Oct 8, 2015, 9:39 am
Last edit by: UA Insider
Hi everyone,
Today we are announcing two additional routes out of San Francisco International Airport (SFO), in addition to our previously announced Xi’an, China service. Pending government approval, we plan to operate service between San Francisco-Tel Aviv (TLV) and San Francisco-Auckland (AKL) on our Dreamliner aircraft beginning in 2016.
Check out additional details, including launch dates, in our press release.
-UA Insider
http://newsroom.united.com/2015-10-0...Make-it-Better
Today we are announcing two additional routes out of San Francisco International Airport (SFO), in addition to our previously announced Xi’an, China service. Pending government approval, we plan to operate service between San Francisco-Tel Aviv (TLV) and San Francisco-Auckland (AKL) on our Dreamliner aircraft beginning in 2016.
Check out additional details, including launch dates, in our press release.
-UA Insider
http://newsroom.united.com/2015-10-0...Make-it-Better
United Airlines Made SFO the Best Pacific Hub. And Then Found 3 Ways to Make it Better.
Airline to launch one new Atlantic and two new Pacific services
October 08, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines, the U.S. airline with the most comprehensive route network and the most trans-Pacific service, will further expand its global reach with new nonstop service from San Francisco to:
Tel Aviv, Israel, with service three times each week beginning March 30, 2016;
Auckland, New Zealand, with service three times each week beginning July 1, 2016, expanding to daily service in October; and
Xi'an, China, previously announced, three-times-weekly service beginning May 8, 2016, for the summer season.
Each new service is subject to government approval.
The airline intends to operate the new flights with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the world's most advanced passenger airplane.
The Tel Aviv and Xi'an flights will be available for booking on united.com on October 10, 2015, with the Auckland flights available for booking on October 17, 2015.
San Francisco-Tel Aviv: Linking High-Tech Markets
As part of United's evaluation for serving San Francisco (SFO) to Tel Aviv (TLV) nonstop, the airline considered the opinions of thousands of customers who petitioned for the service through the SFOTLV.ORG petition effort.
"Providing corporate customers from throughout the Bay Area and Silicon Valley nonstop service to the high-tech market in Israel has been high on our priority list at United," said Dave Hilfman, United's senior vice president of worldwide sales. "Now with the 787-9 Dreamliner, we're delighted to make it a reality."
Flight | From To | Departure | Arrival
UA954 | SFO TLV | 8 p.m. We/Fr/Su | 8:10 p.m. the next day
UA955 | TLV SFO | 12:55 a.m. Tu/Fr/Su | 6 a.m. the same day
Flight times will be 14 hours, 10 minutes eastbound and 15 hours, 5 minutes westbound.
United has served Israel since 1999. The airline currently offers twice-daily Boeing 777 nonstop flights between Tel Aviv and New York/Newark.
San Francisco-Auckland
United's three-times weekly service to Auckland (AKL), New Zealand's largest city and main transportation hub to other points throughout the country, will launch July 1, 2016, with 787-8 aircraft. The schedule will expand to daily flights operating with 787-9 aircraft on Oct. 28, 2016, in time for the peak-winter travel season.
The Auckland flights will operate in partnership with United's Star Alliance partner Air New Zealand.
Flight | From To | Departure | Arrival
UA917 | SFO AKL | 10:45 p.m. | 6:55 a.m. two days later
UA916 | AKL SFO | 1:20 p.m. | 6:40 a.m. the same day
Flight times will be 13 hours, 10 minutes westbound and 12 hours, 20 minutes eastbound.
United in San Francisco
From its San Francisco hub, United operates nearly 280 daily flights to more than 90 destinations in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.
Airline to launch one new Atlantic and two new Pacific services
October 08, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 8, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines, the U.S. airline with the most comprehensive route network and the most trans-Pacific service, will further expand its global reach with new nonstop service from San Francisco to:
Tel Aviv, Israel, with service three times each week beginning March 30, 2016;
Auckland, New Zealand, with service three times each week beginning July 1, 2016, expanding to daily service in October; and
Xi'an, China, previously announced, three-times-weekly service beginning May 8, 2016, for the summer season.
Each new service is subject to government approval.
The airline intends to operate the new flights with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the world's most advanced passenger airplane.
The Tel Aviv and Xi'an flights will be available for booking on united.com on October 10, 2015, with the Auckland flights available for booking on October 17, 2015.
