Routes: Airlines plan more service resumptions for SFO this summer

As coronavirus-related restrictions continue to ease, airlines are moving cautiously into their summer schedules with a touch of optimism about rising levels of passenger demand for both domestic and international flights. More overseas routes are coming back to San Francisco International in June and July, while United and American are scheduling an expansion of international service from all their hubs. Those two carriers are also expecting to expand domestic operations in July. Meanwhile, American pulls out of Oakland, offers double miles and reopens some Admirals Clubs; Delta extends its seat-blocking policy into September; and Frontier starts temperature checks.

In the latest round of schedule filings, some international carriers have indicated they plan to resume service to San Francisco International this summer. For example, Emirates’ most recent schedule update this week included a revival of Dubai-SFO operations on July 1, with four Airbus A380 flights per week, increasing to daily on July 15. (The airline’s U.S. plans for July also include service to Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, New York JFK (both non-stop and a flight via Milan), Seattle and Washington Dulles.)

Lufthansa’s new plans include three weekly San Francisco-Munich roundtrips beginning June 23 with an A350-900 (this week, Lufthansa resumed LAX-Munich flights three days a week with an A350 and restarted SFO-Frankfurt service). And Cathay Pacific is expecting to operate three weekly SFO A350-900 flights from Hong Kong starting June 23, increasing to four a week on July 18.

Last week, we reported on United’s plans to resume flights in July from SFO to Tel Aviv, Delhi, Seoul and a consolidated SFO-Hong Kong/Singapore routing. But United will bring back international service in July from other hubs as well, restarting flights from Newark to Delhi and Dublin; Chicago O’Hare to Tokyo Haneda; and Washington Dulles to Brussels, London, Munich and Zurich. In early August, United expects to resume Denver-Frankfurt and Denver-Tokyo Narita flights, and by early September to add Houston-Narita, LAX-Sydney and Newark-Hong Kong.

American Airlines said this week that although demand for international flights is “slower to return” than domestic bookings, it is nonetheless adding more global service. This week, it resumed flights from Dallas/Ft. Worth to Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt; from Chicago and New York JFK to London; and from Miami to Guayaquil and Quito, Ecuador as well as Antigua in the Caribbean.  DFW-Dublin will start up July 7, but American’s biggest bump in international routes will come on August 5 with the revival of LAX to London; JFK to Paris and Madrid; Chicago to Athens, Barcelona and Dublin; Charlotte to London and Munich; Miami to Madrid; Philadelphia to London, Madrid and Zurich; and Raleigh-Durham to London. To South America, American will resume Miami flights to Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo on August 5, as well as JFK-Sao Paulo, followed on September 9 by JFK-Buenos Aires and Miami-Buenos Aires.

As usual, we must repeat our frequent caveat that a flight back on the books is not necessarily a flight that will operate. The airline scheduling experts at OAG issued a commentary this week along the same lines. According to OAG, “As we analyze what lies ahead, even just a few weeks out, it seems that there is a gap between what is scheduled and what is expected to fly…It would seem that airlines are now looking ahead to the next 4-6 weeks and adjusting schedules on a weekly basis for that period. But that still leaves a schedule for the rest of the year that looks wildly optimistic given that it is close to what was scheduled in 2019.”

On the domestic side, United said this week that its July schedule will bring a return of service to 140 suspended non-stop U.S. and Canadian routes because “many customers have told us they are considering flying again.” United’s overall activity (domestic and international) at San Francisco International will jump from 73 flights a day in June to 116 in July, with the number of destinations served increasing from 45 to 65. The airline is planning similar or greater increases at its other hubs. Systemwide, United’s July operations will feature increased schedules to business destinations like New York, Boston, Seattle and Philadelphia and more flight options to reopening leisure areas like Florida, Las Vegas, Charleston (S.C.) and Portland (Maine). In the west, United will add flights to outdoor recreation markets like Aspen and Jackson Hole, and it will resume transborder service to Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver.

American said domestic demand is picking up faster than international. During the first three weeks of May, it carried an average of 78,718 passengers a day, but that jumped up to 110,330 in the last week of the month. The airline’s May schedule had been reduced by 80 percent from last year, so by the end of May its average load factor was a rather crowded (by today’s standard) 55 percent. Thus American plans to boost domestic flying this summer, offering a lot more capacity into Florida in July “as the nation’s favorite theme parks begin to open,” along with enhanced schedules to mountain destinations in Montana, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming “as national parks and outdoor recreational spaces reopen and customer demand for these destinations continues to recover.”

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In Bay Area developments, American this week ended its Oakland-Phoenix American Eagle service – AA’s last remaining route out of OAK.  Southwest continues to serve the OAK-PHX market. Delta also pulled out of Oakland last month. United pulled out years ago...

To allay customer concerns about its increasing domestic load factors and the diminishing of social distancing, American is now matching United in promising to notify travelers if they are “booked on fuller flights” and letting them rebook on one less crowded at no extra cost. The airline is also offering double AAdvantage miles to those who sign up in advance and book during June for flights departing before September 30. At the airport, meanwhile, American set a June 22 reopening for Admirals Clubs at Charlotte, Chicago DFW, LAX, JFK, LaGuardia, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix and Washington Reagan National. Other clubs, including the one in SFO’s Terminal 1, “will reopen as service centers and will be available to offer travel assistance,” but without the usual customer amenities for now. (Reminder: A few weeks ago, American moved its SFO operations from Terminal 2 to Harvey Milk Terminal 1.)

Speaking of fuller flights, Delta said this week said it is extending through the end of September its policy of blocking middle seats from availability. “We’ll also continue to block the selection of some aisle seats in aircraft with 2x2 seating configurations,” Delta noted. The airline said the proportion of seats available for passenger selection will be capped at 60 percent in the main cabin (including Comfort+ and Premium Select), 75 percent in Delta One and 50 percent in first class. And effective June 10, “we are resuming automatic, advance Medallion Complimentary Upgrades to Delta One (domestic U.S.), First Class and Delta Comfort+ – which were previously being managed at the gate – subject to availability and as permitted by the seat caps,” Delta said.

As it had promised, Frontier Airlines this week started subjecting all passengers to temperature checks before boarding, using touchless thermometers. “If a customer’s temperature reading is 100.4 degrees or higher, and time allows, they will be given the opportunity to rest before receiving a second check,” Frontier said. If their temperature doesn’t improve, they will be barred from flying that day and will be offered rebooking for travel at a later date.

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Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE biweekly email updates!

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