United adding flights
Service to Denver, SF from Appleton, Madison
United Airlines said Monday it will begin new daily nonstop, round-trip service between Madison and San Francisco and Appleton and Denver.
The new flights are part of a route expansion in which the airline will connect six of its domestic hubs and eight destinations in Wisconsin, California, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota and Virginia.
The service will begin June 7. The flights will “offer customers hundreds of connection opportunities” across United’s domestic and international route network, the Chicago-based airline said in a statement announcing the new service.
The moves are in line with United’s strategy to bring more passengers to its international gateway airports, said Robert Mann, a New York-based airline industry consultant.
The service in Madison also appears to be a “tech route,” Mann said.
“You see a lot of attempts (by airlines) to link university technology centers with Silicon Valley,” Mann said. “It’s similar to the Austin (Texas) to San Francisco route, only on a smaller scale.”
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the state’s flagship public university.
A Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce business survey in early 2016 showed strong support for the San Francisco service, the organization said in a statement.
“This new non-stop flight is more than a transit connection,” Zach Brandon, Madison Chamber president, said in the statement. “It is an economic connection between the global tech capital and the world-class innovation hub right here in greater Madison.
“Having this convenient access to San Francisco and Silicon Valley is exciting news for our entrepreneurial ecosystem and efforts to attract new investment and recruit world-class talent.”
Daily service between San Francisco and Madison will be offered on Embraer E-175 medium-range jets. Flights to San Francisco will depart Madison’s Dane County Regional Airport at 3:11 p.m. and arrive at 5:45 p.m. The flights to Madison depart San Francisco International Airport at 8:30 a.m. and arrive at 2:35 p.m.
This is Madison’s first daily flight service to the West Coast, said Jonathan Guerin, a United spokesman.
“It offers a lot of really good connection opportunities along the West Coast, up and down California and all the way up to Washington and over the Pacific,” Guerin said.
United wouldn’t be adding the service if the demand wasn’t there.
“We continually monitor supply and demand in all the markets we serve, and this was one where we saw an opportunity,” Guerin said. “We saw a need to provide this service.”
United is essentially restarting the Appleton-Denver route, which it dropped in January 2011.
The route reinstatement is due to a combination of demand and increased
Appleton passenger numbers overall, said Abe Weber, Appleton International Airport director.
“We’ve seen significant growth, up 27% over the last five years,” Weber said. “More people are flying out of Appleton.”
The flight departs at 8:35 a.m. and arrives in Denver at 10:05 a.m. The return flight leaves Denver at 5:35 p.m. and arrives in Appleton at 8:49 p.m.
The daily service between Denver and Appleton will be offered on Bombardier CRJ regional jets.
“We are excited to begin the new year by adding eight new flights as we continue our focus on making United the first choice for customers,” Jake Cefolia, United’s vice president of sales, said in a statement.
Among other airports in Wisconsin, Denver is served nonstop by Southwest, Frontier and United from Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport.
Southwest offers seasonal service between Milwaukee and San Francisco.
United Airlines and the airline’s United Express carriers operate approximately 4,500 flights a day to 338 airports across five continents.
United’s route network includes U.S. mainland hubs in Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark/New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
United operates 744 mainline aircraft, and United Express operates 507 regional aircraft.
In 2017, United and United Express operated more than 1.6 million flights carrying more than 148 million passengers.