United Airlines has announced plans to connect Washington, D.C., with Salt Lake City for the first time in over a decade. 

Launching just in time for the busy winter holiday travel season, starting on December 19th, 2024, United will operate daily flights between their Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) hub and Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC). 

The outbound flight, UA1858 from IAD to SLC, is scheduled to depart Washington at 5:30 p.m. local time and arrive in Salt Lake City at 10:20 p.m. UA661 is slated to operate the redeye return flight, departing SLC at 11:30 p.m. and arriving in D.C. at 5:30 a.m. 

The two flights will have flight times around an hour apart, with the IAD - SLC leg taking 4 hours and 50 minutes and the return SLC - IAD at 4 hours. 

Aircraft Variety 

According to flight schedules reported by Ishrion Aviation and reflected on United’s website, the carrier will vary between using the Airbus A319, A320, and Boeing 737 variants. The inaugural service will be operated by a Boeing 737-700 with space for 126 passengers, with future service alternating drastically between the various aircraft mentioned above. 

In March 2025, United will transition to an all-Boeing fleet on the IAD - SLC route, replacing A320 and A319 aircraft with B737-800 and B737 MAX-9 aircraft. 

Currently, United plans to offer 26 flights in December with 3,372 seats. United will increase to 62 flights in January and over 9,000 available seats. February will see fewer flights but more seats than January due to using the larger-capacity Boeing 737 MAX-9. Finally, United will offer over 10,000 seats on its new route from March onward. 

Delta’s New Competition

Flights between Washington and Salt Lake City are familiar to United. The carrier previously operated the route as late as December 2013. United was the only airline operating between the two cities at that time. 

After suspending the route in 2013, passengers were left with no direct options to Salt Lake City from Dulles until Delta entered the market in 2017. Currently, Delta operates a once-daily flight on a Boeing 737-800. 

Delta’s outbound flight departs Dulles at 7:00 a.m. and arrives in Salt Lake City at 9:52 a.m., with the return leg departing Salt Lake at 5:25 p.m. and arriving in Washington at 11:19 a.m. Since 2017, Delta has been the sole operator between IAD and SLC, and it has not faced any direct competition.

Reasons for Resuming Service

United’s decision to resume service was not a surprise to many. Some X users were even surprised that United does not already connect the two cities. 

According to Ishrion Aviation, Salt Lake City may be United’s largest underserved market from Washington, D.C. When the route launches in December, United will connect 46 of the 48 largest metropolitan areas from IAD, with only Oklahoma City and Birmingham without direct United Service. 

AeroXplorer contacted United for more details, but the airline was not immediately available for comment.