San Francisco-Tel Aviv: Linking High-Tech Markets
As part of United's evaluation for serving San Francisco (SFO) to Tel Aviv (TLV) nonstop, the airline considered the opinions of thousands of customers who petitioned for the service through the SFOTLV.ORG petition effort.
"Providing corporate customers from throughout the Bay Area and Silicon Valley nonstop service to the high-tech market in Israel has been high on our priority list at United," said Dave Hilfman, United's senior vice president of worldwide sales. "Now with the 787-9 Dreamliner, we're delighted to make it a reality."
Flight | From To | Departure | Arrival
UA954 | SFO TLV | 8 p.m. We/Fr/Su | 8:10 p.m. the next day
UA955 | TLV SFO | 12:55 a.m. Tu/Fr/Su | 6 a.m. the same day
Flight times will be 14 hours, 10 minutes eastbound and 15 hours, 5 minutes westbound.
United has served Israel since 1999. The airline currently offers twice-daily Boeing 777 nonstop flights between Tel Aviv and New York/Newark.
San Francisco-Auckland
United's three-times weekly service to Auckland (AKL), New Zealand's largest city and main transportation hub to other points throughout the country, will launch July 1, 2016, with 787-8 aircraft. The schedule will expand to daily flights operating with 787-9 aircraft on Oct. 28, 2016, in time for the peak-winter travel season.
The Auckland flights will operate in partnership with United's Star Alliance partner Air New Zealand.
Flight | From To | Departure | Arrival
UA917 | SFO AKL | 10:45 p.m. | 6:55 a.m. two days later
UA916 | AKL SFO | 1:20 p.m. | 6:40 a.m. the same day
Flight times will be 13 hours, 10 minutes westbound and 12 hours, 20 minutes eastbound.
United in San Francisco
From its San Francisco hub, United operates nearly 280 daily flights to more than 90 destinations in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.
UA Announces new Auckland and Tel Aviv service from San Francisco
Oct 9, 2015, 1:55 am
#136
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2009
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As for ORD, there would certainly be a lot of traffic there. LY tried it and failed, though that may have had less to do with the numbers and more to do with the timing. That being said, if ORD or SFO pax will anyways need to connect, probably easier to make ORD pax connect in EWR which is a shorter flight and get SFO pax on a direct flight, not to mention the likelihood of higher paying J pax from SFO
Not sure if there are lots of people going to TLV from the west coast to begin with. TLV is a dicey market. For US airlines, it seems only NYC area really works. DL canned it from ATL and AA dropped it from PHL.
ORD seems like a logical add after EWR. From SFO, good luck to them. They'll need it.
ORD seems like a logical add after EWR. From SFO, good luck to them. They'll need it.
MIA worked very well for LY and that was dropped for issues related to LY and the economy, and had little to do with the market (which was strong), even though it isn't NYC.
LY has already announced intentions to return to both MIA and ORD once they get their 787s delivered
Not just upper management, and not just large companies. I get flown in J to EWR/JFK as a lower level employee in a smaller company
Oct 9, 2015, 2:13 am
#137
Join Date: Jan 2000
Programs: UA 1k, AA EXPLT, NZ GE, VA PLT Hyatt Diam, Marr Plat, HH Diam
Posts: 3,445
NZ does offer seats towards the front of their 777 Y cabins available only to their elites (and *G) pax that offer a few extra inches of legroom. The 3-4-3 config actually isn't all that bad -- the NZ Y seats are, IMHO, the most comfortable Y seat in the skies today.
Oct 9, 2015, 3:58 am
#138
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Oct 9, 2015, 8:11 am
#139
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: san antonio, texas
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I don't believe that is an accurate blanket statement about tech companies travel policies..one insight from reading threads on Flyertalk is very large companies that I would have speculated would have J class employee benefits for crossing the Pacific in fact require them to fly econ.
Oct 9, 2015, 8:16 am
#140
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Boulder
Programs: AA Plat, CX Silver
Posts: 2,361
Oct 9, 2015, 8:19 am
#141
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: PDX (wish I was in HNL)
Programs: Platinum
Posts: 1,687
The 789 is probably the perfect aircraft for SFO-AKL.
I like the new routes. Tech (and related services) will definitely drive the TLV traffic, plus SFO will now be the connection point to TLV from DEN west. LAX will likely provide a particularly large amount of feed.
And SFO-AKL will be one of the most coveted saver awards in the entire system.
I like the new routes. Tech (and related services) will definitely drive the TLV traffic, plus SFO will now be the connection point to TLV from DEN west. LAX will likely provide a particularly large amount of feed.
