United to adjust flights with focus on connections
United Airlines will rearrange flights at Bush Intercontinental Airport to make connections more efficient.
The number of flights and destinations will remain the same, but the times at which planes arrive or depart from Houston will change, the airline announced Tuesday.
“It allows us to use Houston as a more compelling connection point for our customers all over the country,” Grant Whitney, United’s vice president of domestic network planning, told the Chronicle.
At Bush Intercontinental, United has 10 specific time periods, called flight banks, when a large number of planes land and take off. Currently, these flight banks alternate between destinations to the east and west. Flights departing around 10:15 a.m., for instance, fly east. Flights departing around 11:25 a.m. fly west.
Starting Oct. 29, United will “rebank” its operations at Bush Intercontinental. It will drop to eight time periods when groups of planes come and go, but these banks will now offer flights to destinations both
east and west of Houston.
Airlines are constantly exploring ways to increase efficiency at their hub airports, and they’re comparing customers’ total elapsed travel time with that of competitors, said Henry Harteveldt, founder of San Francisco-based Atmosphere Research Group, a travel industry research company.
“It’s all in the execution,” he said. “For some airlines, rebanking can be successful. For some airlines, it may not be a success.”
He said airlines must strike the perfect balance. Travelers don’t like to linger in airports, but they also need enough time to change planes or terminals.
“Most travelers want to be on their way as quickly as they can,” Harteveldt said, “but don’t want to have to run an Olympic race to be able to get from their inbound flight to their outbound flight.”
Houston-based airline consultant Pete Garcia said local travelers won’t have as many scheduling choices for when their flights depart or land. However, he added, eight banks is still “plenty of options.”
Overall, the goal of rebanking is to reduce layover times. And Garcia said United President Scott Kirby was successful at fine-tuning the hub-andspoke system as president of American Airlines. Kirby joined United in August 2016.
Whitney, with United, said Houstonians won’t see a major change, just slight alterations to the timing of their trips. United is also increasing staffing in Houston and adding lobby check-in kiosks to provide a more efficient airport experience.
Whitney said Bush Intercontinental is conducive for rebanking because United has a lot of gates at the airport. He added that United is exploring rebanking at other hubs, including Chicago and Denver.
“The goal of this is to truly boost connectivity,” he said.