3 Weeks Until United Closes Cleveland Hub; Roundup Of New CLE Flight Options

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On June 5th United will officially pull the hub title from Cleveland for the 2nd time in 30 years.  It will still be a focus city with nonstop flights to 18-22 airports, though I think within a few years there will only be flights to other United hubs.

The D concourse, the most modern one in Hopkins, will also cease operations on June 5th.  United will be on the hook to continue paying for concourse D for years to come, but I’d love to get my hands on the people that decided not to make concourse D accessible to the curbside.  Building that concourse in the late 90s forced the rental car facility far offsite and now no other airline will ever move into it as it was built without any curbside access that would entice other airlines to use it.  I wonder if D will just be mothballed or if someone will come up with a creative use for it.  Though with no curbside access, I can’t imagine what that could possibly be.

But Cleveland has seen an expansion of flights much greater than those seen when nearby airports like Pittsburgh and Cincinnati lost their hub status.

Here is a roundup of what’s coming over the next few months:

Frontier currently serves Cancun, Denver, and Punta Cana from Cleveland.  They will be:
-Adding 5 weekly flights to Atlanta
-Adding 4 weekly flights to Dallas (Just announced today with $69 fares)
-Adding 3 weekly flights to Fort Lauderdale
-Adding 3 weekly flights to Fort Myers
-Adding 2 weekly flights to Las Vegas (Just announced today with $99 fares)
-Adding 4 weekly flights to Orlando
-Adding 3 weekly flights to Phoenix
-Adding 3 weekly flights to Raleigh/Durham
-Adding 3 weekly flights to Seattle
-Adding 3 weekly flights to Tampa
-Upgrading Trenton from 2 weekly flights to 4.
-Upgrading Denver from 5 weekly flights to 12.

Delta will be:
-Adding 6 weekly flights to Indianpolis
-Adding a daily flight to Raleigh/Durham
-Adding a daily flight to Hartford
-Upgrading the CLE-NYC route from 3 daily flights to a 8 daily flights consisting of 3 daily flights to JFK and 5 daily flights to LGA.
-Upgrading Atlanta to all mainline jets.

Southwest is doubling down on their nearby Akron/Canton focus city which has much cheaper operations than Cleveland. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Southwest shift all of their Cleveland flying to Akron within the next couple years. But they will be:
-Adding a daily CAK-Washington/DCA flight
-Upgrading CAK-LaGuardia from 2 daily Boeing 717s to 3 daily Boeing 737s.

USAirways/American will be adding a daily flight from Cleveland-Phoenix, which is an awesome addition as it will cost just 10K Avios.

I’ve heard rumblings of Air Canada considering adding nonstop service to Montreal that United cut, which would be great if true.  Would also be nice to see JetBlue, Virgin America, or Porter step up to the plate.  But either way it’s great to see some competition finally flowing into Hopkins, which should drive down stubbornly high prices.

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7 Comments On "3 Weeks Until United Closes Cleveland Hub; Roundup Of New CLE Flight Options"

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Anonymous

would you consider making posts like these about other cities and not just Cleveland?

Erik

As a Clevelander, I’d just like to say thanks for the updates! Keep ’em coming!

Leah

Hi Dan. Do you know when Us Airways /AA will be adding the daily to Phoenix you mentioned?
Thanks

Dan

@Anonymous:
A dehubbing is pretty rare, there isn’t typically this amount of flight additions without that.

But like I’ve always said, I write this blog more for me than for you 😉

@Erik:
My pleasure!

@Leah:
That will be the latest addition of all the flights in this post, October 3rd.

Aharon

What about Cleveland to St Louis? Will United still be running that route? Any low cost options? Even southwest is pricey.

stu

This is another ideal example of the stagnation Cleveland is experiencing due almost entirely to the poor politicians.
The majority of Council is a clone of Congress, only worried about what will help them today, the hell with the future(unless it lines their pockets). It is still Black vs the rest. Look at Columbus, an entire metro area without competition of every little suburb.
The mayor, who barely speaks English couldn’t walk behind George Voinovich who knew how to lure business.
Looking at history, Cleveland has always been left in the dust due to poor leadership.
Of all airlines, United is lowest on my list anyway, good riddance.

Dan

@Aharon:
United will still operate that route.

@stu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VruUP_FecEY

If the city were smart they would bulldoze Burke Lakefront and start building a world class waterfront. Of course Jackson is against that.

The concourse D situation pretty much sums up the poor leadership in CLE.

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