United Airlines has just announced plans to add extra flights this winter. However, the explanation for why these flights are being added is something I’ve never seen before.
In this post:
United’s new flights in anticipation of Spirit’s failure
United Airlines has expanded its winter schedule, adding flights to 15 cities, for travel as of January 6, 2026. First, United is adding one additional daily roundtrip flight between the following cities (they all have existing service, but will have even more frequencies):
- Houston (IAH) and Atlanta (ATL), Baltimore (BWI), Las Vegas (LAS), Miami (MIA), New Orleans (MSY), and Orlando (MCO)
- Chicago (ORD) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Las Vegas (LAS), New Orleans (MSY), and Orlando (MCO)
- Newark (EWR) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Orlando (MCO)
- Los Angeles (LAX) and Las Vegas (LAS)
Then United is adding new routes between Newark and Columbia (CAE) and Chattanooga (CHA). Lastly, United is adding additional frequencies between Houston (IAH) and Guatemala City (GUA), San Pedro Sula (SAP), and San Salvador (SAL).
So, why is United is adding these flights? Not much is left to the imagination. As explained by Patrick Quayle, United’s SVP of Global Network Planning and Alliances:
“If Spirit suddenly goes out of business it will be incredibly disruptive, so we’re adding these flights to give their customers other options if they want or need them.”
This is the first time I’ve seen something like this
The concept of airlines adding service when competitors are in a weak position is nothing new. However, I’ve never before seen an airline be so explicit about the reason for adding new routes.
As most people are probably aware, Spirit recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in a matter of months. There’s a bigger question of whether the airline will survive in any form, but even if it survives, it’ll be much smaller than it was before.
So it’s natural that other airlines move in and try to take advantage of that. For example, Frontier recently announced an expansion that was clearly a direct attack on Spirit. But Frontier was a bit more subtle, with the announcement describing Frontier as “America’s Low Fare Airline,” and stating this service was “to ensure consumers in those markets continue to have affordable flight options.”
Quayle certainly took the attack to the next level with that quote, though… wow! He’s kind of saying the quiet part out loud.
Bottom line
United is adding some new flights this winter. There’s nothing I find all that interesting, aside from the stated reason for doing so. United is explicitly stating that these flights are being added in anticipation of the possibility of Spirit going out of business, so that customers have flight options.
Of course in the process of adding these flights, United is putting another nail in Spirit’s coffin, by attacking some of the carrier’s more lucrative routes.
What do you make of United’s expansion, along with the explanation?
The guy as usual is widely off topic with his weird and false made up stats to force DL on everyone's throat. His bizarre obsession with Kirby and UAL is getting old and baseless. He gives the vibes of one scared of a competitor breathing hard behind him, which makes him uncomfortable, hence the constant attacks on UAL.
Get a life dude!
Disgusting! They are doing EXACTLY what American Airlines did to Braniff (original), its well beyond profit seeking! It displays a pure greed, are they willing to hire displaced Spirit associates? United is behaving like a perfect monopoly!
At this stage it doesn’t even matter how many forward bookings they have. They owe more than they will ever be able to pay off. Leasing companies want their jets back and the credit card merchants will soon lock off their platforms. Spirit won’t last til November is my guess. Maybe only even weeks away til the “all flights grounded effective immediately” announcement. Sad times. Hope the staff find new employment fast.
Duncan Dee, Spirit’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, told Live And Let’s Fly:
“While we appreciate the obsession certain airline executives have with us, we’re focused on competing and running a great operation. Suggesting anything else is wishful thinking on the part of a high-cost airline looking to eliminate a low-cost competitor so they can fulfill their ultimate goal of charging American travelers the highest fares possible to visit the people and places they...
Duncan Dee, Spirit’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications, told Live And Let’s Fly:
“While we appreciate the obsession certain airline executives have with us, we’re focused on competing and running a great operation. Suggesting anything else is wishful thinking on the part of a high-cost airline looking to eliminate a low-cost competitor so they can fulfill their ultimate goal of charging American travelers the highest fares possible to visit the people and places they love. Spirit is responsible for making low fares available to consumers for more than 30 years, whether they fly with us or not. We have every expectation to continue doing so for many years to come.”
