Summary
- United will have 288 international routes in July, with an average of nine weekly flights.
- There are 27 international airport pairs with flights only on Saturdays or Sundays.
- United’s weekend-only services have changed significantly compared to the pre-pandemic 2019.
The peak summer month of July is fast approaching. When it arrives, United will have 288 international routes. Examining them all using OAG data shows they’ll have an average of nine weekly flights (each way). Some 220 routes will have at least one daily flight. Of those sub-daily, 41 will have more than a weekly service.
The least-served international routes
Then, there are United’s weekly international airport pairs. There are 27 in July, each with a flight exclusively on Saturday or, in one case, entirely on Sunday. All but one route is from mainland US hubs and focus cities to the Caribbean, Mexico, or Central America. The sole exception is from Guam.
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This article was researched and written on June 3.
Of the airport pairs listed below, only Denver-Montego Bay started recently, in November 2023. It effectively replaced Frontier, which served it between February and July 2023. Before that, various other United routes began in 2021. It was when many operators used freed-up aircraft from COVID restrictions to experiment with sun and other leisure destinations.
The data is for July 2024 only; it will differ at other times. It is a simple snapshot of the month.
|
Airport |
Weekly Saturday or Sunday-only departures in July 2024 to… |
|---|---|
|
Chicago O’Hare |
Providenciales (737 MAX 9), Puerto Vallarta (A320), St Maarten (737-700), San Jose, Costa Rica (737 MAX 8) |
|
Cleveland |
Cancun (737 MAX 9) |
|
Denver |
Belize City (737 MAX 8), Cozumel (737-800), Montego Bay (737 MAX 8), Nassau (737 MAX 8), Roatan (737-800) |
|
Newark |
Antigua (737-900), Barbados (737-900), Belize City (737 MAX 8), Bonaire (737 MAX 8), Curaçao (737-700), Grand Cayman (737-900), Puerto Vallarta (737-900), St Kitts (737-900), St Lucia (737-700) |
|
Guam |
Pohnpei (continues to Chuuk early Sunday; 737-800) |
|
Houston Intercontinental |
Acapulco (E175), Bonaire (737-900), Mazatlán (E175), Zihuatanejo (E175) |
|
Los Angeles |
Belize City (737 MAX 9), Puerto Vallarta (737-900) |
|
Washington Dulles |
Barbados (737-800; Sunday) |
Throwback: United in July 2019
In July 2019, before the pandemic, United had 247 international routes. Five years later, the number has risen by 17% to 288. However, the number of routes operated weekly on Saturday or Sunday has fallen from 30 to 27, reducing the proportion from 12% to 9%.
Photo: Tom Boon | Simple Flying
There has been a massive change in the weekend-only services operated five years ago, with 19 of the 30 no longer existing like that. New Orleans-Cancun was cut. Of the remaining 18, each now has at least double the number of flights, reflecting maturity and performance. Seven routes are now daily:
- Denver-Liberia: was weekly 737-800 in July 2019, now daily 737 MAX 8
- Denver-Los Cabos: was weekly 737-900, now daily 737-800
- Newark-Liberia: was weekly 737-800, now daily 737 MAX 8
- Newark-San Salvador: was weekly 737-800, now daily 737 MAX 8
- Washington Dulles-Aruba: was weekly 737-900, now daily 737-900
- Washington Dulles-Montego Bay: was weekly 737-900, now daily 737-900
- Washington Dulles-Vancouver: was weekly 737-900, now daily 737-700/737 MAX 8
What do you make of it all? Let us know in the comments section.