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Home » United Airlines » United Airlines Cuts Two Legacy Non-Hub Routes
NewsUnited Airlines

United Airlines Cuts Two Legacy Non-Hub Routes

Matthew Klint Posted onJanuary 21, 2020November 14, 2023 18 Comments

a jet plane on the runway

Although it has been years since United Airlines designated Cleveland as a hub, it has maintained some legacy routes from what was once a thriving base. Two routes are on the chopping block as United reassesses demand from a pair of key slot-controlled airports.

United Airlines Cuts Service To New York LGA and Washington DCA from Cleveland

After de-hubbing Cleveland in 2014, United nevertheless maintained a number of key non-hub routes to East Coast and Florida cities.

Those included service to Washington National and New York LaGuardia. But with United’s new hourly shuttle on the CRJ-550 between Newark and Reagan National Airport, the Cleveland slots were needed.


> Read More: United’s New Domestic & International “Shuttle” Service
> Read More: Exploring United’s Swanky New CRJ-550 “Luxury” Regional Jet


As of yet, however, United has not announced a replacement for its now-open LGA slot.

The cutting of LGA and DCA follow earlier cuts to Boston, San Juan, and Cancun.

Larger Aircraft, More Seats To Hubs

The news is not all bad for Cleveland residents, though. United still serves nearby Newark and Washington Dulles airports and will upguage aircraft in those markets to compensate for the service loss to DCA and LGA. The net result will be more premium seats out of Cleveland.

Overall, United grew 3.6% in Cleveland in 2019 and expects further growth in 2020.

Florida Routes Remain

In addition to serving its seven domestic mainland hubs, United will still maintain service between Cleveland and:

  • Fort Lauderdale (FLL)
  • Fort Myers (RSW)
  • Orlando (MCO)
  • Tampa (TPA)

CONCLUSION

American will still serve Cleveland nonstop from DCA and Delta will serve CLE nonstop from LGA. The larger aircraft to United’s hubs will be a better experience than the ERJ-145s on the LGA and DCA routes, though such discomfort may have been worthwhile depending upon where you were going in New York and Washington.

Will you miss United’s non hub-to-hub routes in Cleveland?


image: United

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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18 Comments

  1. Gary Leff Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 2:58 pm

    Poor Dan Eleff.

  2. Ryan Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 3:16 pm

    I fly for ExpressJet. So yes sad to see our Cleveland pilot domicile going goodbye. An absolutely sad day for a domicile which was once a buzzing regional hub with its own terminal. United hates Cleveland even when Cleveland loved a hates United but at the end of the day $$ is all that matters.

    • Matthew Reply
      January 21, 2020 at 3:32 pm

      Ryan, I’m sorry to hear the news as well.

  3. derek Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    I won’t be affected by the lost of CLE service to LGA and DCA. However, I would think that those markets can attract higher yield business fares so bare minimum service might be useful.

    If I were a business traveler in CLE, I might rethink my airline of choice.

    UA serves many of the big business centers but two are served by EWR and IAD.
    DL serves mostly its hubs but does add LGA and, by Delta Connection, some extras like BDL, RDU. By serving hubs, it’s great if I need to get to ATL or MSP but often that might not be in my city I need to do business.
    AA serves its hubs but also, through American Eagle, LGA and DCA.
    WN is a niche carrier. Some like it. Some can’t use it to where they need to go.

    My conclusion is that DL is possibly better to serve smaller cities through hubs. UA and AA can serve some major East Coast cities while UA has LAX and SFO flights. The loss of UA service might cause me, if I were a hypothetical CLE based business traveler to split my loyalty between UA and AA, with AA for LGA and DCA.

    If UA believes it can get better yields from LGA and DCA than flying to CLE, then that’s a reasonable explanation.

  4. Neil Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 3:49 pm

    Both American and Delta serve CLE from LGA.

    I will miss the United CLE-LGA route as it was quite convenient. EWR is a longer drive and only useful for connections.

    It’s also sad that ExpressJet will close the Cleveland base. Many people will either lose their job or have to transfer somewhere else.

    At least Cleveland is still a pretty significant part of United’s network. I believe we still have a crew and FA base here. Also, there is a maintenance base and Chelsea Food Services.

  5. warren Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 4:41 pm

    Cleveland? Really! United shutdown Seattle, the fastest growing city in the US. Filthy rich tech center, yet kept CLE the rust belt.

    • henry LAX Reply
      January 21, 2020 at 5:28 pm

      wanna remind us when DL was shutting down DFW, WN’s PHL build up collapsed a decade ago, AA gave up on SJC before and in the midst of reducing JFK down to nothing but LAX GRU and LHR, while jetBlue’s LGB ops don’t look all that promising either ….. all while AS still hasn’t found synergy in its ridiculously overlapping set of hubs and focus cities south of oregon that aren’t exactly bringing in the dough.

      but yea… UA is the one shutting down things while others are exclusively in expansion mode.

      /sarcasm

      • UA-NYC Reply
        January 22, 2020 at 11:44 am

        Always great to hear 30 year graveyard shift phone rep Henry LAX come the the rapid defense of his employer!

  6. Neil Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 4:49 pm

    @warren Probably too much competition with Alaska and Delta.

    United used to have a hub in Cleveland so they still have a lot of MileagePlus members.

