Summary

• United Airlines is increasing its flights from Washington Dulles to Nigeria this winter, offering daily connections to Lagos Airport.
• United is moving several of its Pennsylvania routes south from Newark.
• The airline is expanding its route network to include additional domestic destinations such as Palm Springs and will offer daily connections from December.

As the summer season in the Northern Hemisphere slowly comes to an end, airlines are announcing updates for the upcoming winter season, which begins in October. One of these airlines is United Airlines which announced that it would expand flights from the country’s capital to major destinations this winter.

Everything on Africa

United Airlines invested heavily in its hub in Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) and has now opened bookings for additional flights to Nigeria. Starting December 4, United will extend its service to Lagos Airport (LOS) on a daily service (currently three times a week).

The route was initially operated between 2010 and 2016 and reopened in 2021 with three Boeing 787 Weekly Dreamliner service. United’s Dreamliners can accommodate 28 passengers in United Polaris Business Class lie-flat seats, 21 in Premium Plus, 36 in Economy Plus and 158 in standard economy seats.

The return flight from Lagos will continue to operate at night, creating a number of daytime connections across United’s network from IAD. Speaking to local media, Oluwatomi Bola-Sadipe, United’s Country Sales Manager for Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, highlighted the popularity of the 787s used on this route:

“Africa continues to be an integral part of United’s global network and we are pleased to announce an expansion of flights from Lagos to Washington Dulles during the winter season on our state-of-the-art 787 Dreamliner.

“We are proud to offer our customers in Nigeria not only an even greater choice of travel options when booking their next vacation to the USA, but also convenient direct connections to over 70 destinations across America, including Houston, Chicago and New York/Newark.

“The Dreamliner’s revolutionary design offers customers many features for greater comfort, such as large windows, spacious overhead bins and modern LED lighting that simulates a full day and helps passengers reset their internal clock on the transatlantic flight.”

The increase in frequency follows the groundbreaking of a new Hall E at IAD. The 41,500 m² expansion will include 14 gates, all of which will be reserved for United Airlines.

A boost across the board

Lagos is far from the only destination experiencing a resurgence this winter. In addition to the African city, United Airlines is increasing flights to a number of domestic destinations. Two airports, Greenville/Spartanburg (GSP) in South Carolina and Piedmont-Triad International Airport (GSO) in North Carolina, will receive three daily flights for the winter season. Both routes, last served from Dulles in 2022, will be served by CommuteAir with a 50-seat Embraer E145.

Another new destination for IAD this winter is Palm Springs International Airport (PSP) in California. United will begin daily Boeing 737 service on December 19, which will run through April 30, 2025. Patrick Quayle, United’s senior vice president of global network planning and alliances, noted how quickly Dulles is growing as a hub:

“We are very excited about United Airlines’ new nonstop service between Washington Dulles and Palm Springs,” said Scott

“This service will be the first-ever connection between Washington, DC and Palm Springs and will provide unprecedented access to Palm Springs from the East Coast and Europe through one of United’s fastest-growing hubs.

“We are proud to offer unique, world-class destinations and are excited to offer our customers more service in the beautiful greater Palm Springs area.”

The airline is increasing frequencies on several existing routes by reallocating aircraft currently flying to summer season destinations. Miami (MIA), Fort Meyers (RSW) and Punta Cana (PUJ) in the Dominican Republic will each receive a second daily flight, while Las Vegas (LAS) and Phoenix (PHX) will each receive a third.

The increases come at the expense of additional daily frequencies to destinations primarily in Canada and the northern USA. The European destinations Athens (ATH) and Edinburgh (EDI) will no longer be served in winter, and Paris (CDG) and Rome (FCO) will both lose their second daily service.

A strategy in transition

In addition to regional expansion, the Star Alliance airline is also moving more domestic flights to Dulles. This summer, the airline moved over four regional flights from its hub in Newark Liberty International Airport (ERW). All of them are located in Pennsylvania and were previously served from Dulles, State College (SCE), Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AVP), Harrisburg (MDT) and Philadelphia (PHL) until 2022.

The routes were announced along with a new service to Mobile (MOB), Alabama. Due to high demand, summer operations have been extended on two international routes: Both Madrid (MAD) and Lisbon (LIS) will be served with Boeing 767 flights until the end of the year.

United Airlines’ partners are also increasing the number of their flights to Washington, DC. New this year are flights to Zurich (ZRH) with SWISS (which are now also offered in the winter season). This makes Dulles the second “flagship gateway” in the USA after New York JFK, which serves all Lufthansa Group Passenger airlines including Austrian, Brussels and Lufthansa.