Originally Posted by
EWR764
...I agree, but I suspect UA is also looking at total visits throughout the day, which I suspect do not yet justify reopening the pop-up lounge "down the hall" in C-1. Since that space doesn't really serve a different segment (and was only open at limited hours prior to COVID), I don't think there's much impetus for United to reopen it. The C-3 pop-up lounge is gone, consumed by the construction of the new United Club. EWR is very peak-oriented right now: some times (mid-morning, afternoon/early evening) it is a zoo, as crowded as it ever was in the pre-COVID days, and some times of day, it's a ghost town. UA is still down about 40% of flights from normal operations, clustered at the highest-demand times.... and flights are FULL....
Yep, seeing this same thing at ORD as I think UA is forcing in more connections at hubs for leisure destinations. The airport is 100% dead for my 7AM flights I've been taking in the last few weeks once those earlier hub<>hub routes came back. I think it's too early for any of the connecting traffic to be there yet. To your point, the late AM and early afternoon prime connection times are the busiest by far. Just another byproduct of the leisure versus business travel dynamic. Going to be very interesting to see how that evolves as business travel comes back.