Avoiding cancellations
 

Let me start off by saying that I am in no way trying to stir any sort of pot here. United is always my first choice to fly on no matter what the circumstances because you all always treat me like I am one of your own. This is more for my genuine curiosity. I work for a regional partner (if you really wanna know you can look at my post history) and it seems as though lately United refuses to cancel a flight for any reason whatsoever right now. I saw at least 3 Express flights in January that flew with 0 passengers just so there would be not be cancellations. I was supposed to be on a deadhead today that departed at 1:30pm and due to maintenance issues, an equipment change, and subsequently crew issues is now currently delayed until 2am assuming they can get some pilots (it’s currently 0042)… just wondering if any of you knew the reason why delaying so long is better than a cancellation or an overnight delay?

In 2025 Delta Air Lines reached their 96th year of airline operations and decided to celebrate their 100th anniversary in a big big way. They thought it would be an awesome idea to stop hiring to maximize profit for the year to make it their most profitable year ever, and their operation subsequently suffered due to understaffing.

In 2026 United Airlines will reach their 100th year of airline operations. Perhaps they are going for their best year of operational statistics instead of their best year of profits after seeing how many DL customers got ticked off at all the IROPS last year? Just a hunch. Could be anything.

it’s not UA it’s the regional model and the regional operator.

its also referred to as a “fee for service” model. And guess what - no service = no fee.

the partner agreements have all sorts of incentives for completion rates etc. that drive some absurd behavior.

Sorry I should have specified, the deadhead was on mainline.

What was the original cause of delay?…….If it was for MX, this strategy may be frustrating but very predictable.
The reason is for completion factor on the FFD (regional UAX partner) carrier side.

My flights cancel all the time. I was supposed to operate hub to hub last week and it canceled. I jumped on a deadhead home and said deuces. Regional flights tend to go into rolling delays because they’re paid by the departure.

Could be for lots of reasons….. We don’t have the big picture.

Plane could be needed in position to operate first of the day to the hub. You canceling might a cause a downline cancellation especially if the flights are full in the morning making it difficult to rebook passengers….

^^^exactly^^^

Aircraft utilization depends on the right sort of aircraft with the right amount of time left on the crews’ clock to be at the right place at the right time, even if only to hand the plane over to another new crew or to maintenance. It’s a pretty involved dance even if weather cooperates and there are no serious maintenance issues p, routine servicing, or planned Wi-Fi upgrades or anything else. I’m rather amazed scheduling here does as well as it does. It is far superior to my regional or former major.

Thanks for the responses. The rolling delay on the deadhead was actually on mainline. But what you all said makes sense, need the airplane there the next morning. The completion factor thing for the regional carriers makes sense too. Just seems a little silly to send an empty airplane from a hub to an outstation, back to the hub again empty just for the completion.

Keep in mind, a lot of times there’s crew swaps at outstations well. There’s a big picture to all of this….

It seems counterintuitive sometimes, but this is what Richard Anderson did to turn Delta into an operational and financial standout. With high load factors there is little capacity to reaccommodate passengers if aircraft don’t follow the schedule. Passengers get understandably upset when it takes days of standing by for flights to get where they are going. It takes a lot of planning and operational/maintenance commitment to make it work. Glad to see United following suit.

I think it is a fair question, and don’t always assume that operations doesn’t make bad judgments and decisions too. Mainline ops you know Deltas, Uniteds…they are pretty good….so they probably are on top of it……but if you ever worked at JetBlue you’d know that’s definitely not always the case.

I know first hand there were no crew swaps on these examples. Empty to outstation, immediately turned around and empty back to hub.

Not enough info given but top reasons include:

Future gate allotment at departure or arrival airport tied to usage.
Aircraft needed in place for downstream flying.
Aircraft needed in place for maintenance requirements.
Measured performance metrics include completion factor in calculations.

also add in EAS…..government requires you fly no matter how many people are on board.

and if the flight was EAS then that isn’t even a United decision it’s a Skywest decision as it’s their flight.

Many Corporate travel contracts include performance guarantees for both on time and completion factor. If the airline fails to meet those obligations a portion of the travel contract has to be rebated. These are not small sums. Delta took over the NYC corporate market 12 years ago with these guarantees. United is trying to take it back.