United Airlines launched ’15 new destinations’ for winter. And they aren’t shy about saying they’re going after Spirit while they’re down. What they’re actually doing is anticompetitive – and revealing their playbook for blocking competition at Newark and beyond.
New routes and added flights include:
- Newark: Orlando; Fort Lauderdale; Columbia, South Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee
- Houston: Orlando; Las Vegas; New Orleans; Atlanta; Baltimore; Miami; Guatemala City; San Salvador; San Pedro Sula
- Chicago: Orlando; Fort Lauderdale; New Orleans; Las Vegas
- Los Angeles: Las Vegas
United’s Senior Vice President of Network Planning doesn’t mince words: they’re gunning for Spirit:
If Spirit suddenly goes out of business it will be incredibly disruptive, so we’re adding these flights to give their customers other options if they want or need them.
Now, this is incredibly disingenuous:
- “If Spirit suddenly goes out of business” because we’re dumping capacity in their markets
- They aren’t trying to ‘give Spirit’s customers other options’, they aren’t worried about Spirit’s customers they are accelerating Spirit’s demise which is bad for customers, which would remove seats from the market and raise fares.
- And they’re not helping Spirit’s customers by focusing adds primarily on cities that Spirit is pulling out of – like Birmingham; Boise; Oakland; Sacramento; San Diego; San Jose; or Portland.
Now, Spirit is exiting Chattanooga and Columbia, South Carolina. United’s promotion of Columbia as a ‘new route’ is being misreported as “the carrier will for the first time link Newark, New Jersey, with Columbia, South Carolina.” Memories are short!
Columbia is the famous “Chairman’s Flight” that ousted former United CEO Jeff Smisek in a corruption scandal, as he got caught up in the New Jersey Bridgegate investigation. United operated the route as a payoff to the Chairman of the Port Authority of New York New Jersey, David Samon, who demanded air service to his vacation home in exchange for including items United wanted at Newark airport on the Port Authority agenda.
United Airlines entered into a Non‑Prosecution Agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey in 2016, agreeing to pay a $2.25 million penalty and enhance its compliance policies in exchange for avoiding prosecution. Oscar Munoz was rushed into the Chairman’s role in 2015, despite not having airline experience. Samson pled guilty to bribery over the routing setup.
Meanwhile the hypocrisy on United’s part adding these Newark flights is risible. CEO Scott Kirby has repeatedly slammed Newark’s over-scheduling and pushed for federal limits to flying there (which would basically protect United from competition, blocking new flights by competitors and entrenching their stronghold).
- In a May 2025 letter to customers, he wrote that Newark cannot handle the current flight volume and that they were forced to cancel 35 roundtrip daily flights to protect customers. He urged the government to designate Newark as a Level 3, slot‑controlled airport.
- In an internal communications memo he insisted returning to a slot-control system is the only way to manage capacity, among other measures.
In ideal weather, with full staffing and with perfectly functioning technology, the FAA tells us that the airport can only handle 77 flights per hour. And yet, the FAA regularly approves schedules of 80+ flights per hour almost every day…
- Just like these schedule adds are being framed as ‘protecting customers’, Kirby framed the need to limit flights out of Newark as protecting customers.
Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead … We feel like there is no other choice in order to protect our customers.
What this actually shows is what a bad idea slots and FAA schedule coordination are. In almost any business and market the classic antitrust play of lowering prices and flooding the market with capacity to drive out a competitor and then raising prices fails. That’s because those higher profits draw in new competitors.
Here, government assigns the right to fly to incumbent carriers blocking those new competitors. United can try to drive Spirit out of Newark and then block new entrants to compete with them.
That is one reason congestion pricing would be so muxh better than slots for consumers but we won’t get it because it doesn’t benefit.. incumbent airlines (for crude public choice reasons of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs).
United, of course, would love little more than to squeeze Spirit out of Newark and also squeeze them out of business to where they’re selling off assets that they still want to operate. United could then bid to pick up their Fort Lauderdale gates, filling a gap in the airline’s network. For a year and a half there’s been talk of how can United grow in Florida and this points the way.
Update: Spirit Airlines Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications Duncan Dee responds,
While we appreciate the obsession certain airline executives have with us, we’re focused on competing and running a great operation. Suggesting anything else is wishful thinking on the part of a high-cost airline looking to eliminate a low-cost competitor so they can fulfill their ultimate goal of charging American travelers the highest fares possible to visit the people and places they love.
Spirit is responsible for making low fares available to consumers for more than 30 years, whether they fly with us or not. We have every expectation to continue doing so for many years to come.
