Retaliation? United adds flights to Delta hubs

United Airlines is adding new routes to the key hubs of one of its biggest rivals.

Starting April 1, United will add nonstop flights between San Francisco and Atlanta and between Los Angeles and Minneapolis/St. Paul. The carrier will fly two daily round-trip flights on each route.

Atlanta and Minneapolis are two of the biggest hubs of Delta Air Lines, the nation's No. 2 carrier. United is the USA's biggest airline.

"We're looking forward to giving travelers in Atlanta convenient access to this country's best and broadest trans-Pacific network at United's San Francisco hub, and to providing Minneapolis travelers with nonstop service to all eight of our North American hubs," Jim Compton, United's EVP and chief revenue officer, says in a release. "These new routes will provide customers nonstop access to two vibrant markets for business and leisure travel, and offer connecting service to western U.S. and Pacific destinations that no U.S. airline can match."

United also said it will grow the number of seats it flies on its Seattle-San Francisco route by more than 50%, adding an 11th daily round-trip flight and switching some of its other flights to bigger planes.

Perhaps not coincidentally, United's new routes come just a week after Delta announced plans for a new route connecting Seattle and San Francisco. Delta also announced plans to grow its schedule in Seattle, a move that included increasing flights to Los Angeles – another of United's hubs.

And Delta itself is in the midst of a growth spurt at LAX that's raising its profile at the airport.

United Airlines declined to comment beyond the details offered in its release.

Of course, United may not be alone. Seattle-based Alaska Airlines also has boosted its flight schedules on the same routes Delta has just announced expansion plans for (Seattle-San Francisco; Seattle-Los Angeles and Seattle-Las Vegas).

"We added seats in part to accommodate an increase in demand as we connect passengers into Delta's
growing international flights out of Seattle," Alaska Air spokeswoman Bobbie Eagan tells the Puget Sound Business Journal. "As Seattle's hometown airline, we'll continue to meet demand in these core West Coast markets."