Travellers on the West Coast will soon be able to reach northern Michigan's lake country without changing planes. United Airlines will launch nonstop service from both Los Angeles (LAX) and San Francisco (SFO) to Traverse City's Cherry Capital Airport (TVC) next summer, with tickets already on sale.
The routes run from June 19 through September 11, operating on Saturdays across the peak season. There's also a handful of Wednesday flights — June 30 to July 7 and September 1 to 8 — timed around the National Cherry Festival, the region's century-old summer extravaganza that draws huge crowds and will feature the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels in 2027.
United will fly a Boeing 737-800 on both routes, which means 16 first-class recliner seats up front and 150 seats in the main cabin, plus a variable number of extra-legroom Economy Plus spots. According to the airport, these flights give TVC its first-ever coast-to-coast nonstop footprint — a big deal for a destination that has historically relied on connections through the Midwest.
Why Traverse City? The town sits on Grand Traverse Bay, an arm of Lake Michigan, and has quietly become one of the Midwest's favourite summer escapes: beaches, a booming wine scene on the nearby Old Mission and Leelanau peninsulas, and that famous cherry festival. United clearly sees the demand — the carrier already serves TVC from Chicago, Denver, Houston and Washington Dulles, so California fills a natural gap.
The announcement is part of a bigger San Francisco push. United also starts twice-weekly, year-round flights from SFO to Jacksonville, Florida, on March 29, and has rolled out seven new Bay Area routes in recent weeks, including transcontinental service to Hartford, Richmond, Norfolk and Charleston. For West Coast flyers, that's a lot more one-stop-free options at a hub that's often better known for Pacific routes.
For holidaymakers, the practical takeaway is simple: if you've been curious about northern Michigan's summer but put off by multi-leg itineraries, June to September just got a lot easier from California. Saturday-only flying means week-long trips work best, and the cherry festival window in early July will be the busiest — book early and consider those extra Wednesday flights if your dates are flexible.
