BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Airline Summer Schedules Begin Thursday — United’s Newark Hub Embodies The New Reality

Following
This article is more than 3 years old.

Airlines will roll out their summer schedules this week with vast differences in the rate at which international and domestic hubs are recovering to normal levels.

It is no secret that during the coronavirus crisis, domestic air travel is returning more quickly than international travel.

The difference is striking at Newark Liberty, the country’s preeminent trans-Atlantic hub, United Airlines will have just 46 daily departures, up from 25 in May, but still far short of the 405 daily departures it had in the 2019 summer schedule.

Newark’s June trans-Atlantic destinations are Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London Heathrow, Paris (three times weekly) and Tel Aviv.  This June’s total daily EWR departures is just 11% of last June’s total. 

By contrast, at Charlotte Douglas, primarily a domestic hub, American Airlines will operate 46% of its previous year schedule.

American, Delta and United are set to begin operating summer schedules on Thursday June 4 and Friday June 5, with slight to moderate increases from May schedules and with an emphasis on domestic flights over international flights.

The schedules are vastly reduced from 2019 summer schedules, with United operating 15% of its 2019 schedule while Delta operates about 25% and American operates about 35%.

United is the most international of the big three U.S. airlines. In the fourth quarter of 2019, United derived 36% of its passenger revenue from international operations, including 16% from trans-Atlantic. Meanwhile, Delta derived 26% of passenger revenue from international, while American was at 25%.

“United is always going to be larger internationally than our peers,” CEO Scott Kirby told an investor conference on Thursday.  “San Francisco, Newark and Dulles are international gateways.”

Kirby noted, however, that surging cargo business is “one of the hedges against international (passenger) demand.

“Over half of the airfreight market now is passenger planes,” he said, noting that United operated 48 international widebodies on Wednesday. “My guess now is that international has a better P&L than domestic.”

Cargo’s superior profit and loss is “counterintuitive to what everyone thinks,” Kirby said. “Cargo is going to stay strong until passenger demand recovers.”

United operates about 1,050 flights a day this month and “will see about 20 more daily departures in June,” United spokesman Jonathan Guerin said. “However, we continue to closely monitor the situation globally and will adjust our schedules as necessary.”

On Saturday, United announced its July schedule, noting, “While there are glimmers of good news in our July schedule – we expect to be down about 75% versus 90% right now - travel demand is still a very long way from where it was at the end of last year.”

However, United said, “Travel demand has risen modestly to cities across Europe, including to destinations served via connections to our partner carriers.” Lufthansa is United’s principal European partner.

In July, United said, it will add flights from Newark to Dublin, Tokyo, seven cities in Latin America and the Caribbean (including Santiago) and — pending regulatory approval — Newark-Beijing and Newark-Delhi.  Additionally, it plans to restart Dulles to Brussels, London, Munich and Zurich, as well as enhanced service from Houston to a dozen cities in Latin America and from various hubs to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul.

Delta will operate 1,300 flights in its summer schedule, down from about 5,000 daily departures in May 2019. “We are continuing to evaluate the summer schedule in the months ahead, including July, and making adjustments based on demand, CDC guidelines and government restrictions,” said spokesman Anthony Black.

In Atlanta, Delta will operate 256 daily departures, down from 1,000 a year earlier but up from 205 daily departures in May. In June, Detroit will have 128 daily departures while Salt Lake City will have 121.

American’s summer schedule will have about 2400 peak daily departures, down from 6,800 a year earlier. American’s schedule shows 2,312 departures on June 4, up from 1,965 on Thursday, May 28. American will have 2,407 departures on Friday, June 5, up from 1,960 on Friday, May 29.

For Charlotte, the average number of daily departures in June will be 321, up from 285 in May. For Dallas/Fort Worth, the average number of daily departures in June will be 414, up from 357 in May.

Before the crisis, Charlotte was at about 700 daily departures and DFW was above 900.

United’s Denver hub is another largely domestic operation where recovery is coming more quickly. In June, United will offer 126 daily departures from Denver, up from 133 in May, although short of the 500 daily departures the carrier reached in May 2019.

To think that just over a year ago, on June 7, 2019, a Denver Post headline proclaimed, “United Airlines will now fly at least 500 flights out of Denver three days a week. “

The newspaper’s subhead said, “New record flight traffic comes as airline jockeys for more gate space at expanding DIA.”

Rereading the headline provides one more indication of how different things will be this summer.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn