JOSECONLSCREW28

Citing underperforming profits the flight is being discontinued September 20th. Such a shame I enjoy working that flight and the layover is nice too.

Duke787

That's a bummer though not surprising if it's underperforming since presumably UA can still profit via the JV and just feed connecting traffic via FRA / MUC on UA/LH

mherdeg

That's too bad. I really like UA second-city flights — service to places like SNN and HAM gives you a bunch of great options.

spin88

Stuttgart? I don't think so...

Given all the MB traffic, its interesting they can't fill a 757 once a day.

But we all know that United will be able to compete with sub-par product and service because, well it has such a great network!

airdude35

as long as they don't cut the Berlin flight I am fine

Madone59

It will be interesting to see what they do with the 'extra' plane starting Sept 20th.

UA-NYC

17th EWR-LAX/SFO daily?

mahasamatman

Then what should St. Thomas and St. George be?

MatthewLAX

Too bad...it was always full when I flew it, but apparently that does not mean much if UA isn't pricing the seats correctly.

EWR764

This winter is not shaping up to be very good to the airline business. Demand appears to be weakening, fuel prices are back in the rise and the geopolitical climate is becoming more unsettled.

I expect additional route pruning. UA wasn't in expansion mode for this latest upswing, and they certainly won't be starting now as the pendulum begins to go the other way. Aggressive 763ER retirements are the next, easiest target.

spin88

I think it is not shaping up so good for United, which is losing high value frequent fliers, and chose to hack away at its domestic network (more RJs, crappy F product with downgrades, TODs) and Mileage program at the time when domestic lift was providing the best yield improvements for a focus on putting capacity overseas.

Delta and AAL are doing well (ok, very well), but they are gaining passengers from United which compensate for any losses they may have to Chinese and ME carriers.

p.s. I also expect 763ER retirements. A smart management team would use the 763ERs for hub-to-hub lift (they are paid for, don't need the number of turns, go for reliablity), and then use the A319/A320s running side by side between hubs to upgage routes with RJs, but this is not a smart management team.

EWR764

As recently as this week Delta came out with a comparatively disappointing traffic result, and Lufthansa is projecting softening international demand. United is not unique in its exposure to these to the exogenous factors facing the entire industry (to say nothing of its self-inflicted internal problems).

The 3 cabin 763ERs are older, low capacity, long range airplanes. As a result, they are suboptimal for high-volume hub-hub routes and putting additional cycles on those airframes only serves to age them faster. In the alternative, intermediate to long haul routes with perhaps 1-2 legs per day to markets with strong premium demand is a much wiser deployment of the assets.

Running those airplanes on short hauls between hubs will increase wear and likely reduce reliability. I don't think there's any evidence that this is a "smart" management strategy. Stick to the financial analysis ...

golfingboy

DL is still in the green and they are holding their year-end projections. 4.5% increase in PRASM with some increase in capacity [as long as capacity % is below PRASM %] while keeping CASM below 1% is impressive.


UA shrinks and their PRASM has been flat when it should go up [less capacity, weed out low fare and increase PRASM with higher % of higher fare passengers is their mo] so that is not good.

lhrsfo

My bolding above. I thought the strategy was to weed out high fare.

YuropFlyer

I guess STR is a victim to missing feeder traffic from LH? As LH (Europe) only flies to/from their hubs (FRA/MUC) anymore, other feeders (also for fellow *A) have been cut off or moved to 4U (Germanwings) which no one sane would book (due to heavy incompatibilities)