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United ending flights to Sapporo, Palau route
Airline reducing number of flights to other Japanese cities
Weeks after Delta Air Lines announced that it is suspending Guam-Narita flights effective next year, United Airlines announced last week that it will terminate its Guam-Sapporo route effective Jan. 15, 2018, and flights from Palau to Yap will end on Jan. 7, 2018.
According to a story first published by Pacific Daily News, the announcement came from United Airlines president Scott Kirby through an email sent to United Airline employees.
The email also stated that United Airlines plans to reduce flights from Guam to other Japanese cities such as Fukuoka, Osaka, Nagoya and Sendai. However, no specific dates were cited.
United Airlines’ flights from Palau to Yap in the Federated States of Micronesia will end on Jan. 7, 2018, but direct flights from Guam to Yap and from Guam to Palau will remain unchanged.
According to a United Airlines employee who declined to be named, the suspension and reduction of flights is part of United’s corporate strategy.
“Not only Japan and Palau are affected. Due to aircraft realignment, other flights like our Los Angeles to Honolulu flights will reduce one flight and Narita to Incheon flights were cancelled effective October.”
The cancellation of the Narita-Incheon flights was earlier mentioned in a letter dated April 4, 2017, from United senior vice president of flight operations Howard Attarian to pilots.
Attarian wrote that United will end service in its Narita-Incheon route, flown by Guam-based airplanes and crews, later in 2017.
Kirby’s email did not contain the reason for United Airlines’ pullout and reduction of flights in Japan. Delta Air earlier stated that their pullout of the Guam-Narita flights was due to the weak demand that is not enough to sustain the route.
The United employee said the bad press United experienced a few months ago that went through public scrutiny with a physician being dragged out of the plane had no negative effect in terms of revenue for United.
“We are told that we are undergoing aircraft realignment as we are retiring all 747s this year and replacing them with 777ERS. The latter are smaller than the 747s and it doesn’t have an upper deck but it’s more fuel-efficient. This is not a surprise because all carriers are doing aircraft realignment,” the United employee said.
Saipan Tribune tried to obtain more comments from Scott Kirby about the status of the Guam-Saipan flights, but have not received a response as of press time.
