United boosts Newark in East Coast juggling act

United Airlines is boosting its already strong hub at New York’s Newark Liberty International Airport as part of changes to US East Coast schedules affecting about two dozen routes. The airline is expanding services between the New York metropolitan airport and 17 destinations as it also builds up its hub at Washington Dulles International Airport. From October, it promises, there will be new destinations, additional frequencies, and bigger, two-cabin aircraft at each hub. Read: United opens San Francisco Polaris lounge as roll-out accelerates. Frequencies will rise on flights from Newark to 15 destinations already served by United.  But non-stop services to Baltimore, Des Moines, Fort Wayne, Indiana and Hartford, Connecticut will be dropped. "We approached these schedule adjustments with our customers in mind, knowing that we wanted to create a schedule that offers customers beginning their travel in the New York City area convenient flights to many of the business and leisure destinations they frequent the most," said Ankit Gupta, United's Vice President of Domestic Network. "Since more of our customers begin their travel from New York/Newark than any other United hub city, we've created a more customer friendly schedule that removed connection times and provided convenient nonstop service to multiple U.S. destinations." The changes also see some “largely connecting” passenger flights shifted from Newark to Dulles. These involve short flights to Chattanooga, Tennessee and Ithaca in New York state and a service to Scranton, Pennsylvania. READ our ratings for United. Gupta said the airline determined that shifting the flights to Dulles would give customers more schedule flexibility and better options for connection to regional routes. There will be increased frequencies on flights from Newark to 15 destinations already serviced by United. These include Burlington, Vermont; Charleston South Carolina; Greensboro, North Carolina; New Orleans; Memphis; Nashville;  Phoenix;  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;  San Antonio, Texas; and Norfolk, Virginia. Florida gets a big boost with increased services to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Meyers, Orlando, Sarasota and West Palm Beach. A new seasonal service will also run from December 19 to March 30 between Newark and Palm Springs, California while seasonal regional jet services to Key West, Florida will become year-round.