United Airlines will suspend its service between Boston and London at the conclusion of the summer schedule, a rare international route between two non-hubs that simply proved unviable in a highly-competitive landscape.
United Airlines Will Suspend Boston – London Route On October 29, 2023
In April 2022, United Airlines launched its BOS-LHR route utilizing a Boeing 767-300 “High J” aircraft with 46 seats in business class, 22 in premium economy class, and only 99 in economy class (with 47 of those extra-legroom seats). Not coincidentally, United launched this route after JetBlue announced a big expansion in Newark (EWR), one of United’s fortress hubs on the East Coast. As of October 29, 2023, United will suspend its Boston – London flight, at least based upon its currently filed scheduled.
I do not think United launched this route purely to spite JetBlue, though I expect that was part of the calculus. Rather, I think Patrick Quayle, Untied’s Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances, saw an opportunity to test out an under-utilized Heathrow slot and this route served as a test for expanding London service to a focus city.
After all, Boston – London is already heavily served by British Airways (oneworld), American (oneworld), Delta (SkyTeam), Virgin Atlantic (SkyTeam), and JetBlue. Norse Atlantic Airways also flies to London Gatwick. But United had a unique opportunity as the only Star Alliance carrier on the route and London Heathrow does serve as a hub (of sorts) for connecting Star Alliance traffic to many major European and Asian cities.
In other words, it was worth a shot and United now has found better uses for that particular Heathrow slot.
United indicated that the rebound of traffic to London Heathrow has been slower than to other Atlantic/European destinations, but the Boston – London route has historically been about the easiest upgrade in the system. With mostly point-to-point traffic, United faced a similar problem using the same aircraft at JFK: not enough demand in part because of the limited schedule. Filling a flight without connecting passengers beyond hubs (which already have service to London) is difficult. Doing so while commanding a pricing premium is even more difficult.
CONCLUSION
United Airlines will suspend service to London Heathrow on October 29, 2023, the end of the IATA summer travel season for the Northern Hemisphere. It is a shame this route did not ultimately prove durable, but also not a surprise considering the limited connecting traffic in Boston and the fierce competition on the route from carriers more established at Boston Logan.
It is not clear how United will utilize the extra slot, but if fungible, my guess is another flight from Newark, where United can compete on schedule with nearly hourly-service in the evening. This might have also been a remedy slot reserved solely for Boston in recognition of the strength of American-British Airways on the route.
image: Mark Harkin
I think this was a remedy slot from the AA/BA joint venture that they were forced to give up, so it is not a slot pair that UA already owned. UA had no choice but to use this slot pair from/to BOS, as that’s what it was specifically granted for.
Unclear to me whether the slot pair is now available for other airlines to apply for.
Yes, it should be available – but JetBlue may not be eligible for it as per the now defunct NorthEast Alliance terms. JetBlue are experts at stamping their feet to demand slots like a petulant brat though, so who knows.
This is news simply for two reasons:
1) it was one of United’s only non hub long haul route
2) as the carrier with the most vast international network, United continues to add international service, while rarely discontinuing these news routes
It must also be remembered that this route was added while the pandemic was still ongoing in many parts of the world while travels restricts still existed.
UA’s Boston strategy has been incoherent for the past decade.
They tried to make it a focus city after the Terminal B renovations, and were the original financial sponsor of the new Terminal B instead of AA.
They then lost out to AA/DL and stuck with only Boston to hub flights, and then randomly launched LHR.
This route was never going to succeed and made no sense. UA’s BOS strategy is focused on hub flying and connections. It failed to make BOS-LHR work in the 1990s and early 2000s. Business demand likely weak at best, tons of competition, and 100% O&D focused in a market it does not have much market share in.
File it under the rumor department, but I was talking with an MCO UA employee and that employee said MCO-LHR was being considered as the replacement.
If they were going to do a non-hub route, MCO could work, again complete rumor, but stranger things have happened.
DL flies MCO-AMS and iirc they used to fly MCO-LHR.
Yeah but MCO-AMS is only seasonal…would UA do the same on a MCO-LHR route?
RIP. This was the best route to upgrade on using PlusPoints. Got upgraded 100% of the time, even on award tickets as a 1K.
The number of times I flew LGW-BOS on NWA back in the day. Great memories of upgrades
Just flew this route in Polaris. Great flight overall, was very surprised with how attentive the crew was. Tried to access the Lufthansa lounge as this was an international business class ticket. The old imbecile working at the desk told me to go to the British airways lounge… like what? Lufthansa is the partner of United, NOT British Airways…
Yay, another new Aaron!
Didn’t the utterly dysfunctional Kirby proclaim United the best airline in the world just a short while ago and now they are running from the competition? I suspect neither he nor the antique 767s operating the route are up to the standards offered by others and passengers are free to choose.