United changing schedule, to drop nine Vegas flights

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2001 | 9:39 a.m.

United Airlines, which is discontinuing its high-frequency Shuttle by United brand this month, will drop nine more Las Vegas flights as part of a national schedule change that takes effect at the end of the month.

United will have dropped 11 daily Las Vegas flights plus one weekly operation, a reduction of 30 percent by Oct. 31, since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks sharply curtailed U.S. air travel, according to schedules published by the airline.

A United spokesman told the Associated Press that United is cutting a total of 200 flights systemwide, many of them late-night and early-morning departures.

"We'll still do some flying after 7 p.m. and some before 7 a.m., just not as much," said spokesman Joe Hopkins.

Prior to the attacks, United had about 2,400 daily flights worldwide. In the first round of cuts after the attacks, service was reduced to 1,850 a day. Under the new schedule, there will be 1,664 a day.

Systemwide, the new schedule will consist of 23 percent fewer available seat miles and 27 percent fewer departures than before Sept. 11.

"We are focusing our flights on the peak hours when business and leisure travelers want to fly," said Kevin Knight, vice president for planning.

The changes will necessitate thousands of changes to existing reservations. United, the nation's second-biggest airline, said it is in the process of contacting customers who have booked flights after the new schedule goes into effect.

Elk Grove Village, Ill.-based United, which served 266,445 Las Vegas passengers in August -- about 8.7 percent of the commercial market share at McCarran International Airport that month -- is cutting flights to and from Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver.

Those are the three markets to which the airline offered Shuttle by United, an "airline within an airline" that mimicked Southwest Airlines' successful system of using a single aircraft type with frequent flights, special boarding procedures and quick servicing of planes on the ground.

United announced earlier this month that it would phase out the United Shuttle program by Oct. 31 and dedicate most of its fleet of 59 twin-engine Boeing 737 jets to mainline service. Some of the fuel-guzzling older-model 737s would be retired as a cost-cutting measure.

The decision to end Shuttle occurred after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that hurt the entire aviation industry. Prior to Sept. 11, United had 468 daily Shuttle flights between 33 Western locations.

United said it planned to end some service between cities when it discontinues Shuttle, but none of those involve Las Vegas. However, all United's routes between Los Angeles and Reno will be discontinued.

United has said that when it discontinues Shuttle, it would fold some of its schedule within the United mainline. In doing that, the airline indicated it could use different aircraft types that would reduce the number of seats lost with the fewer flights.

Under the new schedule, United has done that in its San Francsico and Denver markets.

United's new Las Vegas schedule includes:

* Eight nonstop round-trip flights a day to Denver, down from 11 in August. Two of those flights will use 182-seat Boeing 757 jets, and one, a 138-seat Airbus A-320 instead of Boeing 737s, which hold between 116 and 134 passengers.

* Six nonstop round-trip flights a day to San Francisco, down from 10 in August, one using a 757 jet.

* Six nonstop round-trip flights a day to Los Angeles, down from nine in August.

* Five daily nonstop round-trip flights a day to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, down from five daily and one weekly operation in August.

* One nonstop round-trip flight a day to Washington's Dulles International Airport, down from two a day in August.

United competes in the Denver market with Frontier and America West Airlines, and in Los Angeles with America West, American, National, Delta, Hawaiian and Southwest. United competes between Las Vegas and San Francisco with America West and National and at Chicago-O'Hare, with America West, American and National. United has the only nonstop service to Washington's Dulles International.

The cutback by United coupled with fewer service cuts by National now positions the Las Vegas-based airline with the third-largest number of daily flights at McCarran behind Southwest and America West.