I sat next to UA SJC gm (Rick) during one of my SJC-DEN-BOS flights before Xmas. We talked about likelihood for SJC-LAX , SJC-IAD, SJC-EWR (reinstate) as I prefer SJC smoother operations vs. SFO ATC situations. He said UA only owns 1 gate in SJC and often “borrow” landing gates from other airlines to juggle schedules. He mentioned HQ does assign priority to new route(s) based on business catalyst or competitive response. SJC-EWR was quickly created in response to AS attacking EWR hub, but given the generally lower yields on both AS and UA SJC-EWR flights, and UA needing the planes for other routes, HQ decided to drop it.

With Amazon HQ2 in Crystal City as business catalyst, and UA gate-challenged at SFO-DCA while SFO-IAD has many flights, it is plausible SJC-IAD may be prioritized in 2H2019. I sure hope AS add SJC-IAD to induce UA to add this route even faster