Hiya! Quick one this time. Today we’ll be taking this newly released 737-8 MAX from Tokyo Narita to Cebu. It’s going to be a long one, but it’s the middle of the night so you won’t be able to see much.
Airline/Aircraft Type: United Airlines (UAL) / 737-8 Max
Callsign: UAL32
Origin: Tōkyō-Narita Int’l NRT
Destination: Mactan-Cebu CEB
Route: RJAA⇒RPVM
Server: Expert
Flight Time: 04:32
REMARKS: Route irl flown using 737-800 aircraft
Route Prelude
Before flying, let me attempt to give you a little route background.
United operates a fleet of 737-800s in its infra-Asian routes. These routes link the US territory of Guam to east and southeast Asian countries. A major hub in that region is of course Tokyo Narita. It can almost be considered a United Hub at this point, with as much as 8 routes (5 Mainland 🇺🇸, 3 Asia) serving it at one given time. Those unfamiliar, may think that is weird and usual for a 737 in United colors to be at a place like Narita, when in reality, it’s about as normal as it gets. Here’s one when I visited Narita a couple months back, preparing to go back to Guam.
United’s New Frontier
The Narita to Cebu route is the newest addition to United’s Pacific network (Oct 2024) and United’s second destination in the Philippines. It serves the second busi– Oh shoot! its time to board now, guess I’m continuing this while in the air.
Today’s flight will originate at Gate 41 of Terminal 1. The tug is already attached which means this thing is almost ready to go!
Departure Routing
Departure RWY: 16R
SID/Transition: OLVAN2 / SAMUS
(As said in the remarks, this route is normally operated with 737-800s)
(Somewhat interesting is that this flight shares the same flight number of United’s daily 787 service from Los Angeles)
A quick taxi later, we depart Narita 10 mins ahead of schedule.
There’s nothing really interesting to see out is there. Reminds me of my night flight from Seoul to Manila w/ Jeju Air. I think I’m going to sleep for a bit now ZZzzzz–
Cruising Altitude: FL340
Airspeed: M0.79
The moon does look pretty cool.
So is the MAX cockpit at night.
After 3 hours, the first signs of land are seen on the horizontal
Arrival Routing
Landing RWY: 04
STAR/APPR: LARYO3P / ILS04
A simple downwind and base turn later, we’re all set to land.
I’m still getting used to the MAX so the landing was pretty mediocre at best. -174fpm, but I dropped the nose pretty hard.
“Ladies and gentlemen, United Airlines welcomes you to Cebu Mactan. The local time here in Cebu is 5 minutes past 11. Please keep your sea…”
Mactan Airport looks pretty nice, the IFAET did an amazing job recreating the airport. The airport also looks quite amazing irl, some say that it’s better than NAIA (Manila Airport). You’ll have to take their word for it though, as I haven’t been to Cebu in probably 7+ years now.
A quick taxi to Gate 22A and we arrive 10 mins early.
AirAsia A320 arriving from Manila
That’s pretty much it, Thanks for stopping by – and have a Merry (early) Christmas!
By qWERTY (furanichi)