United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) will move three regional routes to Chattanooga Lovell, TN, Ithaca, NY, and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International, PA, currently served from the carrier's hub at New York Newark to another hub at Washington Dulles effective October 4, 2018, ch-aviation schedule analysis has revealed.
All services are currently operated by partner airlines ExpressJet Airlines and CommutAir under the United Express brand using E145 capacity. Following the relocation of the services on October 4, all flights to Chattanooga and one daily rotation to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will be operated by Air Wisconsin using CRJ200 equipment.
The move is part of the carrier's broader restructuring of its East Coast hub strategy. According to the Chicago Business Journal, United will add a number of frequencies from Newark to various domestic destinations, partially thanks to slots freed up after the relocation of three routes to Washington Dulles.
"We wanted to create a schedule that offers customers beginning their travel in the New York City area convenient flights to many of the business and leisure destinations they frequent the most. Since more of our customers begin their travel from New York/Newark than any other United hub city, we’ve created a more customer friendly schedule that removed connection times and provided convenient nonstop service to multiple US destinations," Vice President (Domestic Network) Ankit Gupta has said.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Newark is currently United's third-largest hub with 2,815 weekly departures, while Washington Dulles trails behind with 1,669 weekly departures. The carrier's largest hubs are Chicago O'Hare and Houston Intercontinental.
