Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, traveling by plane has been made more difficult. As the waves of cases began to shift, air travel was affected in a major way. Flights became more difficult to book and staffing for airline companies were negatively impacted. Last year, millions of travelers were left stranded due to last-minute cancellations as a result of COVID-19 issues.ย Now, United Airlines has announced that it’s cutting flights from five major cities across the U.S., with changes taking effect immediately.
According to Best of Life, more than one dozen flights will be cut from Denver, Newark, Washington, D.C., Houston, and Chicago. Denver is losing routes to Dayton, Ohio. Newark is losing three routes to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Omaha, Nebraska; and Knoxville, Tennessee. Washington, D.C. are losing five routes to Allentown, Pennsylvania; Lexington, Kentucky; Madison, Wisconsin; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Pensacola, Florida. Flights from Houston to Alexandria, Louisiana; Columbia, South Carolina; and Akron-Canton, Ohio are also impacted from D.C. Chicago will also lose five routes to Bismarck, North Dakota; Charlottesville, Virginia; Jackson, Mississippi; Pasco-Tri Cities, Washington; and Redmond, Oregon.
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According to the airline, cuts are being made due to demand. “United makes regular adjustments to its schedule in response to market demand and staffing resources to ensure we can best serve our customers,” a United Airlines spokesperson said in an official statement. Some of the routes were previously already cut or spaced out as a direct result of the pandemic.ย
United Airlines will also no longer travel to Alexandria, Virginia. The other markets impacted will simply be pared down.
The future of the airline’s 50-seaters is also unknown. In a 2021 interview with The Points Guy, a representative revealed that a lack of pilots is the reason.
“We’re still debating what the long-term future of 50 seaters really is,” they said at the time. “The challenge is, do you want to serve places like Erie, Pennsylvania, at all, or Cody, Wyoming, or do those places just get cut off of the connectivity to the world?”
