United Airlines will launch flights to Lagos in Nigeria from Washington DC on 29 November.
The Star Alliance carrier plans to fly Boeing 787s three times weekly on the route to Nigeria’s largest city from the US national capital, pending regulatory approval.
This continues United’s expansion of its network in Africa, including routes already launched this year from New York to Johannesburg in South Africa and from DC to Ghanaian capital Accra.
Chicago-based United has also announced plans to resume serving South African city Cape Town from New York on 1 December.
Airlines in the USA have increased capacity and relaunched routes during 2021 but the spread of Covid-19 variants threatens their fourth-quarter revenues, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst George Ferguson states in a research note on 17 September.
Capacity growth has been slowing during the second half, and Ferguson suggests that full-service airlines may cut capacity during the fourth quarter “as large companies delay the return to office and unnecessary business trips”.
“Declining traffic will probably outpace capacity cuts, hurting load factors and fares,” he writes of US air travel.
