New Route of the Day – Americas (1 September 2022): United between Houston IAH and Lincoln

United on 1 September launched a new route between its Houston IAH hub in Texas and Lincoln in Nebraska. The 1,210-kilometre route will operate daily using ERJ-145s operated by CommutAir on behalf of United. Flight UA4816 departs Houston at 18:40 and arrives in Lincoln at 20:50. The aircraft then stays in Lincoln overnight. Flight UA4811 departs Lincoln at 06:30 and reaches Texas at 08:45. The inaugural service of this flight took place on Friday 2 September.

United already serves Lincoln from its Denver hub (21-weekly in August) and from its Chicago ORD hub (18-weekly in August, increasing to 27-weekly in September). The Denver service is also operated by CommutAir’s 50-seat ERJs, while the Chicago route sees a variety of aircraft types including A319s and A320s operated by United itself, as well as Embraer E175s flown by SkyWest and CRJs operated by Air Wisconsin.

Delta pulled out of Lincoln in early 2022

Lincoln has also been served by Delta. It operated 2-daily flights from Minneapolis/St. Paul until January 2022. A second route to Atlanta, was flown 5-weekly until the start of the pandemic and has not (yet) been reinstated.

Located a few kilometres north-west of Lincoln (the state capital of Nebraska with a population of around 300,000), the airport has three runways and has a thriving general aviation facility and is also home to the Nebraska Air National Guard. It is currently expanding the terminal to create two additional gates. In 2019, the airport handled almost 329,000 passengers, 11% more than in 2018.

Architecture enthusiasts may be fascinated to know that the Nebraska State Capitol building in Lincoln, completed in 1932, is the second tallest in the US at 400 feet. Only Louisiana’s State Capitol in Baton Rouge is taller at 450 feet. Coincidentally, it was also finished in 1932.