A Look At United Airlines’ Top Routes This November

United Airlines has put 124,169 flights on its schedule for November. With nearly 14 million seats available, there are plenty of routes and itineraries for sale. The total number of flights in the system is down 15.2% compared to the same month in 2019, while seat count is down 13.4% versus November 2019. Here is a look at the carrier’s top routes.

A look at United’s top routes in November 2021. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

Which routes will get the most service?

Not all routes are created equal, with some requiring more service than others. Others do better with a limited amount of capacity and service. Unsurprisingly, United’s top routes are domestic operations touching its hubs, which offer an efficient way to add more flying with connections available to help sustain profitable flying.

Below are the airline’s top 15 routes by the number of flight operations in the month, using data from Cirium:

1. Newark (EWR) to Washington D.C. (DCA) with 472 roundtrip flights
2. Newark (EWR) to Orlando (MCO) with 350 roundtrip flights
3. Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Washington D.C. (DCA) with 319 roundtrip flights
4. Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to New York (LGA) with 314 roundtrip flights
5. Denver (DEN) to Houston (IAH) with 267 roundtrip flights
6. Newark (EWR) to Palm Beach (PBI) with 267 roundtrip flights
7. Newark (EWR) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) with 267 roundtrip flights
8. Newark (EWR) to Boston (BOS) with 266 roundtrip flights
9. Houston (IAH) to Los Angeles (LAX) with 265 roundtrip flights
10. Houston (IAH) to Chicago O’Hare (ORD) with 265 roundtrip flights
11. Houston (IAH) to San Francisco (SFO) with 265 roundtrip flights
12. Newark (EWR) to Chicago (ORD) with 263 roundtrip flights
13. Denver (DEN) to Chicago (ORD) with 258 roundtrip flights
14. Newark (EWR) to Miami (MIA) with 254 roundtrip flights
15. Washington D.C. (IAD) to New York (LGA) with 240 roundtrip flights

United’s top 15 routes by flight operations in November. Rendering created at Great Circle Mapper

Note that these monthly numbers do not provide the complete picture of services. Not all routes receive the same amount of service each day. For example, flights to Florida, a popular leisure destination, are bulked up around the weekends, but not so much on mid-week days.

November is also an interesting month, given the Thanksgiving holiday in the last week of November. As a result, United is making some service adjustments to reduce flying, particularly on Thursday, the 25th of November.

United’s Newark to Washington D.C. flight runs on a shuttle schedule. Photo: United Airlines

What about by seat count?

If United used the same aircraft on every route, it would make it easier to correlate the top routes by flight operations with the top routes by seat count. Per data from Cirium, the top 15 routes by seat count are:

1. Newark (EWR) to Orlando (MCO) with 59,143 seats scheduled
2. Orlando (MCO) to Newark (EWR) with 58,737 seats scheduled
3. Houston (IAH) to Denver (DEN) with 55,075 seats scheduled
4. Newark (EWR) to San Francisco (SFO) with 54,760 seats scheduled
5. San Francisco (SFO) to Newark (EWR) with 54,609 seats scheduled
6. San Francisco (SFO) to Chicago O’Hare (ORD), with 53,880 seats scheduled
7. Denver (DEN) to Houston (IAH) with 53,776 seats scheduled
8. Denver (DEN) to Chicago O’Hare (ORD) with 52,424 seats scheduled
9. Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to San Francisco (SFO) with 52,345 seats scheduled
10. Newark (EWR) to Chicago O’Hare (ORD) with 52,181 seats scheduled
11. Chicago (ORD) to Denver (DEN) with 51,901 seats scheduled
12. Chicago (ORD) to Newark (EWR) with 51,465 seats scheduled
13. Houston (IAH) to Chicago O’Hare (ORD) with 51,044 seats scheduled
14. Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Houston (IAH) with 50,965 seats)
15. Houston (IAH) to San Francisco (SFO) with 50,213 seats scheduled

Based on how United Airlines schedules its aircraft, it leads to differing number of seats on the outbound and return. For example, a Boeing 737-900 can start in Newark, go to Orlando, then off to Houston, then to San Francisco, and beyond. But, based on schedules, there is not a Boeing 737-900 available to do the Orlando to Newark flight, but there is a 737-800 available. So, while United offers a roundtrip itinerary, its seat count is not the same each way. Other, smaller changes result from date changes that fall just before or after midnight, altering the schedule slightly.

Several of United’s top routes by monthly flight operations are run onboard small aircraft, giving other routes a boost. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

A noticeable absence from this list is Newark to Washington D.C., with only 24,308 seats scheduled across 472 roundtrip flights. The reason for this is because United is using small aircraft on this route. Nearly all of the roundtrip flights are scheduled on 50-seat CRJ550s that are in a premium configuration.

An absence from the list based on flight movements is Newark (EWR) to San Francisco (SFO). While United does not have a large number of flights scheduled, compared to a Newark to Washington D.C. hop, plenty of these flights are on widebody aircraft like the Boeing 787-10 and 777-300ER, adding a large number of seats on a relatively fewer number of flights.

Some of United’s premium domestic routes, including transcontinental operations, are scheduled on large aircraft like the Boeing 777-300ER. Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying

International operations

Compared to November 2019, United’s international schedule will be 26.7% smaller in 2021. However, some routes have more flights scheduled this month than in 2019. Here are the top 16 routes by flight operations:

1. Houston (IAH) to Cancun (CUN) with 180 roundtrip flights
2. Houston (IAH) to Mexico City (MEX) with 180 roundtrip flights
3. Houston (IAH) to Monterrey (MTY) with 150 roundtrip flights
4. Newark (EWR) to Toronto (YYZ) with 135 roundtrip flights
5. Newark (EWR) to Cancun (CUN) with 120 roundtrip flights
6. Houston (IAH) to Guadalajara (GDL) with 120 roundtrip flights
7. Houston (IAH) to Querétaro (QRO) with 120 roundtrip flights
8. Denver (DEN) to Cancun (CUN) with 94 roundtrip flights
9. Newark (EWR) to Santo Domingo (SDQ) with 90 roundtrip flights
10. Newark (EWR) to Santiago de los Caballeros (STI) with 90 roundtrip flights
11. Houston (IAH) to Leon (BJX) with 90 roundtrip flights
12. Houston (IAH) to Guatemala City (GUA) with 90 roundtrip flights
13. Houston (IAH) to San Salvador (SAL) with 90 roundtrip flights
14. Houston (IAH) to San José del Cabo (SJD) with 90 roundtrip flights
15. Houston (IAH) to San José (SJO) in Costa Rica with 90 roundtrip flights
16. Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Toronto (YYZ) with 90 roundtrip flights

Mexico is the top country by the number of routes that appear on United’s top 16 international route list. Rendering created at Great Circle Mapper

Most of these routes also show up when it comes to overall seat count. However, some notable top performers by seat count in United’s network see a limited number of daily flights but more seats due to the use of larger aircraft. This includes Newark to Tel Aviv (TLV) with 17,808 seats scheduled this month, Washington D.C. to Frankfurt (FRA) with 13,548 seats, and Chicago to Frankfurt with 13,131 seats. In comparison, the top route in United’s international network by seat count is Houston to Cancun, with 32,181 seats scheduled.

As international flight operations and business traffic continue to recover, United Airlines’ top routes by seats internationally will change. This will primarily come from the resumption of large schedules to London-Heathrow (LHR), the return of San Francisco to Hong Kong (HKG), and Shanghai (PVG), for example.

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