United Airlines Plans O.C.-to-San Francisco Flights : Transportation: The carrier and its partner intend to inaugurate four daily, nonstop round-trips, although county supervisors still have not approved them.
United Airlines and its commuter partner, United Express, said Friday that they will begin flying four daily, nonstop round-trips between Orange County and San Francisco on March 2.
The announcement caught county airport officials by surprise because it was “a bit premature,” Airport Manager George Rebella said.
United has been given the new flights under an interim flight-allocation plan, Rebella said, but county supervisors have not yet approved the plan.
Still, Rebella expects that United will be able to inaugurate its new schedule in March.
While that will make United the third carrier on the route, it won’t increase total flights to San Francisco from Orange County. American Airlines on Thursday slashed its daily Orange County-San Francisco service to three flights from seven because of changes in its allocation under the interim plan.
The new United service won’t affect fares from Orange County to San Francisco, either. Spokesmen for United and United Express said that the two carriers plan merely to match existing prices. Airlines do not offer many discounted fares on flights originating in Orange County because the airport is heavily used by business flyers who don’t make reservations far in advance and who prefer the convenience of a local airport to lower prices.
United Express said Friday that it does plan to add one more Orange County-San Francisco flight on April 1, which would provide a real increase in service between the two airports.
American decided to cut back its service between Orange County and San Francisco because, in the permanent flight-allocation plan scheduled to take effect Sept. 15, it will lose six slots for the smaller jets it uses on that route, according to Bruce Wetsel, managing director of scheduling analysis for the Dallas-based carrier.
Instead of trying to keep seven daily San Francisco flights under the complex new rules for flight allocations, and remain subject to changes by county officials, Wetsel said, American decided to cut its flights from John Wayne Airport “to a level that we can control.”
As of Thursday, American has been flying only 25 daily flights from Orange County, down from 39 a year ago.
Wetsel said the carrier may eventually cut its flight total to 21 a day but would be using larger jets that are more profitable, carrying more passengers longer distances.
Until United begins its flights next month, nonstop jet service between Orange County and San Francisco is now provided by American, with three flights, including two which are daily, and USAir, with 10 flights, including five dailies.
United’s San Francisco service was launched when the carrier was granted four new flights at John Wayne Airport under the interim plan that increases allocations to carriers using quiet jets. United chose to use only one of its new quiet-engine, Boeing 737-300s at Orange County and gave the rest of its increase to United Express, the commuter line that uses the United name under contract.
Because there are no fare-cutting carriers like Southwest Airlines using John Wayne Airport, United and United Express are matching existing fares on the route rather than discounting prices.
The least expensive tab on the new United and United Express flights will be a $133 round-trip fare that requires a seven-day advance reservation and has other significant restrictions. The standard coach fare will be $180 one-way, United Express spokesman Mark Peterson said.
By comparison, when Southwest announced earlier this week that it would begin flying between Burbank and Oakland with its unrestricted, $59 one-way fares, United immediately said it would slash fares to match them March 1.
