United to expand schedule with 54 more flights

Bloomberg News Service

United Airlines will add 54 daily flights in July because of seasonal vacation demand in the United States and a rise in travel to Asia as concern eases about SARS.

The Chicago-based airline's schedule will expand 1.6 percent from this month to 3,359 flights a day on United and United Express. The move includes restoring flights between San Francisco and Hong Kong starting July 1 and increasing service from San Francisco to Shanghai.

Bookings for U.S.-Asia flights have begun to increase after declining in recent months because of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which originated in Asia, and the war in Iraq, spokesman Jeff McAndrews said.

UAL, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December, is still flying 5 percent less than last July's 3,536 daily flights. Air-travel demand began to drop in early 2001 with the U.S. economic slowdown and slid further after the Sept. 11 attacks. The war and SARS reduced ticket sales earlier this year.

The U.S. additions, which start July 6, include more flights from Chicago to Buffalo, N.Y.; Las Vegas; Orlando, Fla.; Los Angeles; and Calgary and Vancouver in Canada. The carrier will also add service from Denver to Anchorage, Alaska, and Oakland, Calif.

In other United news, shareholders were told in an SEC filing Tuesday that their investments probably have no value. United said in the filing that "its assets will be insufficient to permit any meaningful distribution to its equity holders."

"In light of this conclusion, the company believes that its securities have little or no value and it is highly likely that the equity in UAL will be canceled under any plan of reorganization proposed by the Company," according to United's filing.

United, the world's second biggest airline, said this week said the shares probably will become worthless as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.

Nonetheless, UAL shares rose yesterday to close at 63.5 cents, up 10.5 cents.

Advertiser staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi contributed to this report.