United Airlines announces continuation of flights connecting Malaga with New York in 2024

UNITED AIRLINES announced this Thursday, October 26, that its route linking Malaga Airport with the New York-Newark Airport will become daily next year.

According to a statement from the US company, flights will begin on May 2 in 2024 – one month earlier than they commenced this year – which will allow its summer transatlantic schedule involving routes to routes to Portugal, Italy, France and Spain to begin: ‘up to two months earlier, to give customers more time and options to explore Europe’.

United pointed out that it currently flies non-stop to 38 transatlantic cities, including the first and only direct flight between America and Faro on Portugal’s Algarve region.

There are also new flights to Reykjavik, Brussels, Rome and Malaga. Flights to other popular destinations like Lisbon, Barcelona, Rome, Nice, Milan and Naples will start up to two months earlier than normal according to the company’s website.

Company sources reported that they intend to increase the increase number of flights operating on the route between the Costa del Sol and New York next year, tripling the availability of seats compared to 2023 in the process. It will continue to operate the route using a Boeing 757-200, until September 25, 2024.

United’s statement highlighted that it continues to be: ‘the only airline that directly connects the United States with destinations such as Malaga, Mallorca, Tenerife and Dubrovnik’.

Patrick Qualy, United’s Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances, stressed that the company provides its customers with: ‘even more flexibility and options when planning their trips abroad’.

Expanding the direct Málaga-New York flight connection is one of the main demands of the Costa del Sol tourism sector, as it is a strategic market for Andalucia as a whole.

What did the Andalucian Tourism Minister have to say?

In the absence of official confirmation from the company, Arturo Bernal, the Andalucian Tourism Minister, expressed his satisfaction 10 days ago that United’s flights would continue to operate in the summer of 2024.

He told Canal Sur Television that the Junta de Andalucia was very happy with the performance of this flight. ‘We are talking about planes with occupancy above 90 per cent’, he pointed out, as reported by laopiniondemalaga.es.

Bernal also alluded to the harmony with large airline companies through Turespaña and the Ministry of Tourism itself. The Minister said that he showed ‘all willingness to collaborate’, so that the flight ‘is not only seasonal’ and can be more valid for the rest of the year.

United Airlines began operating the direct Malaga-New York flight last summer, between June 1 and September 28, with three weekly frequencies.

In doing so, the company filled the void left by Delta airlines, which had previously operated a seasonal direct Malaga-New York flight for 11 years, flying the route for the final time in the summer of 2019.