I’m sorry, but to quote Dr. Frank N Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture show “It was a mercy killing” Spirit is a Zombie airline. May it RIP.
So, let’s recap.
1. We slam the FTC when they do things to protect competition.
2. People on here constantly polish the knob of “market dynamics” as the reason why airlines can do as they please.
3. When an airline smells a competitive opportunity they pounce on it, only to be called “uncompetitive.”
4. People clutch their pearls, get the vapors and act all surprised when a company’s says whatever it needs to say to get what it wants.
United is doing exactly what United should do. Seize an opportunity to put a competitor out of business. Think it’s wrong? Take it up with the FTC.
United does NOT want the trouble that comes with flying these $9 people around…..nor does anyone else on the airplane.
Kudos to David Flatt! I’m in favor of any post which quotes Dr Frank N Furter! LOL.
Of course it is hypocritical. It IS United.
even as they moan about not being able to get back into JFK and hide the fact that they are the 6th largest airline to Florida and will only move up to #5 if NK completely swoons.
as for the “new” EWR flights, presumably they will reduce service to other markets.
btw, the latest data for July is out for NYC airport traffic from the Port Authority and UA’s share of EWR passengers is 67% so they haven’t lost anything in terms of their lock on EWR.
The only real winner at EWR is DL who is the only US carrier that managed to grow at EWR.
for NYC’s 3 airports, DL has the most flights with 38% more domestic flights than UA and 18% more overall.
United’s upgauging has allowed it to run neck in neck w/ DL on number of region passengers carried driven by an increase in UA passengers at EWR. UA hasn’t added any new flights at LGA so their ability to match DL in number of passengers carried depends on retaining the passengers they carried via LGA.
on a YTD basis, DL is still well ahead of UA in NYC share.
At LGA and JFK, DL carries as much traffic as AA and B6 do combined.
NYC airports carried 3% less passengers and this is presumably the capacity that the 3 airports will have on a medium to long -term basis other than upgauging (or downgauging as the 321XLR replaces 757s for UA)
@Tim “United has been able to run neck and neck with Delta” – no United is ahead of Delta in total passengers, its not hard to report data correctly when you’re not biased…
This is spinning something into something it isn’t. This article tries to frame it as United taking steps to put Spirit out of business.
But that’s disingenuous. Pretty much everyone, yourself included (“Spirit files for chapter 22 bankruptcy!”) expects Spirit to go out of business in the coming months well before United made this route announcement.
And whenever there are major market shifts, whether it be airlines going out of business, cities getting de-hubbed or markets opening up, airlines jockey for positioning in that new landscape.
They will not be the last airline to pick up the scraps of Spirit, and there is nothing inherently wrong with them being the first. There is no rule that you need to wait until it’s officially announced on CNBC in order to adjust your business model
Hypocritical? More like, hyperbolic. This isn’t ‘war’… it’s beating a dead horse!
Andy,
United’s July passenger boardings are 0.1% higher than DL.
UA is still behind DL on a YTD basis and likely cannot make that up.
Even presuming that the capacity that the 3 airports handled is the norm YTD, UA at best will be at parity with DL on total passengers while operating considerably less domestic flights which is where the majority of corporate traffic comes from.
and for all of the yapping about the fact that DL uses such a high percentage of RJs at perimeter restricted LGA, DL uses larger international aircraft – carrying about 20 more passengers/international flight- because there is little corporate revenue value and likely lower margins flying stuff like to Greenland, Malaga and Portuguese islands in the Atlantic than flying domestic flights. and much of the international stuff that UA adds is seasonal anyway.
@Tim Dunn yet for all the “corporate traffic” comments everyone that has the data acknowledges that the most profitable NYC-area airline is UA at EWR by a distance. With the EWR operational restrictions YTD the market share stats are:
DL: 24.3% (passenger count -1.3%)
UA: 23.8% (passenger count -5.5%)
B6: 12.6% (passenger count -10.3%)
AA: 12.3% (passenger count +2.2%)
You were going on and on about how DL has permanently taken the lead at NYC with UA allegedly never able to recover just a few months ago. However, eventually (likely in 2027), EWR will have even more hourly movements than the 72 permitted today.
DL is operating above its slot capacity at JFK during waivers and is at capacity at LGA. What you see in market share is what they can possibly get. UA will very likely catch up and marginally retake the lead as it has historically.
