United Adds New Routes Between The Midwest & The East Coast

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United Airlines has announced a series of new routes for the summer season which will see it linking seven cities in the Midwest with a variety of popular getaway destinations in New England and the South.

United’s New Midwest Routes

In total, United says that it will launch an impressive 26 new non-stop routes from cities such as Cleveland, Columbus, and St. Louis to destinations like Hilton Head, Myrtle Beach, and Charleston.

All of the services are scheduled to launch on 27 May with the airline employing one of its newest aircraft-types on most of the routes – the Bombardier CRJ-550. – and with the routes set to operate through Labor Day weekend (6 September).

Ankit Gupta, vice president of United’s domestic network planning and scheduling, had thjis to say about the new routes:

“In the past few weeks, we have seen the strongest flight bookings since the start of the pandemic. As we rebuild our schedule to meet that demand, adding in seasonal point-to-point flying is just one of the ways we are finding opportunities to add new and exciting service. And as we have done throughout the entire pandemic, we will continue being nimble and strategic with our network to add the right service to the destinations our customers want to visit.”

All the new non-stop routes set to operate through Labor Day weekend (6 September).

These are the routes that United has announced today:

Routes From Cleveland

• Charleston – 3x/week
• Hilton Head – 3x/week
• Myrtle Beach – 3x/week
• Pensacola – 3x/week
• Portland (Maine) – 3x/week

Routes From Cincinnati

• Charleston – 3x/week
• Hilton Head – 3x/week
• Pensacola – 3x/week
• Portland (Maine) – 3x/week

Routes From Columbus

• Charleston – 4x/week
• Hilton Head – 3x/week
• Portland (Maine) – 4x/week

Routes From Indianapolis

• Charleston – 3x/week
• Hilton Head – 4x/week
• Portland (Maine) – 4x/week

Routes From Milwaukee

• Charleston – 2x/week
• Myrtle Beach – 2x/week
• Pensacola – 2x/week
• Portland (Maine) – 3x/week
• Savannah – 2x/week

Routes From St. Louis

• Hilton Head – 3x/week
• Myrtle Beach – 3x/week

Routes From Pittsburgh

• Charleston – 3x/week
• Hilton Head – 3x/week
• Pensacola – 3x/week
• Portland (Maine) – 3x/week

At the time of writing, the routes are not yet bookable on United.com but they should be loaded into the airline’s systems in the coming days.

United’s Bombardier CRJ-550

United’s CRJ-550s come in a 2-cabin configuration with 50 seats in the aircraft:

The CRJ-550 offers 10 First Class seats, 20 Economy Plus seats, and 20 regular Economy Class seats and United boasts that with four storage closets as well as ample overhead bin space, this is the only regional jet in the skies where customers do not need to routinely gate check their bags…and that’s an excellent feature for United to offer.

Still, not everything in the CRJ-550 is good news for everyone.

Here’s the seat information form United:

• First Class: 42″/20″ (pitch/width)
• Economy Plus: 34″/17″
• Economy Class: 30″/17″

First Class looks great but Economy Class is tight. Very tight.

United may be claiming that the aircraft will offer passengers a lot of space but that certainly doesn’t apply to Economy Class.

American’s ERJ-145 aircraft which also have 50 seats (but which don’t have a First Class cabin) offer Economy Class passengers 31″ of pitch and Delta’s CRJ-100/200 aircraft (another 50-seater without a First Class cabin) offer Economy Class passengers 31″ of pitch and 17.3″ of width.

United’s CRJ-550 is a great option for First Class flyers and a very good option for anyone entitled to an Economy Plus seat, but regular Economy Flyers will not find a lot of comfort here.

Bottom Line

United Airlines has announced that on 27 May, it will launch a total of 26 new routes between seven cities in the Midwest and a number of popular vacation destinations on the East Coast. Most of the routes will be operated United’s new CRJ-550 and the services will be offered through 6 September.

What do you think of United’s new summer season routes?