United Airlines boasts 99.7% completion in December

United Airlines, one of the United States' 'Big Three' airlines is patting itself on the back after a solid finish to the year. From December 15 until the end of 2023, the airline carried, on average, 483,000 passengers daily. This figure marks the carrier's busiest holiday travel period in its history. With that, the airline also celebrated its lowest-ever cancellation rate, where United operated 99.7% of all flights for the month. With the festive period one of the most popular times of the year to travel, many airlines across the United States were preparing for its most testing time (cast your mind back to the Southwest meltdown of 2022). For the second half of December, United boasted its best-ever on-time departure rate, achieving 71%, marking over two-thirds of all flights departing on time; the airline also noted that in December, fewer bags went missing than ever before, seeing its mishandled baggage rate shrink to 7.6 per 1,000 bags. With the COVID-19 travel freeze seemingly a thing of the past, Simple Flying recently compared United's operations between now and 2019, where the Chicago-based carrier has grown by a tenth in size. Expanding its international capacity rapidly, the airline now boasts the most robust Pacific presence of any US carrier, adding 40% more services compared to 2022. The airline's most notable route launch was to the South Island of New Zealand, becoming the first US carrier ever to serve the island. United will operate the seasonal service between San Francisco International Airport and Christchurch International Airport thrice weekly until February. Other notable new routes for the airline included Los Angeles International Airport to Auckland International Airport, LA to Hong Kong International Airport, and San Francisco to Manila Ninoy Aquino International Airport s.<br/>