Originally Posted by
NYC2SGN
So... you think they want to add SFO-MNL?
I do not, although I wish that they would.
This news is very difficult to take at face value. I suspect it is more about UA trying to protect its market position on MNL-GUM than anything else. (Guam has a large Filipino population). After all, UA cancelled the morning GUM-MNL flight in the wake of the tension with North Korea. They likely could have used those slots (I think it was 3x weekly) for MNL-SFO (I’m not 100% sure that the arrival time at MNL would have worked, but maybe they could have swapped with somebody).
The primary reason that no US carriers operate from the US mainland to Manila is that Philippine Airlines is happy to sell seats at rock-bottom prices on the likely target routes already (SFO-MNL, LAX-MNL, NYC-MNL).
Originally Posted by
dilanesp
That's the logical thing to do, since they no longer operate a mini-hub in NRT. A 787 flight to SFO links Manila up with the rest of the network, while GUM-MNL is an orphan route.
GUM is a UA hub.