Shares of United Airlines Holdings Inc. rose 1.8% in premarket trading Thursday, after the air carrier announced plans to resume more than 20 domestic flights, and to fly to Latin America more than 100% of its pre-pandemic schedule. The company said it was also adding new nonstop routes between Midwest cities including Cleveland, Cincinnati and Milwaukee and to Hilton Head, S.C., Pensacola, Fla. and Portland, Maine. In total, United said it plans to operate in May 52% of the overall schedule it operated in May 2019, which compares to May 2020 when it operated 14% of its May 2019 schedule. For Latin America, the company said it will add more flights to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and South America, to operate more than 100% of its May 2019 schedule. “In the past few weeks, we have seen the strongest flight bookings since the start of the pandemic,” said Ankit Gupta, vice president of United’s domestic network planning and scheduling. “As we rebuild our schedule to meet that demand, adding in seasonal point-to-point flying is just one of the ways we are finding opportunities to add new and exciting service.” The stock has run up 24.5% year to date, while the U.S. Global Jets ETF has advanced 14.5% and the S&P 500 has gained 3.5%.
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