United Continental (UAL) To Add Flights From Paine Field

In a bid to expand further, United Continental Holdings (NYSE:UAL) announced that it intends to launch flights from Everett‘s Paine Field airport starting from the fall of next year. Through this customer friendly move, the Chicago- based carrier aims to operate six daily flights from the airport to its Denver and San Francisco hubs.

The carrier aims to connect more than 120 destinations to these two cities through the new service. The new flights, on resumption, are expected to be warmly welcomed by the concerned passengers as it broadens their travel option. In fact, these flights will be in addition to the 36 it already operates connecting the Seattle-Tacoma International airport and its hubs in the country.

Moreover, the increased traffic as a result of the new service should augment the top line of the company. In fact, we note that United Continental's decision to launch flights from Paine Field marks a return of the carrier to the Snohomish County airport as it had operated the first commercial flight from the airport in 1939.

In fact, United Continental is not the only U.S.-based carrier to eye the Snohomish County airport. In May this year, the Seattle, WA- based Alaska Air Group (NYSE:ALK) had announced that it intends to start commercial operations to Paine Field next year.

Apart from these expansion initiatives, United Continental was also in the news when it reported its July traffic numbers. Load factor (percentage of seats filled by passengers) declined as traffic growth was outpaced by capacity expansion in the month.

Notably, United Continental is not the only carrier whose load factor fell in July. This key metric also declined in the month for other airline players like American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) and JetBlue Airways Corporation (NASDAQ:JBLU) .

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