United Airlines is going to reinstate some of the flights it had suspended due to the coronavirus at 150 U.S. and Canadian destinations.
United’s plans for July, disclosed Friday to USA TODAY in an email, came as the week closed with several indicators from airlines that passenger traffic continues to bounce back.
United also had good news for flyers who hate having to make connections: 140 nonstop routes that had been suspended are being restored.
Some of the service will be resumed to cities that typically have large numbers of business travelers – New York, Boston, Seattle, and Philadelphia, among them – as more companies allow employees to go back to work.
But United said it is also including some key leisure-oriented destinations like Charleston, South Carolina; Portland, Maine; various cities in Florida and Las Vegas, where major hotel-casino resorts reopened this week to the delight of gamblers and other pleasure seekers.
United said it is also adding service to airports that serve national parks and wilderness areas, like Aspen, Colorado, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, “where social distancing is a natural feature.”
Canadian cities with restored service will include Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, United said.
Even with the resumption of some service, United said its domestic passenger capacity in July will still be down 70% compared to the same time last year. Still, that’s an improvement from June, when it will be off 87%.
Other international service is on the rebound, too. United is boosting flights to Europe from Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Service is being reopened to Tokyo-Haneda in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul, South Korea, along with expanded service to Latin America and the Caribbean.
