United Continental (UAL) Arm Adds Flights On Domestic Route

United Continental Holdings’ (NYSE:UAL) wholly owned subsidiary, United Airlines, announced that it will add domestic routes to 10 cities from five of its U.S. hubs—Chicago O'Hare, Newark Liberty, Denver, Washington Dulles and Los Angeles, starting next year.

The carrier will offer service from Chicago to El Paso and Wilmington. From Los Angeles, the airline will connect Redmond and Medford. On the other hand, the carrier will connect Denver to Jacksonville, besides connecting New York/Newark with Elmira. Additionally, it will start flights from Washington-Dulles to Wilmington.

These year-round services are expected to begin from Apr 9, 2018. The carrier will ply twice daily on each route, except the flight between Denver and Jacksonville, which will operate once daily. The flights are expected to meet the surge in demand for air travel next spring.

Further, United Airlines will begin seasonal daily services from Chicago and Los Angeles. The carrier will initiate flights from Chicago to Fresno and from Los Angeles to Kalispell and Missoula. The Chicago-Fresno flights are expected to be operational from Jun 8, while that between Los Angeles and Missoula are scheduled to commence from Jun 7 onward. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles-Kalispell service is anticipated to begin from Jul 7.

On another positive note, the airline intends to enhance customer experience at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport by providing shorter travel hours and greater options for Chicago passengers. To this end, the carrier will re-bank its Chicago hub, starting February 2018. This enhanced feature is already in place at the carrier’s Houston hub.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

United Continental carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the airline space are International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:ICAG) SA (OTC:ICAGY) , SkyWest, Inc. (NASDAQ:SKYW) and Deutsche Lufthansa (DE:LHAG) AG (OTC:DLAKY) . While International Consolidated Airlines and SkyWest sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Deutsche Lufthansa carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of International Consolidated Airlines, SkyWest and Deutsche Lufthansa have surged more than 41%, 39% and 100%, respectively, in a year.

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