Nearly 30 international routes will return to United Airlines’ schedule this September.
The carrier announced on Friday that is plans to resume service to Asia, India, Australia, Israel and Latin America as well as the Caribbean, Hawaii and Mexico next month, a four percent increase in capacity compared to what is planned for August 2020 and 37 percent of its overall schedule as compared to 2019.
“We continue to be realistic in our approach to building back our international and domestic schedules by closely monitoring customer demand and flying where people want to go,” said Patrick Quayle, United’s vice-president of International Network and Alliances. “In September, we’re adding even more options for leisure travellers or those who want to visit friends and relatives, whether that’s within the United States or around the world.”
Domestically, United intends to fly 40 percent of its schedule.
The airline plans to add more than 40 daily flights on 48 routes to locations including Austin, Texas; Colorado Springs, Colorado; and Santa Barbara, California. Additionally, United plans to resume service between the U.S. mainland and Hilo and Kauai and increase flying to Honolulu, Kona and Maui in the Hawaiian Islands.
In terms of international routes, United intends to fly 30 percent of its schedule as compared to September 2019, which is a 5 point increase compared to August.
The airline expects to resume service on 20 routes in Latin America and the Caribbean, including to popular vacation destinations like Cabo San Lucas and Puerto Vallarta in Mexico and to San Jose and Liberia in Costa Rica.
United also intends to begin new nonstop service between Chicago and Tel Aviv and resume eight routes in the Atlantic and Pacific, including the return of European service from Houston with flights to Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
The health security of passengers on all United flights is ensured by the carrier’s CleanPlus program, which was developed in collaboration with Clorox and the Cleveland Clinic and launched in May. Its policies and protocols include:
- Requiring all travellers, including crew members, to wear face coverings and potentially revoking travel privileges for customers who do not follow these requirements, as underscored in a recent video from United CEO Scott Kirby.
- Using high-efficiency (HEPA) filters on most United mainline aircraft to circulate air and remove up to 99.97 percent of airborne particles.
- Using electrostatic spraying on all mainline aircraft before departure for enhanced cabin sanitation.
- Adding a step to the check-in process, based on a recommendation from the Cleveland Clinic, requiring customers to acknowledge they do not have symptoms of COVID-19 and agree to all the carrier’s policies, including wearing a mask on board.
- Offering customers a touchless baggage check-in experience at more than 200 airports across the United States (United says it is the first and only U.S. airline to make this technology available).