United to put Denver on Shuttle

Tuesday, Dec. 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

United Airlines will expand its low-fare Shuttle by United service to Denver early next year, trading a handful of flights on wide-body planes to high-frequency trips on Boeing 737s.

The Shuttle expansion is part of the airline's bid to increase service between Denver International Airport and two leisure destinations, Las Vegas and Phoenix.

In addition to the Shuttle expansion, United is offering additional flights between Denver and Colorado Springs, Colo.; Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco and Ontario, Calif.; Miami and Orlando, Fla.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Portland, Ore.; and Seattle, making it the largest airline hub to operate in Denver with more than 300 daily flights.

Southwest Airlines, which has the most daily operations at McCarran International, offers around 120 flights a day.

The new Shuttle operations begin Feb. 11 and ticket sales already have begun. There will be 12 daily round-trip flights between Denver and Las Vegas. Currently, United has seven daily flights on that route.

The Shuttle flights use twin-engine Boeing 737 jets, the workhorse of the discount carrier's fleet. The high-frequency operations will replace flights on larger planes, including Boeing 757s and DC-10s.

Las Vegas was one of Shuttle's original destination cities when it began flying Oct. 1, 1994. The airline now has 26 daily operations between Las Vegas and San Francisco and 24 between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

The Shuttle program has developed into a competitive showdown between Southwest Airlines and United, the world's largest airline.

Southwest and United don't have many head-to-head competitions involving Las Vegas. While United flies directly to San Francisco, Southwest routes to Oakland. While United has 24 operations to Los Angeles, Southwest divides its Southern California routes between Los Angeles International Airport, Burbank, Orange County and Ontario.

United's emphasis to Denver is likely to hurt America West Airlines, Frontier and Continental, which presently fly the route. Discounters Western Pacific and Reno Air compete by flying between Las Vegas and Colorado Springs, which is about 60 miles from Denver.

United's Shuttle planes are configured to carry between 116 and 134 passengers. The least-expensive round-trip ticket to Denver can be purchased for about $138.

A schedule hasn't been announced.