{"id":218866,"date":"2025-05-02T13:02:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T13:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/airline\/dulles-is-on-the-rise-at-united-cranky-flier\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T13:02:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T13:02:23","slug":"dulles-is-on-the-rise-at-united-cranky-flier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=218866","title":{"rendered":"Dulles is On the Rise at United \u2013 Cranky Flier"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Seems like this is turning into Washington Week here on the blog. This time, however, it\u2019s Dulles that gets some love.<\/em><\/p>\n

United\u2019s Washington\/Dulles hub has always been something of a red-headed stepchild. It has long seemed unloved, and we\u2019ve all heard calls to shut it down over the years, but those calls are misguided and really always have been. United has signaled that the Dulles hub would get growth, and that is happening. I looked over Cirium<\/a> data to give you a sense of where things are heading.<\/p>\n

United Washington\/Dulles Departures by Month<\/h4>\n
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Data via Cirium<\/a>, includes Continental pre-merger<\/em><\/sup><\/p>\n

There really is a tale of two time periods here. From the mid-2000s until just before the pandemic, Dulles was a story of shrinking and upgauging. The number of flights plunged with July 2017 having over 20 percent fewer flights than July 2004. That is, of course, only part of the story.<\/p>\n

Back in the mid-2000s, United was just trying to stabilize itself. Atlantic Coast had decided to go it alone instead of acting as United\u2019s primary regional partner at the airport. United scrambled to quickly replace ACA\u2019s capacity, but it was then forced to compete with the newly-christened Independence Air. None of it was sustainable, and at the beginning of 2006, Independence shut down.<\/p>\n

That gave United a brief respite before the Great Recession further threw the industry into crisis. The decline continued through the Continental merger and into the mid-2010s. That\u2019s when a strategy shift happened.<\/p>\n

United, like many other airlines, decided to upgauge. It rapidly increased gauge at Dulles peaking at nearly 115 seats per departure in summer 2017, well above the mid-80 to mid-90 range it had been in. But then, the pandemic hit, and the airline came out very differently on the other side.<\/p>\n

You can already see that the seats per departure climbed, but that wasn\u2019t just from added widebodies as you might have guessed. It was also from the reduction in Essential Air Service and small airplane flying due to the pilot shortage. The number of destinations East of the Rockies dropped to the lowest level in decades.<\/p>\n

United Destinations by Region from Washington\/Dulles<\/h4>\n
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Data via Cirium<\/a>, includes Continental pre-merger<\/em><\/sup><\/p>\n

While those short-haul markets suffered, others were on the rebound. As you can see in the chart above, the beginning of the pandemic brought growth in Florida, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In some places at some airlines, that was a temporary surge, but United has found success in the region. It has kept more destinations, at least seasonally.<\/p>\n

But Europe, or really, the Atlantic, has really taken off for the airline once borders reopened. Just look at what has been added:<\/p>\n