United Airlines is axing destinations and reducing capacity on international flights, as part of a cost cutting initiative.
The carrier is scrapping flights to Dusseldorf, Santiago, and Caracas from 7 January and to Milan from 22 January. Customers booked for travel beyond the last date of service will be offered flights with other carriers.
The move will result in 229 redundancies. United hopes to improve profitability by about $220 million annually as a result of cutting capacity and axing routes.
United chairman, president and chief executive, Glenn Tilton, said: “These measures are unfortunately necessary given the continued deterioration of profitability in these four international markets. We regret the necessity of making these decisions because of the impact it will have on our customers, employees, their families and their countries.”
The airline will reduce capacity by flying Boeing 767s, instead of Boeing 777s on the Paris-Washington Dulles, Paris-San Francisco and Miami-Buenos Aires markets. United will also replace Boeing 747s with Boeing 777s on these routes: Osaka-San Francisco, United’s second Seoul-Tokyo flight and the carrier’s second daily Tokyo-Chicago flight.
