whlinder

That's a good point too.

As airports consolidate into global hubs, shrinking IAD's connectivity will eventually lead to death by a thousand cuts.

BackOfTheBus

I absolutely cannot understand how UA fails to at least run a couple of CRJ-700s on IAD-MIA (or FLL, since it is more centrally located and has a club). They used to have 1 mainline (737/757 usually) IAD-FLL and 2-3 daily CR7s to MIA... The FLL flight was frequently not jam packed, but oh boy those MIA flights were full and pricey and a tough upgrade!

So why can't UA spare a CR7/E70/E75 for the route??? Sure, DCA is the preferred airport, but for Pete's sake we are talking 2 70-seaters a day, not an A380!

Madone59

I just noticed this today when booking MIA-IAD - I ended up going AA. When exactly did UA end this route, or has it gone seasonal? I flew it just last year.

BF263533

Service to Florida on UA has been drying up. PBI is down to one RJ a day to Houston. AA has two daily flights to DFW and one to ORD.

rtalk25

UA has the transcons from IAD, but also it keeps a lot of regional routes from IAD. For example, it doesn't fly PHL-EWR but it flies PHL-IAD, likely because PHL-EWR would be wasteful for EWR slots.

It keeps PIT-IAD, MDT-IAD and RIC-IAD which also have very little if any O&D value, but it's great for TATL connections. They also use IAD for domestic connections. For example, it offers PHL-IAD-PIT and I once was about to book it.

I think South Florida falls into a category where it's too far for regional like in a quick short-haul, but not far enough because it's still within DCA's perimeter.

ATL is 535 miles from IAD, which is a little beyond short-haul. Dallas though is farther. How is United doing on IAD-DFW now that DAL-DCA is being flown by WN and VX, and AA also has strength on the DFW side?

Southwest similarly doesn't fly BWI-MSP and essentially gives the market to Delta, even though BWI is a Southwest hub. But it offers BWI-MDW-MSP where MDW is between both airports, and tries to be the low fare choice. Atleast before Spirit started BWI-ORD, Southwest BWI-MDW fares were about the same as BWI-MDW-MSP booked 3 weeks out, but now Spirit has altered Southwest's fares on BWI-MDW.

What makes the UA situation worse is what UA is offering: IAD-EWR-FLL as a connection as a backtrack. IAD is more of an international gateway than BWI is to Southwest. And South Florida should work as a destination that can be stimulated in the winter, over Minneapolis.

I agree. I'd think it could atleast try a same plane from a NY airport (like LGA) through IAD to South Florida. Atleast the New Yorkers would help fill loads and some would accept a one-stop if the fare was slightly discounted. It's not like US's CLT-Florida flights are filled by Charlotte locals.

That's another issue that United pulled out of JFK and is meager from LGA-IAD, that is hardly is participating in LGA/JFK-Florida traffic even via connections. I'd think that's a major traffic flow where UA is totally missing. It'd be like Delta not selling any west coast connections from DCA or BWI.

BackOfTheBus

I can just imagine a one-stop CR7 LGA-IAD-PBI with 25 wheelchairs and then half the plane starting to complain as the pilot announces they are about to land at Dulles!

catocony

South Florida has always been spotty on UA. Even with Ted, there was only one IAD-FLL flight, which I was on about 3 times a month. No flights to PBI, and MIA was mainline for a while, then downgraded to RJs after Ted's demise.

UA killed off IAD-FLL for a few years, then brought it back after Continental took over. Just one a day though. I wasn't too surprised when it was killed off last year, but IAD-MIA was a shocker. It was an RJ flight, and usually pretty packed.

As for the flights from Dulles to Tampa and Orlando, there used to be 6-7 per day to each. Being summer, I can understand that the numbers are currently down, but as we've seen at Dulles, once flights get cut they tend not to come back regardless of season.

halls120

I used to fly IAD-MIA all the time, and it was packed, even though at the MIA end, the terminal was worse than at IAD, if you can believe that. Since Jeff doesn't want my money, most of it is going to Doug.

fly747first

True. FLL -JFK is one of jetBlue's most profitable routes.

exerda

Didn't hurt that UA ran the "DC You Mean the World to Us" promo (where you earned points for every DC segment and then could redeem them in chunks for regional, domestic, and international award flights), it matched every Indy fare, often with mainline equipment and overcapacity when Indy was using CRJs...

blockski

Just a thought, but IAD-TPA is a compelling destination due to MacDill AFB in Tampa, home of US Central Command. Given the large number of defense contractors near IAD, I could see that being a compelling reason to serve TPA but not MIA or FLL.

kop84

You can fill any plane if you price it low enough.

But UA continues to run away from competition because they know their operation isn't good enough to compete with AA/DL, and their fares aren't low enough to compete with NK/WN/B6/F9/VX

Bear96

OK fine, without UA's efforts Indy might not have run out of cash until February instead of January.

Or are you saying Indy would still be around today if it weren't for UA's efforts?

nerdbirdsjc

Why? New Yorkers have a ton of nonstop SoFla options from all three airports, from legacy and LCCs alike. And Dulles hub costs are much higher than Charlotte's, so there's a good chance UA/IAD would take a loss where AA/CLT might break even (though I expect some significant reductions at CLT as the hub begins to take on legacy AA cost levels).

If you don't like the current state of affairs at IAD, blame government policies and practices that ensure it remains an under-utilized hub with increasingly poor operating economics.

goalie

I wish they did have service ex-iad to either FLL or PBI as I booked an award ticket for goalie-dad and the only options were via EWR or IAH and with the options out of IAH a mix of mainline and RJ's vs EWR which is all mainline, he's taking the long way to PBI