United Airlines has revealed 12 additional international routes that will not return this summer as part of its plan to gradually roll out schedule reductions.
Seasonal Routes United Has Already Suspended
Last week, I reported that United would suspend summer seasonal service to the following destinations:
- Bermuda (BDA)
- Glasgow (GLA)
- Manchester (MAN)
- Nice (NCE)
- Palermo (PMO)
- Prague (PRG)
- Reykjavik (KEF)
- Shannon (SNN)
- Stockholm (ARN)
I mentioned that more suspensions were on the horizon, but United would be slowly rolling these out during the month of April to space out call center volume:
Gradually loading these changes into the schedule allows us to avoid overloading our call centers and IT systems, so that we can deliver the best possible service to affected customer.
> Read More: United Airlines Will Suspend Service To 21 International Markets This Summer
United Suspends Eight Additional International Destinations For Summer 2020
Last night, United announced the suspension of 12 additional routes, which includes cancelling service to eight markets. Here is the full list of routes which will not return in 2020:
- Denver (DEN) – London (LHR)
- Houston (IAH) – London (LHR) [2x daily]
- Houston (IAH) – Santiago (SCL)
- Newark (EWR) – Barcelona (BCN)
- Newark (EWR) – Edinburgh (EDI)
- Newark (EWR) – Lima (LIM)
- Newark (EWR) – Lisbon (LIS)
- Newark (EWR) – Madrid (MAD)
- Newark (EWR) – Naples (NAP)
- Newark (EWR) – Porto (OPO)
- Newark (EWR) – Venice (VCE)
- Washington (IAD) – Lisbon (LIS)
The latest schedule hits United’s seasonal service to Southern Europe particularly hard, with United abandoning Portugal and Spain altogether for the remainder of 2020.
Some routes may return in October if demand picks up.
United Airlines Atlantic Routes Operating In May – June 2020
As a reminder, United will maintain the following Atlantic flight schedule in May and June:
|
Departure |
Arrival |
Frequency |
|
Chicago |
London |
Daily |
|
New York/Newark |
Amsterdam
Frankfurt London Tel Aviv |
Daily Daily Daily Daily |
|
Washington – Dulles |
Frankfurt |
Daily |
> Read More: United Airlines Restoring Several International Routes In May
Expect Drastic United Schedule Reductions In June
While United has not yet rolled out schedule changes for June, it expects “the reduction of capacity in June to be similar to May’s, which is a 90% reduction from previous plans.”
Looks for those schedule changes to be loaded as soon as next weekend.
CONCLUSION
It’s sad to see these seasonal destinations suspended in 2020, but hardly surprising considering the current environment. If your flight plans have been altered, you will likely be automatically rebooked but can call United or use united.com to explore alternate options. If your schedule change is over six hours, you are eligible for a full refund even if you bought a non-refundable ticket.
> Read More: United Rescinds Onerous Schedule Change Policy, But It’s Still 3X Worse Than Before
All those trip reports that won’t be written this year. I miss the trip reports. It’s how I familiarize myself with what airlines are offering. Which is not much these days…
No United service to the UK except London this summer. Wow!
Are they likely to rebook ticket holders on Lufthansa to get them to MAN, EDI, GLA or other airports they’re no longer serving?
We still don’t know what the various country requirements will be on allowed entry, quarantine, etc. When will the EU entry of non-EU citizens be lifted, ditto the U.S. ban. I won’t fly until this thing is all sorted out. Too risky. Some have dual citizenship and can easily travel U.S. to EU on their EU passport then return on their US passport. But that in itself won’t necessarily allow you to avoid quarantines. I doubt very much that Austria, no matter how starved they are for tourist dollars, will want right now hundreds of passengers stepping off a plane in VIE that got in from JFK, EWR or LAX.
Russia just said to its citizens to forget about traveling this year. Russia’s borders are locked down tight, land, sea, air.
Switzerland is an island in the EU, as is Iceland and Norway. They are Schengen members, but will be able to open up on their own. Austria too is step-wise opening up. But the question is whether this patchwork opening by countries will delay the resumption of air travel.
No good flying into Vienna airport, have to quarantine for 14 days, and then if there is no way for onward air travel to other destinations, or if you can fly to another country like Spain from Vienna, will you have to again quarantine in Spain. Again, right now traveling internationally is out of the question for me.
@Drew S-I have residency in Spain with US passport. They have allowed residents to come in as well. My last flight, mid-March booked on UA MP award ticket, was changed from LAX-EWR-BCN to LAX-EWR-MUC-BCN. I had no issue boarding in EWR or MUC with resident card.
I am booke in December 2020 on LAX-EWR-BCN so it will be interesting to see if they do drop the EWR-BCN for 2020.