United Opens Up East Coast With New Washington Service

PR NEWSWIRE
Posted: 2007-12-06 08:12:34
CHICAGO, Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- United Airlines today announced that it will serve nine new east coast cities from its hub at Washington-Dulles International Airport. Service between Dulles and Bradford, Pa.; Jamestown, N.Y.; and Parkersburg, W.Va. will begin January 7, and flights to all nine cities are now open for sale.

United customers in Altoona, Pa.; Beckley, W.Va.; Clarksburg, W.Va.; Johnstown, Pa.; Morgantown, W.Va.; and Shenandoah Valley, Va. will have service to Washington-Dulles in early 2008.

"We are pleased to offer our east coast customers what they want -- more air service with a convenient schedule and easy connections to cities across the world," says Kevin Knight, United Airlines senior vice president -- Planning.

"With today's announcement of direct service to Dulles, new and more reliable domestic and international travel options to our state are opening up," says Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee of Senate Commerce. "I commend Colgan and United for taking this step so that West Virginia businesses and families will have better air service options."

United Express will offer service through its regional partner Colgan Air with a Saab SF-340 aircraft with 34 seats onboard.

United's hub in Washington gives customers one-stop service to 26 international cities, including South America and Asia, and 84 cities across the United States. Since last year, United has added daily service from Washington to Beijing, Rome, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo.

Service to and from Washington is scheduled to begin on the following dates:


-- January 7 -- Bradford, Pa.; Jamestown, N.Y.; and Parkersburg, W.Va. -- January 21 -- Clarksburg, W.Va. and Morgantown, W.Va. -- February 4 -- Altoona, Pa. and Johnstown, Pa. -- February 18 -- Beckley, W.Va. and Shenandoah Valley, Va.

 

yup those eas cities gotta go somewhere now that airways is closing the door in pit

 

Colgan already flies between AOO and IAD. Is this just changing the code share from Airways to United?

 

Yup. A lot these runs seem to be EAS (Essential Air Service) runs. Some old, and quite a few new. This should be interesting...

 

Do we even have the airplanes?

 

There was a posting up on the pinnacle msg board that the idea is for Colgan (9L) to have 250-300 airframes by 2012. Needless to say us on the 9E side want our scope provisions in place. Good luck to colgan- with MGMT on the cusp of attempting to whipsaw (which won't happen) and with no Union of property things may get interesting.

 

I think the majority of 9L pilots want you to have scope provisions since you guys actually have the gonads to have a union. It sounds weird though. A regional with scope? Thats how sad things are I suppose.

 

You only need to look at anyone whose been flying for DAL, UAL, US, AA, CAL, or NWA for the last 10 years to see why we have to get scope clauses now. Thanks guys!

 

none of this is new flying. We are already doing it for airways now. Instead of going to PIT, the planes will be repainted and go to IAD.

 

Do you guys even have a sufficient amount of pilots? I had a phone interview with Chuck Colgan a few weeks back, and he also mentioned plans to start a base out west. All this growth sounds great for the company, but with all the other regionals hiring and paying more, how will they staff these planes/routes?