United Airlines reports it ended June leading major carriers in on-time performance and broke many single-day travel records. Will smooth overall operations now continue in July?
June 2024 Was Strong For United Airlines
United shared highlights of its June 2024 operations, boasting that it bested its competitors in terms of on-time performance.
Highlights include:
- Finishing #1 in on-time departures for June among the eight largest US carriers
- United touts it has finished 1st or 2nd for on-time departures for 11 months in a row – its longest such streak
- United achieved the top spot for on-time departures at six of its seven hubs, while 39 domestic United line stations had their best-ever month of June for on-time departures
- This was despite “severe weather impacting 30% of the days in June”
- United carried nearly 16 million passengers in June, the most ever for that month
- United recorded its busiest single day ever on June 24, 2024 with 565,000 passengers
- Four of United’s six busiest days ever in company history were last month
For the Independence Day holiday, United expects to fly nearly 5.7 million people (between June 28-July 8), up more than 7% compared to last year. Every day during this period United will fly an average of over 500,000 people and operate over 4,400 flights, breaking down to three takeoffs every minute for 11 consecutive days.
That all may be puffery, but now comes the test: can United run a smooth operation this summer, not just compared to its competitors, but outright? I’ve had my fair share of re-booking Award Expert clients due to last-minute flight cancellations and severe delays last month…is there enough slack in the schedule and backup aircraft and crew to avoid a domino effect of delays when one aircraft inevitably suffers a mechanical incident?
CONCLUSION
I typically try to avoid travel during the summer, especially to Europe, but I’ll get the chance to fly on United this month and we will see how things go…
This is indeed the test for United: with its growing fleet and route network, can the carrier keep up this summer? Because if it ever expects Delta, it will need to run a tight operation.
image: United Airlines
If you do travel United somewhere, fly basic economy and don’t add your FF number. Just to give a “newbie” experience.
Best United flights I’ve ever taken were on 747s from Hawaii … quality meals , generous up-grades to FC , and respectful staff . I remember the United 747 with fondness .
I seriously doubt these stats. EWR alone has seen delays on many TATL routes stretching well into the early morning hours, in recent weeks. This feels made up.
Newark seems like it is always a cluster, but remember this was a comparative measure and I’ve had Delta and American clients face bad delays and cancellations as well.
They all have had challenges due to weather, ATC shortages, and so forth, but I flew UA to LIS from EWR in late May and the flight was delayed 4 hours. Around our gate, long delays on departing flights to TFS, CDG, FCO, GRU and the weather was fine (and no storms in the area either that night).
6 flights booked in June. 5 on time, one 4 hours late.
I would not want to invest in airline stocks no matter how good their month was!
@Tony … everyone else came to that conclusion moons ago .
Except for me, the blind loyalist.
Multiple UA flights in June, both domestic and international, all either on-time or a few minutes early, all with excellent service (but unfortunately mediocre food). 4 DL flights in June, all delayed, terrible customer service. I have 1K on UA and Gold Medallion on DL.
But we won’t really have the answer until Tim Dunnce chimes in to kiss his cousin Ed’s arse.
I’ve had minor delays on DL international this June. Because 767’s are gonna 767.
But at least it’s a Premium 767
So they were only #1 for on-time departures and not arrivals? The latter is what really matters to passengers; we don’t care that much whether we depart the gate on time or not. Get us to the gate on time or early…that’s what counts!
TATL travel may be messy in summer, but (non western European capitals & party beach cities) Europe in Summer is Supreme imo, weather, vibes & everything are so on point!
I flew United once in June and my upgrade cleared as a Bonvoy Silver!
Seems like the past few years a lot of transatlantic carriers have been having “sales” in J where you could snag a one-stop itinerary for around $2-3k. My past few TATL across the pond have been packed in J.
That’s right – and that is the future, it seems.
Cashback credit cards, purchased miles promotions when appropriate, and cheap fares in paid cabins.
Hopefully this is the case but I haven’t found the sales to happen as frequently in the winter months.
Seems like those operations investments are finally paying off. I find it funny, as much as I always expect EWR to be a cluster and everyone always says it is, it never appears so in the statistics. Just looking at the DOT statistics and its not even in the worst 10 airports for delays over 2023. However JFK, DFW, PHL and CLT are all there.