And SFO-AKL will be one of the most coveted saver awards in the entire system.
Oct 9, 2015, 8:33 am
#142
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Join Date: Sep 2007
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Posts: 13,437
AA pulled out of SFO?
That said, if UA is doing this for the tech business then it should add SJC/BLR. That plane will fill every day.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Oct 9, 2015 at 11:28 am Reason: Let's stay to the UA realted issues
Oct 9, 2015, 9:33 am
#143
Join Date: May 2013
Posts: 3,361
I don't believe that is an accurate blanket statement about tech companies travel policies..one insight from reading threads on Flyertalk is very large companies that I would have speculated would have J class employee benefits for crossing the Pacific in fact require them to fly econ.
Oct 9, 2015, 9:34 am
#144
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Northern Calif./Eastern Ida.
Programs: Amethyst Premier Plutonium Medallion
Posts: 20,644
Oct 9, 2015, 9:47 am
#145
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: ORD
Programs: UA Platinum
Posts: 396
This might be a little misleading. LY flew to ORD for many years and pulled out a few years after 9/11, just like tons of other routes around the world.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Oct 9, 2015 at 11:29 am Reason: deleted response to deleted material
Oct 9, 2015, 12:39 pm
#146
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: San Francisco/Sydney
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Posts: 8,159
Realistically I can't see UA ever doing any of these flights out of SJC. As much as I'd love to see it, they lose out on all of the connecting traffic that they can get through SFO. That's not to say that they couldn't be profitable with (say) SJC-TLV, but SFO-TLV is always going to be more profitable.
Yes, ANA seem to be doing OK out of SJC, but that's in addition to several SFO-NRT/HND flights across multiple airlines - not instead of them. The same is true for Hainan to PEK (they don't fly to SFO, but several other airlines do), and also for BA to LHR.
SJC-TLV would leave almost zero in-alliance connections at both ends - IAH/DEN at the SJC end, and probably only TK at the other end (and LH/etc, but with a serious backtrack)
Oct 9, 2015, 1:06 pm
#148
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 1,309
no
Air India announced DEL-SFO, not BLR-SFO.
United would never expand from a non-hub.
United would never expand from a non-hub.
Air India announced SFO-BLR a few days ago.
Realistically I can't see UA ever doing any of these flights out of SJC. As much as I'd love to see it, they lose out on all of the connecting traffic that they can get through SFO. That's not to say that they couldn't be profitable with (say) SJC-TLV, but SFO-TLV is always going to be more profitable.
Yes, ANA seem to be doing OK out of SJC, but that's in addition to several SFO-NRT/HND flights across multiple airlines - not instead of them. The same is true for Hainan to PEK (they don't fly to SFO, but several other airlines do), and also for BA to LHR.
SJC-TLV would leave almost zero in-alliance connections at both ends - IAH/DEN at the SJC end, and probably only TK at the other end (and LH/etc, but with a serious backtrack)
Realistically I can't see UA ever doing any of these flights out of SJC. As much as I'd love to see it, they lose out on all of the connecting traffic that they can get through SFO. That's not to say that they couldn't be profitable with (say) SJC-TLV, but SFO-TLV is always going to be more profitable.
Yes, ANA seem to be doing OK out of SJC, but that's in addition to several SFO-NRT/HND flights across multiple airlines - not instead of them. The same is true for Hainan to PEK (they don't fly to SFO, but several other airlines do), and also for BA to LHR.
SJC-TLV would leave almost zero in-alliance connections at both ends - IAH/DEN at the SJC end, and probably only TK at the other end (and LH/etc, but with a serious backtrack)
Oct 9, 2015, 1:06 pm
#149
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: between SFO & SJC
Programs: UA 1MM (and no longer flying much)
Posts: 777
Exactly. UA doesn't even fly SJC-ORD. Why in the world would we expect them to start an international SJC-XXX? That would make no sense in their network. And I say that as someone who's closer to SJC than to SFO.
Oct 9, 2015, 1:08 pm
#150
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 1,309
not really
they pulled TLV as it was unprofitable from PHL. While a pretty full flight, it was full of mostly low yield connections traveling over the PHL hub from elsewhere in the country. PHL simply doesn't have the critical mass of o/d flow to TLV that a NYC or a SFO has. It's that simple. AA's prior legal issues you mention meant that AA had to pay severance of around $16MM to former TWA employees in Israel. I may be off on the number somewhat, but whatever it was, had the route been profitable, it would not have been such a substantial number to put AA off from serving the route.