The statement was from:
Timmy Dee, Delta’s Senior Vice President of Corporate Echo Chamber, told Live And Let’s Fluff:
you can't stand that some people even on other sites aren't moved by UA's bullying
The latest data for July is out for NYC airport traffic from the Port Authority and UA's share of EWR passengers is 67% so they haven't lost anything in terms of their lock on EWR.
The only real winner at EWR is DL who is the only US carrier that managed to grow at EWR.
for NYC's 3 airports, DL has the most flights with 38% more domestic flights than UA and 18% more...
The latest data for July is out for NYC airport traffic from the Port Authority and UA's share of EWR passengers is 67% so they haven't lost anything in terms of their lock on EWR.
The only real winner at EWR is DL who is the only US carrier that managed to grow at EWR.
for NYC's 3 airports, DL has the most flights with 38% more domestic flights than UA and 18% more overall.
United's upgauging has allowed it to run neck in neck w/ DL on number of region passengers carried driven by an increase in UA passengers at EWR. UA hasn't added any new flights at LGA so their ability to match DL in number of passengers carried depends on retaining the passengers they carried via LGA.
on a YTD basis, DL is still well ahead of UA in NYC share.
At LGA and JFK, DL carries as much traffic as AA and B6 do combined.
NYC airports carried 3% less passengers and this is presumably the capacity that the 3 airports will have on a medium to long -term basis other than upgauging (or downgauging as the 321XLR replaces 757s for UA)
What is it that causes you to obsessively post about Delta? This post has literally nothing to do with Delta, and is barely focused on EWR or NYC. Why bring them up? I can't understand the motivation besides pure trolling. If it's simply trolling, then bravo for your commitment to the bit.
did you mean to post this comment on a different article?
Yet DL is behind UA on NYC revenue. Way behind. And since costs are similar, this means UA is more profitable, except for the time earlier this year when EWR had a runway closure and FAA had their technology and staffing issues.
Now UA has what they have wanted for years. The slot restrictions at EWR that DL has enjoyed at LGA and JFK. UA is running close to 400 EWR departures, with almost 50...
Yet DL is behind UA on NYC revenue. Way behind. And since costs are similar, this means UA is more profitable, except for the time earlier this year when EWR had a runway closure and FAA had their technology and staffing issues.
Now UA has what they have wanted for years. The slot restrictions at EWR that DL has enjoyed at LGA and JFK. UA is running close to 400 EWR departures, with almost 50 of them on widebodies. Looking at NYC numbers for May/June/July is misleading, since it covers a period of one-time issues that depressed UA traffic figures.
Though UA doesn't have to run an inefficient split hub, with one of them restricted by a perimeter rule. This is evident in DL's need to run 15% more flights to carry a similar number of passengers. UA will continue to upgauge, just as they have done in LGA, where the same number of UA flights is now carrying significantly more passengers.
But yes, why on earth did you even make this irrelevant comment here in the first place?
well, first, I put it here because it is relevant data including because UA's "put NK out of business" expansion includes EWR
second, the data I provide proves that, as much as UA loves to portray itself as the bully to everyone else in the industry except DL, it is actually DL that does whatever it wants in UA markets - and wins.
Let's remember that UA was the largest airline in NYC...
well, first, I put it here because it is relevant data including because UA's "put NK out of business" expansion includes EWR
second, the data I provide proves that, as much as UA loves to portray itself as the bully to everyone else in the industry except DL, it is actually DL that does whatever it wants in UA markets - and wins.
