United Increases Competition on Philadelphia – Los Angeles

United Airlines is to return to the Los Angeles – Philadelphia market this summer further increasing competition on a route that will soon also be served by Virgin America. United will introduce a daily rotation from April 1, 2012 just three days ahead of Virgin America’s debut in the Philadelphia market.

US Airways currently offers four daily flights on the route, while Delta Air Lines also has an existing presence in the market. Virgin America will offer a twice daily link from April 4, 2012 and a third rotation will be added from May 1, 2012. Southwest Airlines also operates a direct link between the two cities but with an en route stop.

An estimated 492,000 O&D passengers travelled between Philadelphia and Los Angeles last year, up 2.4 per cent on the previous 12 month period. During this period there has been a notable decline in premium demand with Business and First Class traffic declining by 9.4 per cent. However, yields in Economy have strengthened significantly with average one-way fares up 8.1 per cent suggesting that a large number of premium passengers are now flying on more flexible Economy tickets.