United’s Orlando Hub 1991-1995

In 1991, United Airlines which had long been an also-ran in Florida despite being the nation’s largest airline since the mid 1980’s (replacing Miami based Eastern which was by that time in terminal decline) announced they would build a domestic hub operation in Orlando. The airline intended Orlando to be the 5th domestic hub for the carrier and to eventually have over a 100 daily flights.

The hub launched in October 1991 with great fanfare. International service to Mexico City was launched but intense competition from Delta who had a full-fledged hub in Orlando at the time (which included a daily nonstop to Frankfurt) and USAir who had a large operation at the airport including at the time a large intrastate operation, hurt United’s efforts to develop a strong local Frequent Flier base.

In 1992, United acquired defunct Pan Am’s remaining Latin American routes in 1992 which were largely based around Miami and New York-JFK. United briefly contemplated in early 1992, moving Latin American flights to Orlando but opted to keep them at Miami and JFK.

Nonstops to cities in Florida and the Northeast were frequent but by late 1992, Philadelphia, Hartford, Milwaukee and New Orleans nonstops had all been dropped.

The need to fill planes to Miami to feed flights to Latin America made Orlando repetitive and the focus city disappeared by 1995 with little expansion after its initial opening. United shut its Miami hub down after 9/11 and ironically despite choosing Miami over Orlando, United never reached the number of daily flights in Miami that they had in Orlando when they began ramping down the operation. They did however fly more passengers through Miami than through Orlando.

United Orlando Nonstop Destinations March 1992

Boston

Chicago – MDW

Chicago – ORD

Denver

Fort Lauderdale

Fort Myers

Hartford/Springfield

Los Angeles

Mexico City

Miami

Milwaukee

New Orleans

Newark

New York – LGA

Philadelphia

San Francisco

Washington – DCA

Washington – IAD

West Palm Beach