Let's remember that UA was the largest airline in NYC in 4 metrics - number of flights, passengers carried, ASMs (RPMs is what really matters but, whatever), and revenue. We don't know how the latter 2 metrics compare since UA's April EWR meltdown (which happens every other year) but DL has handedly overtaken UA in the first two metrics and the gap will not be closed.
and third, because it gets a whole bunch of people all wound up - and I have so much fun watching you beat your keyboards trying to deflect from reality.
as to your points, Mark,
No airline reports profit or margin by hub but the entire thesis of your argument is the arrogance of you and UA to think that flying to AGP and Nuuk etc are more important than serving US cities like BHM, OKC and LIT that UA does not serve from NYC but DL (and sometimes AA) does serve.
On a system basis, UA's profitability trails DL's even on a passenger revenue per ASM basis. Given that UA flies 10% more ASMs than DL and also pays its people $1 billion/yr less, UA should be making tons more money than DL - but they aren't.
UA can act the bully but it makes it even more unlikely that the DOJ will ever allow UA to obtain any meaningful position at any airport where a low cost carrier is vulnerable.
and DL repeatedly proves that it does what it wants in UA markets despite all of UA's hot air.
Once again, did you catch that DL is the only US carrier that carried more passengers from EWR in July?
and when that new EWR capacity becomes available, you can bet DL will have its name there really to start whatever it wants - maybe even using those 767-300ERs to fly EWR-LAX as their last mission.
Tim - were you born a loser or did you grow into it? Your truly bizarre infatuation with a *corporation* is genuinely pathetic.
I have said many times that I would lay off UA when its execs could get through an earnings call without trashing a competitor.
Given that we are halfway between earnings and UA execs can't restrain themselves from being the playground bully, I will be "employed" here for a good long time to come.
Yes, EWR-CHA and CAE is crucial to United's NYC strategy and I'm sure they're viewing it as a move to dominate the NYC market. Bringing up useless comparisons to Delta was completely irrelevant in an article about United adding capacity to Spirit's routes. I couldn't imagine devoting this much time and energy to fangirling about any corporation.
Tim, get a life and stay on Topic?
Get over being fired.
the topic IS publicly stating that your intention is to kill off competition which is what UA has said about just about every airline not named Delta while DL is the only airline that has the balls to take on UA in its strongest markets.
Meanwhile UA moans about its need to merge and acquire weaker carriers because of dumb decisions like pulling out of JFK and failing to develop its presence in Florida where...
the topic IS publicly stating that your intention is to kill off competition which is what UA has said about just about every airline not named Delta while DL is the only airline that has the balls to take on UA in its strongest markets.
Meanwhile UA moans about its need to merge and acquire weaker carriers because of dumb decisions like pulling out of JFK and failing to develop its presence in Florida where it is the 6th largest carrier. Florida alone is far larger than most of the countries that UA flies to but UA has been more fixated with putting dots on its route map than fixing its own strategic weaknesses.
those are the realities whether you or UA execs can see it.
Ed Bastian…I mean “Tim Dunn” always out to name Delta in the comments when it’s not even mentioned in the article
in response to someone that can't accept how low UA's market share in Florida is and comments about the margins of larger carriers that are larger than UA in Florida.
Just like all of the other hubs that people seem to think DL loses money serving, Florida is a massive part of DL's network and yet they still manage to post industry leading margins.
I wouldn't have to make as many corrective comments if some people didn't say so much dumb stuff.
Nobody can care less about United's market share in Florida. Why do you think anyone would care? There's not a single person here who cares about Delta's margins in Florida.
of course they don't. But there are people that jump out of the woodwork to argue about UA's market share in NYC.
Maybe if some people were less preoccupied w/ arguing about NYC, we wouldn't have to bring up UA's weak rear flank.
What I don't understand is why would a legacy carrier go after the ULCC flyer. it's not like UA is flying around half empty planes.
Legacy carriers are already competing with ULCCs on price
UA's strategy for domestic growth is to fill the extra seats it is adding as they replace regional jets w/ mainline aircraft with deeply discounted fares. They said that from the beginning and also tout how much their share of basic economy seats is growing.
Meanwhile, DL is adding more domestic capacity than UA on an absolute basis and says it is reducing the percentage of basic economy traffic.
