United ‘back on offense,’ unveils 22 new routes

United Airlines announced a major expansion from this summer, the latest step in a turn-around effort by the USA’s No. 3 airline.

The sweeping expansion will bring United to four destinations it does not currently serve and add 16 non-stop routes to the carrier’s route map. The airline also unveiled the addition of six seasonal routes and plans to boost flights on 15 routes it's already flying. United also confirmed plans to renew a relationship with former affiliate Air Wisconsin, which would fly up to 65 regional jets under the United Express brand.

United hopes its shift into expansion mode – coupled with recent service and product upgrades – will help it win back customers it’s lost to rivals American and Delta since its "rocky" merger with Continental in 2010.

"We've been shrinking, and our competitors have been growing at our expense," Scott Kirby, who jumped from president of American Airlines to the same job at United in August, tells The Associated Press. "We're going back on offense."

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As part of that "offensive," United will add more flights and bigger planes to key business routes it pared during broader cost-cutting initiatives.

“A decade ago, for instance,” AP writes, “United flew eight daily flights on Boeing 737s between Atlanta and Newark, a big business route where it competes with Delta. By 2013, United flew six times a day on small regional jets or turboprops.”

Aside from simply being less comfortable than full-size jets, regional jets are unpopular with business travelers because they tend to suffer higher cancellation rates than the full-size jets and because their reduced overhead bin space can force fliers to lose time by checking bags that normally would make it onto bigger jets as carry-ons .

"Our best customers started abandoning us and flying on the competition, who had a better product," Kirby says to AP. "We have to turn that around."

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United’s new expansion push also includes service to four smaller cities where it has not recently competed with its bigger rivals. Three of those are in the Midwest – Champaign, Ill.; Columbia, Mo.; and Rochester, Minn. – while the other is on the West Coast (Santa Rosa, Calif.).

American, the USA's biggest airline, already flies from all those of those smaller Midwestern airports, while Rochester is also served by No. 2. Delta. Santa Rosa is served not only by American, but also by Alaska Airlines -- which is set to become one of the West Coast's dominant players following its acquisition of Virgin America.

United will serve all three of those Midwestern cities from its hub at Chicago O’Hare, where it appears to be taking a more aggressive stance against American’s competing hub at the same airport.

While United’s O’Hare operation remains bigger than American’s, Kirby tells the Chicago Tribune that  American at one point flew non-stop from O’Hare to 18 cities near Chicago that United did not directly challenge.

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"I never understood why United Airlines let American get away with that," Kirby says to the Tribune.

Overall, O'Hare fared well in United's expansion; the airline's announcement included several new destinations, including Charlottesville, Va.; Reno; and Spokane, among others.

In total, United is adding non-stop service on 16 routes it does not currently fly. It’s also expanding seasonal service on six other routes and will boost the number of flights on 15 other routes it already flies.

The expansion comes as United has announced other changes, including upgrades to some of its hub airports and the new "Polaris" business class that features both new lie-flat seats as well as updated lounges.

So far, United’s efforts to right its ship have largely been lauded by Wall Street as well as by customers and employees.  But while analysts may think United is heading the right direction, they believe the carrier still has a big challenge ahead.

"Delta is not standing still either, so it's not only getting back to where they used to be, but it's leapfrogging Delta," Helane Becker, an analyst with Cowen and Co., said to AP.

As for the carrier's expanding schedule, United says most of its new service will come from more-efficient flying of existing aircraft.

United's fleet size will remain static this summer, but the carrier will be able to expand its schedule by adding more nighttime and red-eye flights and by increasing the number flights performed by existing aircraft, United spokesman Jonathan Guerin tells Today in the Sky.

Going forward, United has renewed a partnership with United Express affiliate Air Wisconsin. Guerin says “we expect they will start flying as early as this fall and that will add about 50 additional regional jets for us by next summer, with the expectation of adding 15 more in the future.”

Air Wisconsin currently flies regional flights for American Airlines under the American Eagle brand. The Wisconsin-based airline operates a fleet of more than 60 regional jets, all 50-seat Bombardier CRJ 200s.

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