UA back to normal?
 

I see AA announced all their planes are out of storage and back in service, anticipating the increase in people flying this summer. Anybody have any intel on United? I know the 777s with P&W engines are still out, and may be for a while longer. But the other planes?

With a lot of int'l destinations not running or w/ reduced schedule, UA is hardly back to normal and the fleet is not even close to full utilization. A lot of planes are parked for longer periods of time between flights than pre-pandemic. AA planes may be out of storage, but that does not imply they are being utilized fully.

Define “normal” ;)

Is united operating the same pre-COVID schedule -- hardly
Domestically bookings are recovering but flights are on different routes. Business routes are still down, leisure routes are >100%
Internationally -- still below 50%

As for the fleet, planes are still parked and some may never return
The MAXs are returning, the 772 PWs are still unknown return date
Some aircraft have been retired, so in the short term post COVID, capacity will be reduced as most carriers are doing
For parked / retired UA status see - https://sites.google.com/site/united...arked-aircraft
and

Be careful with the AA announcement, many aircraft were retired vs parked.
Such as American Airlines Retires 22 Boeing 737s And Changes Its Paint
and
So, AA may have unparked all of its unretired aircraft but that does not mean AA is returning to pre-COVID levels of operation

OK, good point...not at full utilization. The another point of my question was also the time it takes to get a plane back in service. I know United as said July will have about 80% of normal number of flights. So, to ease things together, ramp up all your planes, but use them less than full capacity, so your fleet is more ready than if you still needed to ramp up more planes? That would seem the logical way to do it, given the pretty clear indicators demand for flights is growing.

As to international flights...yes, less demand right now, but also a number of 777 parked due to the P&W engine issue. Even with the cargo runs they did, and are doing...some more long haul planes are getting put back in service, as flights to opening countries are being scheduled.

Anybody know the amount of time, in general terms, it will take to get a plane out of storage?

80% domestic, international is closer to 50-ish%

I think UA will be ecstatic if 80% overall is reached by end of the year.

Most of those parked didn't do int'l.

I think we will be back to normal when we start seeing the sale fares again..

When pre-Covid business flyers are traveling ?

I don't see that for years, if ever. Too much was done without the amount of pre Covid business travel. I see business cutting travel for a long time.

Apple doesn’t seem to be suffering too much despite the China flight reductions. I wonder if they will re-assess sending 50 people off in biz class on a daily basis SFO-PVG post pandemic. I’m guessing they will. I’m sure this is gonna happen with a lot of industrial companies. For consulting, I think they’ll be back to pre Covid normal sooner.

No, they are not back to normal. Not until PDB’s and the PL’s are back :D

Not even close. Polaris is still horribly neutered. Plus keep in mind the Polaris lounges are STILL ALL CLOSED

Just from an observation point of view...
I've been staying at SFO airport hotel with view on the runways.
Over the past 3 weeks, I really noticed a serious ramp up in flights....
Many big metal birds from foreign countries are back at SFO... maybe they're still empty (I just used to see ANA on a daily basis, but more recently, I spotted British airways back on a daily basis, Lufthansa can't say the frequency but spotted it more than once a week, EVA, Singapore airlines; even spotted an Air France but just once over the week.... .There are more and more (off course, it's not that busy, but still) - (cheap hotels at SFO are bringing their price back to normal if not above)
Just an observation from a single point of view....
Last week, for the first time I saw plenty of United planes lining up for take off (small ones and big ones and more than one time the same day). and finally yesterday, I took off for Salt lake City the traffic was quite decent and small planes were full.

Nope, SFO now is actually dead in the afternoon, with intl A and G are actually deserted, the two food courts at intl terminal only has one restaurant open. What it ramps up are just domestic but not intl. BA maybe daily but whatabout the rest ? SFO is an Asia gateway, CX and OZ are not flying to SFO for now, BR, SQ, CI had multiple daily flights now down to 1 of each, even for hotels, there are 10+ Hilton brands around SFO, right now still only 2 properties provide shuttle, so I really don't know what are you talking about.

This was a week ago at 4pm outside T3, no cars no people, this was not normal.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bfeaf37232.jpg