So all that hype and comments you’ve posted on the EWR limitations, yet nothing has fundamentally changed in the NYC area. DL and UA are neck and neck in passenger counts, yet the EWR hub is far more profitable and efficient than the dual LGA/JFK operation that DL (and to a much lesser extent AA) have.
B6 has lost share due to returning various slots to AA in the NEA with AA having further room to grow at LGA as some slots leased to NK will likely return and an additional ~20 slot pairs at JFK, yet it is fundamentally limited at #3 at best in the region with a problem-child at LGA where it loses $.
I’m overwhelmed by UA’s benevolence in wanting to assist potentially stranded NK pax. I’m certain they’ll accept their tickets at face value !!
…. lol
Although in the past, I believe some airlines have accepted other carriers’ pax in similar circumstances on a standby basis… A ‘goodwill’ gesture to earn future loyalty/business …
These days, I’m don’t think that would ‘fly’ !
DL is the largest carrier in NYC by flights and passengers carried YTD. a 0.1% difference doesn’t change anything.
UA loves to trash talk the competition but it has been put in its place by DL who will take full advantage of that new capacity at EWR when it comes online.
Maybe, just maybe, DL will make EWR-LAX the last route for its 767-300ERs
Tim, the fact that DL has to run 15% more NYC flights than UA just to carry a similar number of passengers shows how inefficient DL’s split hub operation is.
They run a significant number of RJs from LGA, a station restricted by a perimeter rule.
UA also generates significantly more NYC revenue than DL, meaning, since costs are similar, that UA is more profitable than DL there.
With the short term issues in the first half of the year, UA also got what it has wanted for years: the slot controls at EWR that DL has enjoyed at JFK and LGA for years.
The continues upgauging continues to increase UA pax counts. Just look at LGA, where UA is carrying approximately 25% more passengers on the same number of flights.
UA runs almost 400 departures from EWR with nearly 50 widebodies. That is in addition to the LGA operation and the JFK flights that will go on sale next year.
“UA loves to trash talk the competition but it has been put in its place by DL”
LOL…Sure Timmyboy!
2024 and so far 2025:
DAL up 49%
UAL up 260%
What a way to put UAL in its place.
You’re a joke Timmyboy. You should see a psychologist man. You’re really obsessed.
Correction: UAL up 160%
UAL stock is up 9.2% YTD.
You do live in an alternate reality, don’t you?
Mark,
if you truly believe that UA wanted to have an operational meltdown and lose massive amounts of share and money because Kirby went on national news night after night and scared the public away from EWR, you need to be drug tested.
UA wanted slot controls. As Gary accurately notes, UA did NOT get slot controls. EWR is STILL schedule coordinated by the FAA; the levels were just reduced.
and, yes, DL uses more RJs at LGA because of the perimeter restriction and yet DL still matches if not exceeds UA’s total NYC boardings with a perimeter restricted airport – which also happens to be the preferred shorthaul domestic airport for NYC
UA could have easily just reduced flights for runway construction at EWR and then reinstated them when it was done but they were too afraid of losing market share which they ended up doing plus scared away lots of passengers.
None of which changes that DL is the knight in the airline industry that keeps UA in check just as UA thinks it is its job to take out every other carrier except DL.
You know what they say about karma.
Tim, UA did reduce flights in anticipation of the runway closure. They were only planning approximately 250 departures, down from close to 400. So I’m not sure what you’re remembering.
In spite of that, the FAA technology and staffing issues made even the 250 unsustainable.
If the short-term pain was going to happen anyway, at least UA got long term benefits of the FAA spotlight on EWR and the issues there, along with the slots that were just extended (at least) through the end of 2026.
And yes, NYC passenger counts are similar, though UA’s NYC revenue is significantly higher than DL’s, meaning UA is more profitable while taking customers to five continents from NYC and carrying 50% more cargo.
UA will continue to upgauge with all of the A321s and 737 MAXes joining the fleet, while building up LGA passenger counts and putting JFK flights on sale next year.
@Tim He said 2024 and 2025… reading the comments like you read statistics… with dorito shaped glasses…
Sure in absolute terms the meltdown is not immediately good for United. But anyone with any commercial acumen (I know this is an area you struggle with), would see it’s a crisis not to be wasted. Kirby has used the crisis to lock competitors out of EWR and then pummel Spirit. UA has some decent route overlap with Spirit, Delta has less so UA stands to benefit a lot from its demise.
It’ll be interesting to see how well Delta holds up in NYC when the UA and B6 partnership gets going, it’s not the biggest loser from it, but it’s certainly not a winner…
“so far 2025” cannot mean anything other than YTD for anyone that remotely understands markets.
and, Andy, once again, DL is the ONLY US carrier that has consistently gained at EWR during UA’s crisis… so, no, UA did not succeed at locking out the competition.
