Yahoo Finance United Airlines (UAL) Files for New Routes From Washington
United Airlines Holdings, Inc. UAL is forging ahead to strengthen its competitive position in the airline industry. To this end, UAL has applied for a new daily roundtrip flight between Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), with the U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”).
The DCA-SFO route is likely to offer multiple nonstop options to customers and provide connections from SFO to about two dozen domestic markets within the Western United States, as well as seven international destinations.
UAL’s proposed flight aims to avoid the most congested travel times at DCA and offer additional scheduling options to customers by providing for the first time a morning departure from DCA to SFO and an afternoon departure from SFO to DCA. The proposed route will be served using UAL’s Boeing MAX 8 aircraft, with 150 economy cabin seats and 166 total seats.
Considering the popularity of both the Washington, D.C. region and San Francisco (the heart of Northern California)on the grounds of both business and leisure travel, the proposed route should help United Airlines witness a surge in passenger numbers.
Patrick Quayle, senior vice president of Global Network Planning and Alliances at United Airlines, stated, "With our hub in San Francisco, United is well positioned to serve the strong customer demand for air travel between Washington National and the Bay Area. If awarded by the DOT, this new service will give customers a unique morning departure from Washington National and a unique afternoon departure from San Francisco, as well as more connectivity for both domestic and international travelers via SFO."
Apart from the DCA-SFO route proposal, UAL has also applied for its first-ever DCA-Los Angeles (LAX) flight. This proposed LAX route will also be operated on the Boeing MAX 8 aircraft.
Over the past three months, shares of UAL have gained 10.5% against the industry’s decline of 2%.
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Zacks Rank and Other Stocks to Consider
UAL currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
A couple of other top-ranked stocks for investors’ consideration in the Zacks Transportation sector include SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW) and Kirby Corporation KEX. Each stock presently carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
SKYW flaunts a VGM Score of A and has a market capitalization of $3.28 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for SKYW’s 2024 earnings per share (EPS) has moved up 6.9% in the past 90 days. Shares of SKYW have surged 60.1% year to date.
SKYW’s expected growth rate for 2024 is more than 100%. SKYW has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 128.09%, on average.
Shares of KEX have surged 54.9% in the year-to-date period. KEX has a VGM Score of B and has a market capitalization of $7.07 billion
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for KEX’s 2024 EPS has moved up 7.3% in the past 90 days. KEX has an expected earnings growth rate of 42.47% for 2024. KEX has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 10.26%, on average.
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United Airlines Holdings Inc (UAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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