jmr50

Right now, peak of the summer travel season, and most days United flies 5x 763 (3 in the 183 seat version and 2 in the 214 seat version) and 1x 752 (169 seats) between NYC and LON. That's 1,146 seats a day between two of the biggest business centers in the world (with some of the best premium demand!)

Skyteam typically has 8x flights a day. A mix of 3x Delta 767s (208 seats) and a bunch of different Virgin Atlantic 2x 346 (308 seats), 789 (264 seats), 3x 333 (264 seats) -- this is a total of 2,296 seats a day.

OneWorld has the most. American has 3x 772 (260 or 290 seats), 1x 77W (310 seats) and British has 5x 747s (275 in Super High J) and 4x 777 (224 in 4 class) and 1x 789 (216) and 1x 318 (32) -- something like 3600 seats

So, why so little United service? In fact, next summer they're dropping 1 flight a day out of NYC, bringing their daily seats under 1000...

Can they really not support that little demand? Even Norwegian has 600 seats a day...

JVPhoto

*A is being served by one carrier...United. As you stated SkyTeam and One World each have two carriers one USA and one UK.

lhrsfo

UA doesn't fly to JFK so only really serves the small proportion of people who actively choose Newark, together with connecting traffic loyal to UA.

Kacee

There's no *A hub at LHR so it's nearly all O/D traffic for UA.

flyerbaby19

LHR isn't really a hub for Star alliance so I would expect UA to have much less traffic than say BA

In The 216

I understand your question but I am not sure I agree with the premise. I think UA's service to LHR is quite sufficient; even from EWR. Why would they utilize additional slots at LHR just because?

EWR x 5
IAD x 4
ORD x 3
SFO x 2
IAH x 2
LAX x 1

Acid

Air India (*A) also has 2 flights a week EWR-LHR. UA has lost out on connecting traffic to India as their partnership with Jet Airways ended which is now closely aligned with DL/VS/Sky Team.

sbm12

Not that it matters, but VS is not in SkyTeam. It has a JV with DL but it is not associated with the alliance and has not partnership with AF/KL/AZ in the TATL JV (yet).
And by most accounts the Norwegian yields are crap. I bought a $240 o/w including all the fees. I'm pretty sure UA would much rather not sell more seats at that rate.

More than half of AA's traffic at LHR is connecting, IIRC. UA has far less flow at that end.

vca

If the demand was there they would have more service...not to mention London is losing a TON of financial jobs to Frankfurt where United is nicely situated.

mduell

Three things come to mind:

- UA doesn't like to chase competitive hub-hub markets.

- Their choice of NYC airport with limited catchment.

- Lack of a partner hubbing at LHR since the demise of BMI.

seanp7

I think the fact that UA keeps the 763's on this route with F shows you that they are in the market for potential C/F customers on this route, prioritized over filling low value Y (when there are valid *A alternatives via LH/LX/TP/OS/etc for very price sensitive travelers). i.e. They, like BA, want the premium market.

Might explain the great UA club there too.

AceReport

Also lets not forget just how subpar Air India really is. So many will choise UA's directs out of EWR or connect through FRA or ZRH on LH or LX

NikoLGA

Not to mention, if you ever look at seat maps in January to March, you’ll see planes at 30% capacity. No way UA can afford to add additional slots at this time.

IggySD

Because UA retreated from this market several years ago. They used to be competitive with AA (several years ago AA and BA flights JFK-LHR were not eligible for code shares / award redemptions on the non metal carrier) and DL was far behind with mostly LGW slots. The other two airlines did what was necessary to increase their presence in the market, UA did not (or was unable to). Although the final JFK surrender occurred during the Smisek regime I do recall this capitulation had its origins prior to the merger.

DA201

DL and AA both have partners in London while UA is alone. Additionally, AA/BA connects a ton of traffic over LHR to other destinations. UA has a great LHR portfolio overall from all of its hubs (now that DEN-LHR is coming).