Game On! United Adds 120+ Flights for College Football Fans
#1
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Game On! United Adds 120+ Flights for College Football Fans
Much like years past, UA is adding non stop flights for select CFB games.
https://www.united.com/en/us/newsroo...road-this-fall
Previous years:
United adding extra flights for college football fans
United Airlines Adds 55 Flights on 8 Routes for Football Fans
https://www.united.com/en/us/newsroo...road-this-fall
CHICAGO, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- United is giving college football fans more chances to see their favorite team on the road this fall by adding 120 new flights to its schedule. According to a recent survey of the airline's loyalty customers, more than 80% of avid college football fans are likely to fly to see a game this season. United is adding connections to more than 45 away games – including some of the country's biggest powerhouses like Alabama, Oklahoma, Iowa, Ohio State, Notre Dame and Michigan – and tickets are on sale now in the United app and United.com.
"College football fans love following their team on the road and this year we're making it easier than ever," said Michael Weeks, managing director of domestic schedule development and publication at United. "We're flying nonstop to some of the most historic football towns in the country, including South Bend, Columbus and Baton Rouge, and also significantly expanding our service on the west coast to help more PAC 12 fans travel to cheer on their teams."
"College football fans love following their team on the road and this year we're making it easier than ever," said Michael Weeks, managing director of domestic schedule development and publication at United. "We're flying nonstop to some of the most historic football towns in the country, including South Bend, Columbus and Baton Rouge, and also significantly expanding our service on the west coast to help more PAC 12 fans travel to cheer on their teams."
United adding extra flights for college football fans
United Airlines Adds 55 Flights on 8 Routes for Football Fans
#4
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I see it as a way to generate revenue on incremental routes that usually have no demand and where people would be willing to pay extra to not connect in in an out of the way hub. Clemson @ ND strikes me as a great example. Avoiding ORD and the drive down to South Bend would be very attractive, I would think.
#5
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#6
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What I find interesting is that they're point-to-point, not just capacity increases on hub-to-spoke flights. That's only capturing the local fans / students going to the games, as alumni are likely coming from all over and would benefit from added hub-to-spoke capacity.
Given what I've seen people pay for flights to college football games, it seems like a good business bet to add those flights, honestly, even with that oddity. The fact that most (all?) are to/from the nearest airports with commercial service and not like some of the UA "national parks" flights is even better; I always hated spending hours flying, then hours more in the car after the flight when traveling to games (and unlike friends, I usually paid a premium to go to, say, LNK instead of OMA for a game at Nebraska).
Given what I've seen people pay for flights to college football games, it seems like a good business bet to add those flights, honestly, even with that oddity. The fact that most (all?) are to/from the nearest airports with commercial service and not like some of the UA "national parks" flights is even better; I always hated spending hours flying, then hours more in the car after the flight when traveling to games (and unlike friends, I usually paid a premium to go to, say, LNK instead of OMA for a game at Nebraska).
#7
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#8
Join Date: Aug 2013
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Some of these make a lot of sense and allow travelers to skip a hub of fly to a city that may not have regular service. Others, though, seem quite odd...check this one out. Stanford is about equidistant to SFO and SJC, and there is already good frequency on the SFO-SEA flights...where you presumably could just add another flight or upguage?
#9
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#10
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The fact that most (all?) are to/from the nearest airports with commercial service and not like some of the UA "national parks" flights is even better; I always hated spending hours flying, then hours more in the car after the flight when traveling to games (and unlike friends, I usually paid a premium to go to, say, LNK instead of OMA for a game at Nebraska).
I'd really like to see flights to places like YIP, but I don't think that's happening.
#11
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The majority of the fans at most college football games who either have season tickets or purchase single game tickets to support the home team are local. 90% of the home fans at any given game did not travel hundreds of miles to attend. South Bend is under 100 miles from Chicago, Portland is about the same distance from Eugene as is College Station from Houston. Your average USC or UCLA fan probably feels like they are travelling hundreds of miles because of the traffic. People do travel, but the majority drive less than 3 hours to attend. I say all this as someone who averages 8 college football games for the past 20 years, lives 20 miles from the stadium and tailgates with a parking lot full of people who all traveled less than 100 miles to the game except the 10% or less who traveled in for the game.
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#14
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After the end of August, the schedule slims down considerably. Adding two or four extra flights per weekend isn't going to contribute in any meaningful way to operational issues.
#15
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It only serves a fraction of the fans at the game, but looking at the routes, I bet UA will have no problem selling out 150 seats for a nonstop flight between city pairs that wouldn't otherwise have nonstop service.