And AA, on a percentage basis, was the biggest winner in NYC during UA’s meltdown, quite the karma for what UA has said about AA at ORD.
The simple fact is that WN has the most network overlap with NK followed by DL; UA has more network overlap with F9 than any other carrier.
The UA partnership as it exists doesn’t do anything. As long as UA keeps talking about trashing weaker competitors, there will be no deeper cooperation esp. since DL and UA are likely set to be in a dead heat in passengers. It makes zero sense to allow either DL or UA to grow any more in NYC but if UA can start JFK, DL will grow EWR even more than it has so far.
and, no, Mark, you have absolutely zero proof that UAs margins are any better out of NYC than DL’s. and even if that is true in absolute numbers, the gap between DL and UA has narrowed considerably and UA still can’t match DL’s overall profitability despite flying 10% more ASMs.
and the simple reality is that UA did not cut anywhere near deep enough to account for the possibility that EWR would be a single runway airport – which happened not because of ATC but because very predictable spring weather reduced the airport to a single runway operation.
@TimDunn.
Tim. Just stop. Really just stop. Enough is enough.
This article is about United and Spirit Airlines. It is NOT about Delta Airlines. I appreciate your knowledge about the industry but your obsession with Delta is creeping me out. And Gary can probably notice the fall off of his readership because of you. I come hear to read other viewpoints that readers share. NOT for your consistent rambling about Delta Airlines and your personal attacks on others that have different opinions.
If I want to listen to folks that need a shrink I’ll turn into an episode of “Frasier.”
Please STOP taking Delta Airlines so damn seriously. IT IS JUST AN AIRLINE.
It IS about UA’s stated desire to eliminate all low cost competition.
It is SICK for execs to tout their plans and desires to bully everyone that they can including American and Southwest.
The only carrier that they don’t seem to have the ability to bully is Delta who has made it clear that it, Delta, will do what it wants to do including in UA markets.
So, no, I am not going to stop esp. in light of the internet followers who are incapable of seeing how sick UA execs are.
oh look. Another Tim Dunn Mental breakdown… shocking.
Another weird jealous obsession with United execs while pretending Delta has never been bullied by another carrier… What a huge joke. Delta has literally been pushed out of entire hubs and focus cities by other carriers, including UA (SJC if you’re wondering. Their SJC focus city was simply unable to compete with SFO up the road).
You should go see a shrink about your obsession with Scott Kirby. It’s becoming rather evident to everyone that there’s an obvious… let’s just call it “freudian” obsession with him, Tim. Does your wife know about this obsession? Also, does she not care that you go to bed and wake up always posting on comment sections? I’m betting she does not exist…
the only mental breakdown is from you, Max.
In 48 years of deregulation, DL has managed to grow from the 6th largest carrier to the largest in the world by revenue
You can cherrypick examples of where you think DL was pushed out of markets but the simple reality is that DL has “pushed up” into more markets than it has been pushed down.
NYC and LAX are infinitely larger markets than SJC or any other US markets and DL has dethroned AA and UA in those markets.
And, I have repeatedly said that my beef with Scott Kirby is his arrogance and that of his executive team that are incapable of admitting their own weaknesses while incessantly criticizing every other airline except DL – which they desperately want to think they are equal to.
DL pays its employees much better than UA pays its employees. DL does what it needs to do without trashing everyone else.
and DL doesn’t tell the world that it is going to take out low cost competitors.
In fact, DL takes on anyone including UA – as evidenced by DL’s starting of LAX-HKG and LAX-ORD.
UA simply is not the gift to the airline industry that their execs and many people on aviation social media think they are. In fact, they are a pariah that have no strategic foresight and only copy what DL figures out works.
“the only mental breakdown is from you, Max.”
ooooh. good comeback. You’re such a deranged loser.
“The only carrier that they don’t seem to have the ability to bully is Delta who has made it clear that it, Delta, will do what it wants to do including in UA markets.”
Don’t make deranged dogmatic statements if they aren’t true, Tim. It isn’t true that Delta can’t be bullied or be forced out of entire hubs or focus cities. They have been and also gave up on most of their prior-named focus cities.
Work on your obsession with Scott Kirby. As I’ve always said, he’s a multi-multi-millionaire that turned around United. You’re a loser in the comment section 24/7.
