.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying
Many of these long-haul routes are operated by one of the airline’s many Boeing 777 variants. United currently operates a total of 19 777-200s, 55 777-200ERs, and 22 77-300ERs for these long-haul services.
Another delay in the consistent service to China
Back in December of last year, United Airlines once again delayed the relaunch of several scheduled routes to China. In this previous rescheduling, United was set to increase the frequency on several routes, including Newark to Shanghai, Washington Dulles to Beijing, and Lox Angeles to Shanghai. United previously increased the frequency of these routes in March, but cut them, further delaying the consistent operations to China.
Photo: Denver International Airport
In October of last year, the United States and China both agreed to increase the number of weekly flights between the two countries. The two countries were set to increase the number of weekly flights to 70, which was up from 48. This expansion allowed for re-establishing flight operations after the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were eased. The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and the Chinese government intended to divide the new flight spots among the three largest carriers in the United States and six China-based carriers. The US-based airlines were American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines. The other Chinese carriers included Air China, Beijing Capital Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines, and Hainan Airlines.