  7. Don B Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 5:27 pm

    United seems to be the airline of choice for many in Cleveland. It’s usually the only reasonable for a non-stop to the West Coast from CLE. The extra capacity to EWR and IAD is nice but those airports are much farther from the city center. There is no reason to be loyal to a single airline in a non-hub city. Just go with the airline with the best schedule and price and not worry about status.

  8. Too Much Flying Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 6:25 pm

    I’m a former 100,000+ flyer out of CLE that used to exclusively fly on United metal, even when it was priced much higher. Remember “United for the Hub”??

    Now, maybe two or four UA segments a year. The soft product has gone way downhill in just the past 3 to 5 years, and they’ve gutted probably 80% of their destinations from here. They’ve also “SkyPeso’ed” their only advantage, which used to be MileagePlus.

    Delta has captured many former CLE-based United FFs with competitive pricing and some unique nonstops, like to Raleigh-Durham.

    Am now 50% Delta, 30% American, 10% Southwest, 10% United. Many, many other business travelers I talk to are about the same. No one likes to fly through ORD or EWR unless they have no other realistic choice. The best secret in CLE is the 18-minute Delta connection over to DTW that can connect you in one short hop to anywhere in the world. Plus great service on Delta.

  9. Aaron Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 9:31 pm

    I never understood why Ohio doesn’t have any hub airports. We are the only state in the top ten states of population that does not have a hub airport, despite being ranked #7 by population.

    Unfortunately, cutting flights means cutting flight demand, as it is much harder to take weekend trips longer distance anymore.

    • Charles Reply
      January 22, 2020 at 11:03 am

      Population may be big, but no one large city. Plus proximity to east coast hubs and Chicago for AA and UA and Detroit for DL.

    • derek Reply
      January 22, 2020 at 6:52 pm

      Ohio does have a hub airport. It is CVG. Though it is technically located in Kentucky, it serves the Cincinnati area and is not far away from the city the way Mirabel is far from Montreal

  10. JBM Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 10:06 pm

    It is interesting to read comments about Clevelanders abandoning United as service has decreased, as the opposite has happened in Cincinnati. Cincinnati used to be a large hub for Delta. After the merger with Northwest, Delta didn’t need a hub in both Detroit and Cincinnati and cut the Cincinnati hub. (Note this is all unofficial, as unlike United, Delta does not list its hubs on its website). Many from Cincinnati abandoned Delta in the same way as Clevelanders abandoned United, first for free agent status and then for Allegiant after it took over the old Comair satellite terminal.

    I’d say it’s something in the Ohio water, but CVG isn’t even in Ohio.

  11. Tracy T. Reply
    January 21, 2020 at 10:55 pm

    Yes, this is a huge loss for me! I make this trip every couple months between where I live and where my family is. I usually alternate between UA and AA out of DCA depending on schedule. Now I assume AA’s prices will skyrocket since they’ve got the sole nonstop now. I’m more likely to fly WN out of BWI, than UA out of IAD going forward. Bummer.

  12. M Reply
    January 23, 2020 at 6:52 am

    I fly out of CLE. When DL picked up CLE-BOS the day UA dropped them, the writing was on the wall. DL matched my status and I’ve been enjoying first class to LGA while UA continued with old RJs that were old, dirty and cramped. For the quarterly trip to the west coast, I don’t even mind connecting in SLC to avoid UA. And yes, to the other comment about DTW. It’s a short hop across the lake and a connection to anywhere.

  13. Justin M Reply
    February 1, 2020 at 1:52 pm

    Really sad to see the CLE-DCA disappear. Even if United is adding more capacity on CLE-IAD, that doesn’t change that the ride (public transport or taxi in traffic) from Dulles to downtown Washington is longer than the flight to Cleveland itself, and a taxi to/from IAD can cost you easily $80. Plus once at IAD these flights will almost certainly leave from C/D terminal, meaning a 20 minute schlep through security, onto the train, and then doubling back through the tunnel to C terminal or waiting for a mobile lounge to the D terminal (plus for PP members, all the lounges notably Turkish are in the A/B terminal), whereas at DCA there was both the United Club and the Bracket Room (PP Lounge = $28 credit) literally in-front of the gate to Cleveland (usually B10 or B11).

    Once the Silver Line finally opens at IAD, that will improve the public transport experience, not having to either grab the 5A at Roslyn or the shuttle at Wiehle-Reston, but still its a good hour on the metro from the city centre. Plus MetroRail has horrible operating hours as it is, especially on weekends/holidays: 8:00 AM – 10:00 PM with trains every 20 minutes on Sundays, meaning if you have to connect to red (Metro Centre) or Yellow/Green (L’Enfant), you need to be on a silver line by about 9:30 PM or youre stuck taking a cab.

    Hopefully this will be an incentive for AA to become more competitive on its CLE-DCA route. They have 3 flights a day but are always more expensive than UA and are at horrible times. AA’s timetable is meant to get you to DCA for a connection not DCA as a destination, usually an early morning, a midday, and a late evening — that is always delayed from domino effect.

    WN from BWI-CLE is always a third option. IMO its easier to get to BWI on MARC train from Union Station than to get to IAD on the 5A or the Silver Line + bus combo, but it means flying Southwest. enough said.

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