As United Airlines prepares for what it hopes will be the busiest transatlantic summer season ever, two new routes will not take-off as planned.
United Airlines Cancels Berlin, Prague Routes, Citing Market Conditions
This week, United Airlines removed two flights from its summer schedule, including:
- Newark (EWR) – Prague (PRG)
- Washington (IAD) – Berlin (BER)
Live and Let’s Fly reached out to United to confirm the Prague cancellation was was told:
“United makes regular adjustments to our schedule in response to a number of factors including demand, costs and resources. We look forward to bringing this route back into our network as soon as the market allows.”
I later found that the Berlin flight was also cancelled.
Passengers booked on these flights will find themselves re-accommodated through Frankfurt or Zurich with a connection on Lufthansa or SWISS. If the automatic rebooking option is not suitable, you can reach out to United to discuss other options or request a refund.
Since the War in Ukraine began, we’ve had clients at Award Expert cancel or postpone travel plans to Central and Eastern Europe. Although I think there is zero chance that Prague would be impacted by the Ukraine War any more than London, Paris, or Rome, I do observe some hesitation to even enter that part of Europe.
As for Berlin, I’m sorry United’s “capital” service will not expand because the German capital is one of my favorite cities in Europe. United’s Newark – Berlin service will continue.
Rather than blame the route cancellations on Ukraine or even tepid demand, the most likely answer is that United needed those aircraft for other markets. United is expanding in London with new service from Boston and a resumption of service to Los Angeles and Denver. It is also launching other new routes, including:
- Chicago (ORD)
- Milan (MXP)
- Zurich (ZRH)
- Denver (DEN)
- Munich (MUC)
- Newark (EWR)
- Bergen, Norway (BGO)
- Palma de Mallorca, Spain (PMI)
- Ponta Delgada, Azores (PDL)
- Tenerife, Spain (TNF)
- Washington (IAD)
- Amman (AMM)
United told Live and Let’s Fly that all these additional new routes will launch as planned.
> Read More: United Airlines Plans 10 New Transatlantic Routes In 2022
CONCLUSION
United Airlines will not launch new service to Berlin or Prague, as originally planned. Citing demand, cost, and resources, United says it hopes to launch these routes at a future time. But it won’t be this summer.
“there are no other transatlantic links to Berlin”
The flights from EWR to Berlin are still bookable. The route is restarting tomorrow according to the flight schedule.
That was an error. Meant from DC.
United has NEWARKR TO BERLIN service which has been operational for years.
It was suspended during the pandemic and has only very recently resumed.
Welp, I guess it’s back to TK to BER for me.
@Matthew, Sorry to be off-topic about this, but you have to be the best person to answer this. My parents and I are going to Stuttgart as well as flying into Basel, do you have any good suggestions for things to do in that part of Germany? Thanks!
Drei-Farben-Haus
Nice! Thanks for the recommendation!
United needs to launch more Europe routes from Denver, everything they ever add does phenomenal but they’re so afraid to add in Denver for some reason. Denver to Paris would do great.
Also, United needs to stop playing surrender at LAX. Makes no sense to not fly to Frankfurt or Munich.
I don’t know why United is so soft at DEN and LAX. Scott Kirby always talks about how they won’t back out of competitive markets and surrender to competitors, but it seems like they are.
UA doesn’t need to fly to LAX – FRA/MUC. The have a metal neutral JV with LH. Thus means UA serves it just no on their own metal. UA is limited at LAX by gates and besides off peak time they are usually packed.
Austin has more transatlantic service than Berlin. Why can’t Berlin ever support transatlantic service? Seems like flights always come and go, and usually fail. Aside from the Federal Government (which seems to me would provide substantial traffic), is the perception of tourism greater than reality on the ground. Everyone talks about how cool Berlin is, and how much they love it. I don’t get it.
Jerry, it’s Berlin. Nobody leaves.
Berlin airport is not a hub by any means, so there‘s very little connecting traffic – it would be entirely O&D, and for this purpose Berlin is not big enough as a market. Berlin‘s economy has been struggling for years, and the city‘s income drivers are government jobs and subsidies from other German regions.
In this regard, Germany is very atypical compared to most other big Western European countries – a recent study has shown that in most countries the national GDP would be negatively affected without the respective capital‘s economic power. In Germany, on the other hand, GDP would go UP by 2% if the rest of the country wasn’t forced any more to keep Berlin on life support …
“…the most likely answer is that United needed those aircraft for other markets. ”
Are you SURE about that, Matthew? Or are you spreading misinformation, as usual? Basically, you’re calling United a liar.
Can you go bark up a different tree?
It’s not like United just all of a sudden realized that – oops! – we need planes for London – were do we get them? All this service – the extra London, the extra PRG/Berlin flying – was all planned at the same time. Having worked in network planning and done that job at United, I can tell you that they knew with precision how many planes they had and when they had them. The only reason this is going away is because bookings/ demand hasnt materialized, and they dont think it will for this season. It’s not because they all of a sudden realized they needed the planes for the London routes – all of those were already accounted for. Hopefully these routes materialize in summer 2023.
It’s not about extra planes to slot-controlled London, but it may we be upgauges or extra frequencies in domestic markets with very strong bookings. I don’t have access to Cirium. Do you?
Matthew, your surmise, not lie, is most likely true. I have to imagine that the EWR-BER route has not panned out for two services a day vs anywhere to LHR. I am sitting on UA919 as I type this (LHR-IAD) 767-300 and it was oversold today. Same last week on the way over. The UA Club in LHR was throttling people This morning much like Denver does (been coming to this lounge for 10 years and never seen it this crowded). There is an old adage “Follow the Money” and that’s what UA should and appears to be doing.
Very disappointed in the IAD-BER service getting the scrap. This was one of the new services I was actually excited to use.
tbh it always seemed like a strange route to me, with FRA served 4X daily in the summer season (2 LH, 2 UA), and Munich served twice (1 LH, 1 UA) out of IAD why add another Germany route from IAD?
UA could make $$$ adding IAD-MXP or IAD-NCE
Because it’s the capital, has a huge population, many business and govt ties and a non-stop avoids having to connect in FRA or MUC. I hate connections.
I was scheduled for the PRG to EWR in June and was really disappointed to get the notification yesterday. Rerouted to Lufthansa FRA and IAD. Meant an extra stop. I will also share that when I tried to do it online myself there was a price difference of +250 pp. When I called for assistance there was no extra charge.
That’s pathetic.
I still cannot believe that UA is going to fly from EWR to TFS.
The Canary Islands are pretty spread out, with two large islands (Tenerife and Gran Canaria) and five smaller ones. Tenerife is very well connected to the other islands but only from TFN, in the north of the islands. So, it looks like UA does not intend to exploit demand originating in the local demand from the islands to the USA.
Yes, I was there last summer and agree (hopefully I can get to that trip report at some point…).
EDI-ORD non-stop in June, has been cut this week and now going thru IAD. Looks like they’ve eliminated that route as well.
ORD-EDI suspended until June the back. IAD-EDI coming back in June. You can get to EDI today through EWR but that sucks big time.
There will be limited Demand to Central and Eastern with an ongoing war and those sections of Europe dealing with a huge influx of refugees fleeing the conflict areas. The North American market will look for alternative vacation areas or with rising inflation and possible shortages of goods/services will just stay Home. There will be more cuts and people should be realistic with a 21st century war taking place.
When is this effective? 8 of us are booked EWR-BER 4/25/22…i have not received any cancellation notice from United…please advise thanks
Never mind…i read this wrong…EWR -BER is alive and well