United Airlines Route Announcement

Real World Aviation
#1

Per a media advisory released, United is going to be making an announcement discussing “an historic package of new and expanded international routes…”

This also coincides with the expected construction approval of the IAD Polaris lounge tomorrow.

There is slack in the UA wide body fleet right now for new routes.

763 - current planned schedule requires 29 frames (out of 38)
764 - current planned schedule requires 13 frames (out of 16)
788 - current planned schedule requires all 12 frames
789 - current planned schedule requires all 25 frames (4 more coming on property 2019)
78J - current planned schedule requires all 9 frames (second hand thought, 7 frames should be adequate)
772 - current planned schedule requires 9 Polaris frames (out of 12), 19 sUA frames (out of 22), and 19 sCO frames (out of 22)
77W - not really any slack without cutting something - current planned schedule requires 17 frames (out of 18)

I suspect there will be some 788/789/763/764s moving around to free up some of the 787s.

Previously Announced Changes for S19

NEW SFO-AMS 789
NEW EWR-PRG 763
NEW EWR-NAP 763
NEW DEN-FRA 788
IAD-FCO 763 to 772
EWR-FCO 764 to 772
EWR-FRA 772 to 78J
EWR-CDG 772 to 78J
EWR-BCN 77A to 78J
EWR-DUB 772 to 78J
EWR-TLV 772 to 78J

Previously Announced Changes for S20

EWR-PVG 772 to EWR-PVG 772 (x2)

Possibilities
ORD-TLV 772
EWR-JNB 772
EWR-CAI 78J
IAD-MXP 763
IAD-ATH 763
IAD-VCE 763

Less Likely, But Possible
IAH-LOS 789
SFO-GUM 77A
SFO-BKK 788
LAX-PER 788 (9 if 8 doesn’t have range)
SFO-GRU/GIG 788
LAX-FRA 789
IAD-TXL 763
IAD-LIM 763
EWR-ADD 788

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#2

A IAD POLARIS LOUNGE? What is this nice Xmas miracle

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#3

Will be interesting if they start a Perth Service!

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#4

Now this interesting. JNB is a hub for South African Airways (Star Alliance member) so this could set up some good codeshare flights on the Newark side and the South Africa side.

If this does happen, I wonder how this will affect the current JFK-JNB flight. Maybe SAA will drop that flight altogether and just codeshare via United to EWR. This will also make the second airline to serve South Africa and will be United’s second shot at accessing the African continent (they tried Houston to Accra or Dakar with the 787-9 but the flight was never initiated).

Anyway, this is all speculation. Can’t wait to hear official word on this. :)

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#5

Heard about this. One of the newest routes here!

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#6

Any stopover on this route?

#7

Very unlikely, but there’s like a 0.001 percent chance of United doing IAD - DXB soon

#8

Given SAA’s financial struggle I would not be surprised to see this happen. Thinking about it more, I would actually expect the 789 to serve the route now that UA has a 787 crew base in EWR. Houston to Lagos might work again considering oil is doing well also.

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#9

Agreed.

This is what I was referring to earlier. I knew it was a city in Western Africa but I couldn’t remember the name.

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#10

This route was cut 2 years ago. Won’t be returning as the demand is very weak.

#11

There’s just no way that IAH to LOS will work again. The market has been static over the past few months and unless the demand suddenly skyrockets this won’t be returning. IAH has never really been a major dreamliner hub and they will probably keep it that way as we have a lot of 777-224s and tons of 767-300ERs.

#12

In my opinion, there is no way United would add EWR-ADD since the target market is already saturated. Ethiopian flies to EWR and Kenyan flies to JFK ~5X weekly.

SFO-BRU 788 4X work since Brussels lacks a major connection to the West Coast despite being a major Star Alliance connecting point.

EWR-JNB would be risky overall since with less connecting possibilities in and out of JNB, they would have to gamble for the demand of flights to the East Coast from South Africa which has links through ADD(ET), NBO(KQ), CAI(MS) and the SAA flight to JFK.

IAH-LOS would be very risky since the flight mostly depends on oil businessmen and demand would be affected by the global market situation of petroleum as Houston and Lagos are important cities for the oil business.

#13

I know. I never said they were going to resume service there. I was just mentioning that they’ve attempted Africa before but to no avail.

When the LOS flight was rumored, United said they would attempt it with a 787-8 (or it might’ve been a -9). As far as I’m aware, United will hub dreamliners at their three west coast hubs (LAX/SFO/DEN) and their two east coast hubs (IAD/EWR). Chicago and Houston will most likely stay as is. This will definitely change very soon though, especially as the A350 orders begin coming in within the next 5 years or so.

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#15

Actually, it’s the -9 variant that has the longest range out of the 787 family. Behind that is the -8 and then the -10.

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#16

Hu, intresting to know. Thanks for letting me know!

#17

All these IATA codes are not fun to decipher… where art thou’ ICAO??

#18

Looks like SFO got all the new routes to MEL, DEL, and YYZ. They also added a second daily flight to Seoul from SFO. I wouldn’t call any of these routes “Historic.” Overhyped for sure.

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#19

I too feel this was overhyped. I was expecting a new destination out of the usual. A new route not served by any airline such as SFO-BRU or EWR-IST would have been nice. But at the end of the day, economics count.

#20

Kind of disappointed in the new routes, they really need to expand elsewhere other then KSFO

#21

Remember, United currently does operate 787-9s to LAX and SYD right now. They should be able to add a SFO-IAH-LOS-IAH-SFO 788 rotation if they wanted in addition to the LAX-IAH-SYD-IAH-LAX 789 rotation.

As oil does well, so does IAH and this could make IAH-LOS viable as it is a large oil route.

I do not believe DEN has a 787 crew base but someone can check that for me. They do maint there though so maybe.

Also, UA 787s are not “hubbed”. They rotate throughout all the hubs.