United adds extra flights to Fort Lauderdale from Newark in the winter anyway every year it’s the same thing they are trying to get publicity!
FLYYQ
The January 6, 2026 start is telling - right after the peak holiday season, so UA is probably betting that NK makes it through the holidays and then closes up shop going into the really slow winter season.
that's actually one of the slowest times of the year, even for Florida.
Peak travel for Florida starts President's Day
Yes that's exactly my point - hard to see how NK makes it past New Year's. They probably have enough people who have already booked until then, and the holidays have enough spill traffic that some people will take the risk booking on NK, but after that, nothing. UA isn't adding flights in the slow Jan/Feb period because that's a great time to be adding seats (though they likely have the spare aircraft available to...
Yes that's exactly my point - hard to see how NK makes it past New Year's. They probably have enough people who have already booked until then, and the holidays have enough spill traffic that some people will take the risk booking on NK, but after that, nothing. UA isn't adding flights in the slow Jan/Feb period because that's a great time to be adding seats (though they likely have the spare aircraft available to do so), but rather in order to put the final nail in the coffin for NK.
It might make getting through the first part of the year difficult but it doesn't make it any more profitable for UA to add capacity right after the first of the year when demand is down.
UA loves to tout that it is out to kill every airline not name DL while also talking about how it needs to grow in major competitive markets like FL - where UA is way down the list of...
It might make getting through the first part of the year difficult but it doesn't make it any more profitable for UA to add capacity right after the first of the year when demand is down.
UA loves to tout that it is out to kill every airline not name DL while also talking about how it needs to grow in major competitive markets like FL - where UA is way down the list of carriers - and JFK - which it doesn't even serve.
Maybe someday the lights will go on at Willis Tower but the DOJ, no matter how many inaugural events you contribute to, is not going to facilitate the elimination of lower fare carriers in the industry.
Grow organically if the market dictates. but don't tout that you are doing it to facilitate the elimination of another carrier.
and NK's highest overlap is with WN and then DL. NK even said in its C22 filing that WN's roll out of product transformations allowed it to focus more of its effort on NK markets and capturing NK passengers.
DL typically just does its thing, seizes opportunity, but doesn't trash talk competition or do anything that could in the least be construed as being anticompetitive. They managed to grow from #6 in the industry in 1978 to #1 in revenue now. They play their cards close to the vest and then take home the win.
Sounds harsh, but in the end the truth be told. Quayle only said what could be guessed anyway.
I have my first (and apparently last) spirit flight ATL-LAS on Dec 4. What are my odds this flight happens? Is it likely to be this year that flight operations would end? Not sure how proactive I should be on finding another option.
Buy trip insurance. Or see if the CC you booked with covers airline liquidation.
So UA is going to try EWR-CAE again...
The Chairman's Flight!
Even if NK disappears completely, with these additions, UA will go from #6 to #5 in Florida.
and, of course, this all has to be viewed within the context of the incessant salivating over acquiring B6. given the overlap between NK and B6, UA either will be able to grow organically or via acquisition.
and, of course, no other airline will add service in NK competitive markets...
I'd rather be number five and be profitable than be number one and lose money.
But yes, UA wants B6 and the slots at JFK.
Actually, UA is #3 in Florida behind Southwest and American. It won't change with the expanded service. There is another list I have called Airlines I Refuse To Fly And Are Thus Irrelevant. That's where Spirit is categorized.
what you believe while off your meds doesn't matter.
just as is true w/ every other reality, your cherrypicking doesn't mean anything.
Yes, UA is still #6 and most of the top 5 in Florida do make money even if at lower margins than DL.
No.
UA is not number 3, not even close. DL has far, far, far more connectivity to / from FL than UA.
UA is an also-ran in FL. Try getting from FL to any secondary or tertiary city in the east cost and see how that goes. FL is a gaping hole in UA’s route network. Can only be closed by picking at the carcasses of NK and B6 to grab gates.
