United Airlines will add two new Latin America flights and a new Caribbean route this winter, as capacity and demand in that region exceeds even 2019 levels.
Cleveland to Nassau, Bahamas On United Airlines
Expanding on United’s growing network of “point-to-point” flights that do not touch a hub (though Cleveland was once a hub), United will offer direct service from Cleveland (CLE) to Nassau (NAS). The Saturday-only service will be the only nonstop service to the Caribbean from Cleveland. United Also serves Nassau from Denver (DEN), Houston (IAH), New York Newark (EWR), and Washington Dulles (IAD).
Chicago to Guatemala City, Guatemala On United Airlines
United will serve Guatemala City (GUA) once-weekly (Saturdays) from Chicago O’Hare (ORD). With the new service, United will fly more routes to Guatemala than any other carrier. United also serves Guatemala City from Houston, Los Angeles (LAX), New York Newark and Washington, DC.
Denver to Roatan, Honduras On United Airlines
United will be the first carrier to connect Denver to Honduras with once-weekly (Saturday) service to Roatan (RTB), adding to its existing service from Houston. United is turning Denver is rapidly becoming a key gateway from the West to Central America. Already this year, United has added flights from Denver to the Bahamas, Belize, and Costa Rica.
Overall, United will operate 167 daily flights to the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico which represents a 26% capacity increase compared to what it operated in Winter 2019.
Patrick Quayle, United’s Vice President of International Network and Alliances, noted:
“Throughout the pandemic, Latin America has remained one of the strongest regions for United with leisure demand meeting or exceeding 2019 levels. We have been adding new flights to Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America since last summer and with today’s announcement, United will fly 20 new routes across Latin America that we did not operate in 2019 so our customers can enjoy more beaches and warmer weather.”
The traffic is two-way includes strong demand originating in Latin America to travel to the Untied States. While Europeans remained locked out of America, Mexican and Central Americans with visas are welcomed.
CONCLUSION
As the pandemic continues to linger, United is flying where the demand is, or at least trying to create it by focusing on leisure as well as friends and family travel. The new Latin American and Caribbean routes are another reflection that business travel will only slowly return in 2021 and into 2022.
This is absolutely fascinating to watch. The entire industry is becoming Pre-Pandemic leisure focused like TUI, Transavia, etc. You really feel it when traveling now as well. Business travelers were once offered this perfect bubble. Now, we watch as business routes get shredded, leisure routes boom, status means little, fights break out on flights, airports are mobbed with leisure flyers, staff are overwhelmed, phone lines are jammed, rental cars are $300 a day, and top hotels only open full service restaurants during peak weekend times….it’s endless. I wonder where this all leads to.
At some point the whole damn thing is going to blow up. Sucks to be an airline these days. Also sucks to be a business traveler now as well.
RTB is so fun! I took my own SUP board in May and paddled from bar to bar. ABout 95% of the visitors were from Texas, so I’m glad to see UA spice the mix up a little bit, though I’d imagine a lot of DEN based flyers are actually native Texans.
“Cleveland to Nassau.” That just sounds funny for some reason. Gotta be a one-way in January lol.
I never understood once-weekly service… does the low frequency give the airline time to build up demand? But on the other hand, it limits traveler’s options, being inconvenient making them travel on very specific days. Is there a better rationale?
I don’t get it either but I guess they think everyone stays a whole week at their destination. I’m a four day traveler: out on day 1, days 2 and 3 at the destination and back on day 4, so once a week never works for me without a connection there or back.
@GSNick and ChuckMO. Roatan and other places like Bonaire are scuba diving meccas and divers don’t just go for a few days. Dive trips, especially if they’re arranged through a dive shop are one or two weeks long, hence the weekly flights to Roatan and Bonaire. Incidentally, United starts up their weekly Saturday flight again from IAH to Bonaire in October.