United Airlines adds more flights for winter as travel demand goes up

United Airlines is planning to add more flights to warmer locations during winter as demand continues to go up for travel with the industry rebounding from the pandemic.

United announced Friday it will add almost 150 flights to warmer destinations during winter across the U.S. and increase flights to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America by 30 percent compared to 2019.

The airline said it will add 137 additional flights to Florida, California, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada between November and March, compared to 2019.

“Celebrating the holidays with family and loved ones in 2020 was a challenge, and we know our customers are already eager to plan winter vacations and gatherings in person this year to make up for time that they lost,” said Ankit Gupta, vice president of network planning at United.

“As pandemic restrictions ease, people are becoming more confident in planning travel further in advance, so we want to make sure to offer our customers as much choice as possible,” Gupta added.

The company said it anticipates demand for travel to continue to go up, noting it saw five times as many travelers for the Fourth of July than it did in 2020 during the pandemic.

Demand for travel has increasingly gone up this summer with airlines pushing to rebound from one of the worst years of travel in 2020.

United made its largest order of jetliners in June to update its fleet and expand seating by 30 percent by 2026.