...No.
UA is not number 3, not even close. DL has far, far, far more connectivity to / from FL than UA.
UA is an also-ran in FL. Try getting from FL to any secondary or tertiary city in the east cost and see how that goes. FL is a gaping hole in UA’s route network. Can only be closed by picking at the carcasses of NK and B6 to grab gates.
As for JFK, UA is high on crack if they think they’ll get may slots there when they are the #2 carrier in NY. Their best hope is to pay out the nose to an airline before it liquidates.
Frontier just piled on too with 22 more new routes (of course all are 2-3 times a week except for one). Lots of ATL to Caribbean, MIA/MCO to Central America plus some more between major US cities. Though IAD-SAL running daily versus day-of-week... I can kinda see that. Frontier announced BWI-SAL (as Spirit had started) right before Covid. Huge population of Salvis in that area namely PG County
Something something Delta
You're right... it's the part that's typically inferred or unspoken that's now spoken that is the news. Kinda like the man on the street drinking a 40... at least have the decency to put it in a brown paper sack.... the police know what you're up to, but you aren't stirring things up so you'll get left alone, but everyone understands what's happening.
More power to these smaller communities especially who are getting resumption...
You're right... it's the part that's typically inferred or unspoken that's now spoken that is the news. Kinda like the man on the street drinking a 40... at least have the decency to put it in a brown paper sack.... the police know what you're up to, but you aren't stirring things up so you'll get left alone, but everyone understands what's happening.
More power to these smaller communities especially who are getting resumption of service... though when United stopped flying those routes, they said it was due to evil EWR slot constraints (really was about balancing profit with IAD) so... something change at EWR we missed?
I feel like some things are still best left to the tongue in cheek. I mean, what's next... United starts a new flight from ICT to DC and says "In case passengers feel like getting there alive?"
Nedskid …. “In case passengers feel like getting there alive” …. Absolutely, as long as it’s an Airbus and not one of those Max thingies! …. Sorry folks, I couldn’t resist the temptation to wind up the usual Boeing brainwashed troll types …. :-)
I had a Frontier flight right after the two United Boeings lost wheels on takeoff... the Captain made an announcement that "don't worry, this is an Airbus, wheels and other parts won't fly off on takeoff and land on your car."
It got me 20k miles like instant first response from my email to Frontier. I unfortunately, for the pilot, shared it on my social media (friends only, public can't see it). One of...
I had a Frontier flight right after the two United Boeings lost wheels on takeoff... the Captain made an announcement that "don't worry, this is an Airbus, wheels and other parts won't fly off on takeoff and land on your car."
It got me 20k miles like instant first response from my email to Frontier. I unfortunately, for the pilot, shared it on my social media (friends only, public can't see it). One of my college buddies is on the professional standards committee at United's ALPA. Some phone calls apparently were made...
"Kinda like the man on the street drinking a 40" sounds like the perfect comment to describe Spirit Airlines.
United's meaningfully grown service to Florida recently. just last week PBI announced the following from United:
" Daily service to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) resumes Sept. 25, with service increasing to 2x daily in December and 3x daily in February.
Daily service to Denver International Airport (DEN) resumes Oct. 26, with 2x daily operating from Dec. 18 to March 31, 2026.
Daily service to George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) resumes Sept....
United's meaningfully grown service to Florida recently. just last week PBI announced the following from United:
" Daily service to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) resumes Sept. 25, with service increasing to 2x daily in December and 3x daily in February.
Daily service to Denver International Airport (DEN) resumes Oct. 26, with 2x daily operating from Dec. 18 to March 31, 2026.
Daily service to George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) resumes Sept. 25, with 2x daily service from Oct. 27 through March 28, 2026.
Service to Newark Liberty International Airport - EWR will increase up to 11 (yes, ELEVEN) daily flights in spring 2026.
Daily service to Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) resumes Sept. 25, with double daily service available between Dec. 18 to Jan. 5, and from Feb. 12 to March 28, 2026."