United exits two more Guam routes as demand falls

United will end service to Sendai and Shanghai Pudong from its Guam hub in the coming months, the latest in a series of cuts to its Micronesia operation. The carrier will end service from Guam to Sendai on 1 April and Shanghai Pudong on 22 March, United confirms and FlightGlobal schedules show. "Guam remains an important hub for United," the airline says. "We are adjusting the capacity between Guam and Japan/China in response to the current weak demand for travel." Guam saw visitor numbers from Japan plummet in late 2017. For the three months ending in November, Japanese visitor arrivals fell nearly a third to 122,705 year over year, data from the Guam Visitors Bureau shows. United will also reduce capacity on routes to Japan it continues to operate from Guam. It will shift all three of its daily Tokyo Narita flights to 166-seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft from early May, replacing 364-seat Boeing 777-200s on two of the three rotations. In addition, the airline will reduce frequency to Nagoya and Osaka Kansai to daily from twice daily on 27 March. United is scheduled to reduce Guam capacity by 16.7% in H1 2018 compared to 2017, schedules show. Capacity to Japan will be down more than a quarter. "As Guam's hometown airline, we remain committed to doing our part in supporting the local economy and we look forward to an increase in demand so we can return to our normal flight schedules," the carrier says.<br/>