United cuts flights to Australia
Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston will all see "adjustments based on demand”.
By David Flynn, July 29 2024
After ambitiously pushing into Australian airspace to the point where it overtook Qantas in Australia-US flights, United Airlines is pulling back on both the number of planes and seats it will offer across the Pacific.
While none of its six routes spearing out from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are being dropped, many passenger on the Star Alliance member and Virgin Australia partner will need to revisit their schedule and travel dates.
The changes are rippling through what airlines term the Northern Winter period, which runs from October 2024 to March 2025.
United Airlines has confirmed the changes to Executive Traveller, with a spokesperson for the airline saying United regularly evaluates its schedule and make adjustments based on demand and the broader needs of our network.”
“United remains committed to serving the Australian market and continues to be the largest carrier between the continental U.S. and Australia this northern winter.”
Sydney-San Francisco, which was due to gain a second daily United flight stretching across the Australian summer holidays to cater for peak demand, will now see that additional flight running just three days a week between mid-December 2024 and early March 2025.
Sydney-Houston will likewise be wound back from daily flights to three per week from late October to mid-December, at which point the Boeing 787 Dreamliner bounces back to daily operations.
Melbourne-Los Angeles is also trimmed from daily to three flights per week between late October and the start of December, while Melbourne-San Francisco shifts from a planned seasonal uptick to United’s Boeing 777 flagship to retain the smaller Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
However, while the Dreamliner has fewer seats – including a near-30% drop on its Polaris business class – it’s undoubtedly a superior ride on the 14+ hour trans-Pacific trek due to the lower noise levels, reduced effective cabin altitude and higher humidity, all of which minimise the impact of jet lag and overall tiredness.
As previously reported, United has also scrapped the 2024 return of its seasonal flights between Brisbane and Los Angeles.
Rivals American Airlines and Delta Air Lines will both add new seasonal flights from Brisbane – the former to Dallas Fort Worth, the later to Los Angeles – with those new services supported by the Queensland Government’s $200 million Attracting Aviation Investment Fund.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 381
United's expansion did seem very full on. This is no surprise really, with a weak Aussie dollar and the United State, as a country, seeming less and less appealing as every year goes by.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
18 May 2017
Total posts 37
The Aussie dollar continues to be very weak, so it is not surprising at all that United Airlines has reduced the number of flights to Australia. There are other destinations which add much more value for the weak Aussie dollar and are also closer to home. Only when our dollar goes to around the 80 U.S. cent mark will travel demand start to make a difference for Aussies wanting to visit the Americas. At the current 65 U.S. cent value, we simply lose too much on the exchange rate. Going the other way of course is advantageous for American people, but many only receive 2 weeks recreational leave per year, and going "down under" will in practical terms suck a couple of days out of it to do long haul (+ recovery time from it). Aussie have the time, but only weak money. Americans have strong money but not the time. Both are huge dis-incentives.
Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer
27 Feb 2015
Total posts 20
Looks like a clear sign that the outrageous pricing particularly for J to North America is well on the way to normalising. United made hay while the sun shone and now they can repoint to the next windfall rent route.
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