United to add hundreds of daily flights, anticipating busy summer travel season
CHICAGO - In just over a month United Airlines will be expanding its flight schedule to the largest it has been since before the pandemic.
The airline announced Friday the addition of nearly 500 daily domestic flights in June, including new flights to popular tourism hubs in Hawaii, Alaska and Montana.
The expansion will bring United up to two-thirds of its domestic schedule from June 2019, signaling a bounce back in a travel industry gutted by COVID-19.
"As leisure travel continues to return this summer, we are adding more flights to our June schedule to national parks, Alaska, Hawaii, Florida and other popular destinations," Ankit Gupta, vice president of domestic planning and scheduling at United, said in a statement. "June is historically the beginning of the peak summer travel season and ramping up to over 3,500 total daily flights across the system this June underscores the continued demand for leisure travel and our responsiveness to meeting that demand."
Chicagoans will benefit with flights to and from several new destinations, including Fairbanks, Alaska and Kona, Hawaii.
The airline announced Wednesday that customers can schedule a COVID-19 test before boarding through their digital platform called Travel-Ready Center.