The COVID pandemic has made planning a vacation more volatile than ever over the past two years. Throughout the waves of variant surges, we’ve all likely planned trips thinking we were in the clear and then had to cancel when numbers starting soaring again. But over the last few months, COVID cases and hospitalizations have been falling steadily, and many of us are now looking toward summer 2022 as a safe time to finally travel again. Your plans might have to change depending on where you’re going, however. United Airlines just announced that it is dropping flights to four popular cities for the summer. Read on to find out if the latest cuts will affect your upcoming travel plans.
RELATED: American Is Cutting Flights From These 4 Major Cities, Starting May 1.
United Airlines has confirmed that it is getting rid of several routes from Cleveland, Ohio, in the upcoming months, Cleveland.com reported on March 14. The carrier is discontinuing seasonal summer routes this year from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport to Pensacola, Florida, and Portland, Maine, as well as two different popular vacation cities in South Carolina: Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach. United serviced the routes from around Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day on small, 50-seat aircrafts flown by the carrier’s various regional partners.
A spokeswoman for United Airlines told Cleveland.com that these flight cuts can be attributed to the national pilot shortage. The airline has been vocal about the issue with staffing for months now. In Dec. 2021, United CEO Scott Kirby revealed that the carrier had to ground nearly 100 regional jets because there was no one to fly them.
United is also working to address the ongoing lack of pilots by launching its own flight school, the spokeswoman told Cleveland.com. The carrier’s school, United Aviate Academy, opened earlier this year outside of Phoenix, Arizona. The school…
