United
Express will offer 17 daily flights between Newark
and Washington Reagan
from May. Using Cirium Diio to explore the airport pair’s frequency in the past 20 years shows that a high of 18 daily departures was offered on nearly 400 days between 2021 and 2023, with up to 10 daily flights in 2024. Newark slots might come from United Express cutting three short Newark routes from the end of March.
Newark-Reagan: up to 17 daily flights
Do not misunderstand. United Express had already scheduled 17 daily departures each day of the week from March 30 until October 25, 2025. The latest schedule update to Cirium Diio, reflected in United’s booking engine, shows that this level will now be offered nearly two months later than previously planned. As shown below, it’s notable just how drastically service levels change.
Source of data: Cirium Diio. Figure: James Pearson
For an obvious reason, Saturday flights between January and May are three to seven daily, while Sundays have four to 10 daily flights. Yet, even these days will be served 17 daily from late May. It is an enormous increase.
Photo: Bui Le Manh Hung BUI | Shutterstock
There clearly cannot be sufficient demand, especially on Saturdays. Indeed, going through the 2021-2023 schedule, Saturdays had an average of five daily departures. Just eight Saturdays had 10+ flights—yet there will now be 17 daily! Is another schedule change coming? Is it effectively a slot-sitting exercise?
A day’s flying is like this
Hourly services will be provided throughout the day, rising to half-hourly at times. GoJet’s three-class CRJ550s will operate them all. These aircraft have 50 seats: 10 in first class, 20 in premium economy, and 20 in regular economy.
When all United and United Express routes and flights in June are combined, Cirium Diio shows that GoJet’s CRJ550s will operate 8% of Newark services and 47% at Reagan.
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For readability, the following table only includes the departure time from each end of the airport pair.
|
From Newark to Reagan |
From Reagan to Newark |
|---|---|
|
06:00, 07:00, 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, 10:30, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 14:30, 15:00, 16:00, 17:00, 18:00, 19:00, 21:00 |
06:00, 07:00, 08:00, 09:00, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 12:30, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00, 16:30, 17:00, 18:00, 19:00, 20:00 |
At the airport level, the route will be United’s most-served networkwide. There will be 510 departures in June (17 daily x 30 days) against 390 for number two, Newark-Chicago O’Hare (13 daily).
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Half of the route’s passengers are local
According to US Department of Transportation data for the 12 months to March 2024, half of United’s Newark-Reagan passengers were point-to-point (50.4%). They only flew between the two airports; they did not connect. The airline filled 82% of the route’s seats.
Some 49.6% of passengers connected to another flight in Newark. Booking data indicates that Boston-Reagan was the top origin and destination, followed by Denver, Tel Aviv (since suspended), San Diego, Orlando, San Francisco, Dubai (read about its Newark-Dubai route), Los Angeles, London Heathrow, and Santo Domingo.