I get that you think you know better than everyone but your pathetic place in the laughing stock of aviation comment sections suggests otherwise. 😉
We get it — you love Delta so much you probably have their seatback safety card framed over your bed, but the rest of us aren’t trying to live life as a middle seat on your obsession.
There is nothing wrong w/ redeploying assets. Airlines do it all the time.
But the simple fact is that no other airline besides UA feels a repeated need to trash talk the competition, says they have failing business plans, and then tell the world how great they are while eliminating competition.
and, yes, DL RIGHT NOW is the only airline that doesn’t seem to hesitate to take on United.
the only obsession is UA execs with other airlines and themselves. healthy and successful companies do not need to continually tout how well they are doing and how poorly everyone else is doing.
Your obsession is your inability to accept that I do know what I am talking about while all you exist is to trash talk me and add absolutely no insight to anything about the conversation.
I love competition, Max. Not bullying and not incessant drum-beating that is counter to actual reality.
DL is simply, right now, the best run airline and business that flies planes in the US.
“and, yes, DL RIGHT NOW is the only airline that doesn’t seem to hesitate to take on United.”
If you’re a Delta fanboy, perhaps. But it would also ignore AA’s huge growth in ORD this year and how AA has consistently beaten back United in just about every non-hub Texas market from DFW vs IAH.
But, that doesn’t meet your desired criteria for a post, absent facts.
I exist to do a lot more than trash talk you, I enjoy showing your dogmatic statements for what they are, fiction. And I also enjoy a lot more, you just post like you have no other life and make it incredibly easy to prove you wrong.
Use data and facts and you won’t have this issue. Your dogmatic Delta takes are ignorant.
AA is trying to retake its original position which was pretty close to parity with UA at ORD.
And AA is being forced to act because it is losing gates.
and, yes, AA is larger in most of Texas than UA precisely because of the strength of DFW vs. IAH as hubs but WN is larger in most TX markets than either AA or UA – as illustrated by AA’s failed attempt at building a hub/focus city at AUS.
WN doesn’t fly to a number of smaller cities that AA serves in Texas but AA has also been stronger so, no, AA didn’t beat UA back – it has been larger since AA moved its headquarters from NYC to Ft. Worth and DFW airport opened. UA had a minimal presence in Texas at the time.
at LAX, AA once flew a whole bunch of destinations in the Pacific but has a minimal presence. DL is closer in size to UA in international markets from LAX than it has ever been and is larger than AA and UA in domestic markets, both of which have never happened before.
None of which changes the big picture – which you are always incapable of seeing – which is that DL has grown more in the 48 years of deregulation relative to the US airline industry than either AA or UA.
and DL has done that growth w/o trash talking the competition while also whining about its network deficiencies because of dumb decisions made by former exec teams.
my statements are correct – but I do give your credit for debating the facts rather than fixate on me. I’ll debate you and your industry-based arguments all day long – and still win.
How’s that extra super awesome competition that Biden promised you from denying multiple mergers working out for you? And did anyone see this coming? Just wondering. It’s getting tiresome getting lectured on business by people who couldn’t manage themselves out of a wet paper bag.
@ Tim — Seriously? DL is the most hypocritical of all airlines. Did you forget about their anti-ME3 lies and propaganda, followed by partnering with Riyhad Air? You are just upset because this is UA’s latest step in pulling away from Delta as NY’s dominant #1 airline.
Tim, you say you’ll post in blog comment sections to go up against Scott Kirby’s comments to media and global audiences.
Let’s take a moment to think about that.
Your comments are in these sections on blogs, not even your own blogs. And you think Kirby and UA are going to be influenced by what you say here. That’s how important you think your comments are.
Everyone else is making a comment to the author of the posts, or to each other. You think Scott Kirby reads your comments, or even knows you exist?
That’s an interesting glimpse into your psychology.
Have you sent Scott Kirby an email, advising your comments will only stop when he changes his messaging?
I don’t for a minute think that Kirby cares about me. He and his execs aren’t my target.
It is people like you that infect airline industry blogs.
and Gary and co. do have very widespread readership.
it is even more interesting that you suck up to Kirby and co. so much that you can’t do your own analysis or accept any criticism.
What UA is doing is from the 1980s playbook when the first set of LCCs appeared. Flood the market with flights, match or better fare pricing, offer a better product with more frequencies, and now a co-branded credit card and drive the LCC upstarts out of business.
Something tells me me that the operations per hour won’t change at EWR; it just means some RJ’s get moved to IAD, sort of like EWR-PHL.
Spirit cut its fleet to save money. It makes sense for competitors to fill the void.
They should have been allowed to merge with Jetblue.