United Airlines and Southwest Airlines compete fiercely in Denver. Both airlines have a hub there, and Southwest has been growing market share in Colorado in recent years. The two airlines have been advertising heavily in the market. The ads are pretty consistently shady toward the other airline, and here’s the latest example of that.
In this post:
United emphasizes that it’s Denver’s most flown airline
United’s newest Denver specific ad is out, and will appear across United’s social media channels, as well as at Denver International Airport. The ad is pretty simple — it highlights that United is Denver’s most flown airline, and you won’t need a magnifying glass to read the fine print related to that.
One version of the ad simply states that United is “Denver’s Most-Flown Airline,” and then adds the following disclaimer in big font:
This is our legal disclaimer. Yes, we know it’s ginormous, but we aren’t trying to hide anything in the fine print. Based on U.S. DOT O&D Summary reports and ASQP reporting for 2022, United has carried more passengers into and out of Denver, with more on-time arrivals, than any other airline.
Without context, this ad is probably a bit confusing. What’s United’s motive for an ad like this? Well…
Southwest recently made a similar claim
Over the past few months, Southwest has been running an ad campaign in Denver, highlighting that it’s “the most-flown airline in Denver.” The ad contains the following fine print, written in small font:
Based on U.S. DOT Summary Reports, for each year from 2011 through 2021, in total for such year, Southwest has carried more Passengers into/out of Denver than any other airline.
Indeed, for the period from 2010 until 2021, Southwest did carry more “local” passengers to and from Denver. This refers to those either originating in Denver or terminating their travels there. Meanwhile during that period, United carried the most total number of passengers, including connecting passengers.
In 2022, United carried not only the most total number of passengers through Denver Airport, but also the highest number of passengers originating or terminating there.
Admittedly that can probably largely be attributed to Southwest’s meltdown in Denver in December 2022, whereby the airline canceled a large percentage of its flights. In 2023, Southwest may once again be back to carrying more local passengers to & from Denver… only time will tell.
But in the meantime, you can’t blame United for fact checking Southwest, as the airline uses outdated and incomplete data for making its claim.
Bottom line
United Airlines’ newest Denver ad asserts that the airline is the biggest carrier in Denver, after Southwest made a similar claim in an ad recently. For most of the past decade, Southwest has carried more “local” passengers to and from Denver, while United has carried more total passengers (including those connecting). Meanwhile in 2022, United also overtook Southwest when it comes to local traffic, and the airline is now trying to highlight that.
What do you make of United’s new Denver ad?
Delta did a similar ad blitz too with their free Wi-Fi rollout claiming they were the first to have it fleet wide as a major carrier. They weren’t, JetBlue was the first as a major carrier fleet wide. The only thing that made it “true” was to put in very small print based on some ridiculous amount of emplanements. So they became first by creating a metric no one cares about.
When discussing "major" U.S. carriers, basically no one considers JetBlue, Hawaiian, or Alaska to be part of that group. The term virtually always refers to either AA, UA, and DL, or AA, UA, DL, and WN.
JetBlue is essentially irrelevant anywhere other than the Northeast or South Florida/Caribbean markets.
Now, if JetBlue's acquisition of Spirit ends up being approved and they play their cards right - including either opening one or more mid-continent hubs or...
When discussing "major" U.S. carriers, basically no one considers JetBlue, Hawaiian, or Alaska to be part of that group. The term virtually always refers to either AA, UA, and DL, or AA, UA, DL, and WN.
JetBlue is essentially irrelevant anywhere other than the Northeast or South Florida/Caribbean markets.
Now, if JetBlue's acquisition of Spirit ends up being approved and they play their cards right - including either opening one or more mid-continent hubs or keeping a more Spirit or Southwest-like point-to-point network - then they have a shot at becoming a major airline. But, as of now, they are not by any reasonable definition.
I mean, why does anybody care?
In the last city where I lived, Ryanair was the airline carrying the most passengers. It doesn't make me want to fly with Ryanair...
There are loads of factors that go into booking a flight, but it is hard to imagine that being the one that carries the most passengers is one of them for most people. (Of course, that can mean that they have more flights...
I mean, why does anybody care?
In the last city where I lived, Ryanair was the airline carrying the most passengers. It doesn't make me want to fly with Ryanair...
There are loads of factors that go into booking a flight, but it is hard to imagine that being the one that carries the most passengers is one of them for most people. (Of course, that can mean that they have more flights available, which certainly is a factor, but that is not the disputed statistic, so...)
In a nutshell, few if anyone base their ticket purchase on which airlines carries the most local passengers. It isn't relevant to the buying decision. Move on
Takeaway Lesson: UA will make the fine print readable ONLY when it suits them (which is why you've never seen it till today).
Say what they want. It's ads.
Problem was and always has been people believing too easy on these (or any) propaganda.
The industry even got doctors to endorse smoking cigarette up until the 50s.
Who in the world is this ad targeting at? Southwest doesn't have premium seats (so that market segment is out) and I will bet 95% of coach passengers fly what's cheapest. I will also bet you 95% don't remember/don't know/don't care about Southwest's "holiday meltdown."
Some irony in Southwest using a selective dataset to make its #1 claim when years ago they ran their famous "Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire" ad against NWA who had made a different #1 claim by conveniently leaving Southwest out of that comparison. I sort of wish UA just updated that ad and ran it back against them.
Given that some of the marketing minds from Spirit's more shall we say interesting advertising days are now at Frontier, I could see a "Size doesn't matter, it's what you do with it" ad.
UA was bigger in local numbers even without the WN meltdown. UA numbers are higher this year too, and will continue to grow as the 700 aircraft orders continue to come online.
WN will receive its much delayed 737 Max7s before UA gets its Max 10s. This chapter of dominance is not at all written
United has *700* planes on order and is currently receiving two planes per week, a rate that continues through next year. They will soon have 90 gates in DEN, significantly more than Southwest.
How is there any world where UA’s lead doesn’t expand?
That may end up being the case, but WN's gate utilization is a lot higher. I forget the numbers I read years ago now, but it was something like twice that of UA at the time. So the number of gates alone doesn't mean more passengers.
because WN uses ONLY mainline aircraft so they have the potential to board a whole lot more passengers per flight.
Add in that UA connects a higher percentage of passengers and WN could board more local passengers per flight than UA.
Finally, UA will not receive as many narrowbodies this year as planned. Boeing just told them this.
And Delta will place more aircraft into service this year than any other US airline -...
because WN uses ONLY mainline aircraft so they have the potential to board a whole lot more passengers per flight.
Add in that UA connects a higher percentage of passengers and WN could board more local passengers per flight than UA.
Finally, UA will not receive as many narrowbodies this year as planned. Boeing just told them this.
And Delta will place more aircraft into service this year than any other US airline - a combination of new deliveries, used aircraft being placed in service, and reactivations of parked aircraft.
Why would I care about the origin of my fellow passengers? Is it better to sit next to a passenger from Denver than to sit next to one from Salt Lake City or Dallas?
I would be more interested in an airline offering the best complimentary service/connections/value/customer service etc.
@Klaus - You’d have to ask Southwest why they think it’s important. They’re the ones who put it in ads around the airport and on local tv ads that still run today, even though their numbers are out of date.
United only put this up to correct Southwest and set the record straight.
"we aren’t trying to hide anything in the fine print." - not if we wanted you to see it
Egos will ego.
United slept for 15 years while Southwest built a massive operation from the ground up and did pass up United in LOCAL Denver passengers for more than a decade.
Competition is good.