sbm12

United's seasonal service between Newark and Athens is getting competition starting in March 2017. Emirates will launch 5th freedom flights between the two, with continuing service to Dubai. EK's flights are year-round and with the 77W carrying ~360 pax.

Gonna piss off the US3 something special, I presume.

http://blog.wandr.me/2017/01/emirate...campaign=19947
https://www.emirates.com/media-centr...ark-via-athens

LASUA1K

UA should've done ORD-ATH.

halls120

UA could always highlight the wider seats in Y on its 763 used on the route vs. the 17" seat that EK uses.

warreng24

I thought UA cut service to ATH completely. What are the dates for the seasonal service?

riphamilton

perhaps the bigger news is that UA now has some form of ME3 competition in general at EWR.

now that slots are gone [that's accurate, right?], is there anything preventing EK launching EWR-DXB n/s on a 77W? the dent they could put in UA's india traffic alone should keep WHQ folks up at night.

NikoLGA

I’d still book UA for EWR-ATH no matter what, Economy Plus for free is worth a lot, especially when you are 6 foot 6 inches like me.

As a Greek, nothing will ever beat the original OA service that was offered with Economy Plus-esc legroom in Economy, and good food.

I’m hoping A3 will start EWR-ATH in a few years as a replacement to UA’s service, but that’s unlikely IMO.

CALMSP

they did back in the day but brought back seasonal summer last year. also on the schedule for this year.

sbm12

Agreed. Slots are gone and there is nothing preventing non-stop service on the EWR-DXB route if EK wants to give it a go. UA has the advantage of nonstop service for DEL/BOM but will lose badly for the many secondary and tertiary cities EK serves from Dubai. Even with the ATH stop EK's offer isn't awful given the connection times.

EWR764

I really like the timing of the flights... I wish UA had some more late evening EU flights out of EWR, besides LHR, and same in the other direction with afternoon/evening flights westbound.

UA recently filed a schedule with ATH going to a 763ER for the entire summer instead of planned 764 for two months. It will be interesting to see how EK prices the market... I'm not expecting the same bonanza that accompanied the JFK-MXP service entry, but EK is adding a ton of capacity.

Dieuwer

How is this flight going to work with no feed?

EWR764

We may see EK file codeshares with JetBlue, but it's apparent the flight will attempt to rely on:

- Local NYC-ATH traffic (heavily seasonal and leisure-oriented, plus only year-round n/s)
- NJ-India (to secondary cities and cost-sensitive demand, including competitive F/J fares)
- Pricing to stimulate demand in both markets

I'm also surprised EK is going with a 3-cabin 777 in the market. It's still a dense configuration at ~360 seats.

rufflesinc

Who is going to fly EWR-ATH-DXB-India over UA's nonstop or UA ns and one connecting?

DA201

Price sensitive travelers will go with the cheapest option.

UA should be fine on EWR-BOM/DEL. There is a lot of business traffic on these routes which want nonstop. UA will lose out on some of the traffic to secondary cities in India. UA's current connections are in the middle of the night in India and suck. I have connected from these flights before and I would not recommend it. EK probably provides a better option for secondary cities. Hopefully, UA decides to fire back and open routes to secondary cities in India (BLR, HYD, etc.) instead of crying and complaining about an unfair advantage like the US carriers have done all these years. EK is only able to fly to as many US cities as it does because US carriers refuse to fly to India even though there is a lot of traffic.

Also, UA should make EWE-ATH year round to be competitive.

EWR764

The extra stop is more competitive to secondary/tertiary India destinations served by EK from DXB, and of course, if the pricing is right. EK will do a lot of business with agencies/consolidators specializing in USA-India travel.

sbm12

There is a bank of flights leaving DXB around 3-4a into India. I wouldn't necessarily love that as an option with 3+ hours at the airport in the middle of the night. But the alternative is arrive in DEL or BOM and have a short night in a hotel before trying to grab an early onward domestic hop. Neither is a good option.
EK also has the advantage of aggregating all those passengers with those from other destinations in the region much closer to its hub. Flying a bunch of 16-hour flights to secondary cities from a single hub in the NYC area isn't going to be profitable for UA.