COSPILOT

I'm a little surprised that doesn't exist. Headed to Kapalua this weekend for the 100th time.

Nayef

300 dinar sounds like a lot for a causeway trip (that's like $800). I used to fly to BAH since my family mostly stayed there and even tried the short-lived IAD-KWI-BAH flight one (which was really crummy), but now it's a lot more feasible for me to fly into DMM. Takes me about 30 minutes to get home as opposed to BAH, which might take a couple of hours and that's if Causeway traffic is tame. I don't know how long ago you went through DMM, but things might've changed since then.

I doubt UA would be the one to do IAD-DMM, still. SV would have more of an incentive, but they already decided RUH/JED-IAD/JFK/LAX is more than enough.

It's a shame too because DMM is technically the largest airport in the world, but they made the terminal tiny relative to the entire airport area (like DEN). They could've made it a hub with way more gates and airlines with all that space.

Were the national carriers (like EK) cheaper than those old UA routes? I only flew IAD-KWI-BAH and back once and it was a gigantic plane (can't remember which one, but it had at least 300 seats) but the services were atrocious without any IFEs. I don't know if that was the case with all of UA's routes to the area, but if it was, then it's no surprise people didn't want in. The planes I was on were mostly empty, too, and this was a year before they stopped the routes.

I think they can likely employ 787s and others to do those routes (with better service) and make prices competitive if the politics permit it.

Kmxu

It was sUA 777-200, only seating about 250. We had a lot of funs doing mileage runs on IAD-KWI-BAH and back with 5-10 other MRers. Each person had his/her row in E+ section.

seenitall

And have you seen the densities they pack onto to those short-haul widebodies?
ANA 772 Domestic: 21F / 381Y
ANA 773 Domestic: 21F / 493Y

Any airline can choose to fly widebodies on sub-2000 mile routes -- but the CASM is going to be greater than flying a narrowbody on those routes. Now if the airports are capacity-constrained, pilot wages double, or PAX are willing to pay a 25% premium to fly on a widebody over a narrowbody, then the current economic advantage of flying narrowbodies may be negated. But don't count on this occurring very soon. Think of what has happened to the A380. Airbus thought its larger size would make it an economic winner over smaller widebodies like B777s, B787s or A350s. See how that has worked out.

mecabq

Perhaps he meant 300 Saudi riyals. The Bahrain and Saudi currencies are largely interchangeable in Bahrain (at a ratio of 1:10).

Surprisingly not. UA was generally no cheaper than the ME3 in business class for a vastly inferior on-board product. I was probably like many travelers, though, who still flew UA for a combination of upgradeability, Mileage Plus benefits, and Fly America, all of which are diluted now anyway versus 10-15 years ago. The UA flight was also competing in a somewhat different market -- for travelers terminating in BAH/KWI/DXB/DOH (or connecting to Iraq or Afghanistan on a separate ticket) and perhaps connecting at the U.S. end, versus the ME3 capturing travelers O&D'ing at the U.S. gateway and then connecting onward from the Middle East hub (e.g., to South Asia, Africa, elsewhere in the Middle East, etc.). The JetBlue partnership with Emirates and the AA partnership with Qatar haven't been around that long.

It's a shame that all of these flights went away. DL also served DXB briefly. I am surprised that, despite all of the challenges, they can't make a trunk route like EWR/IAD-DXB work. Or maybe DOH, which is hard to reach otherwise -- you can't get there on EK and some European airlines have dropped it -- although I assume United, like most observers, figured the embargo would be short-lived.

Nayef

I remember DL also used to serve ATL-KWI, which I guess they thought would work for US military personnel and the like, but it soon got the axe, too. And I agree on the DXB route. Even though EK has tons of routes, a bunch of national carriers still have direct flights to DXB, like LH, BA, KL, AF, AC and others. So I don't see why a US carrier wouldn't work. Don't know if those other flag carriers are subsidized or not, and if they are, it makes sense they'd still be afloat.

WineCountryUA

Reminder this is not a ME3 thread or a discussion thread of travel to the ME. But rather a posting of route(s) you would like to see UA fly (realistic or not).

So let's return to the thread topic.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

east_west

Iad-nrt
ord-nrt

narvik

My prediction (unlikely...near impossible):

SFO-PKX
or
EWR-PKX

drewguy

There's almost no value in flying planes to the new Beijing airport where *A carriers for the most part won't be going.

narvik

LO and CA are both starting service in October. Pretty sure others will follow...

UA_Flyer

I spoke to the UA Beijing staff recently, and there is no plan for UA to start services to the new airport in the near term. UA currently has four flights a day into Beijing Capital Airport, There is already over capacity between US and China, and any flights into the new airport will likely at the expense of the 4 flights currently in service.

PsiFighter37

JimInOhio

Other than going year-round SFO-DEL, all of the routes announced yesterday are mid-range (can fly round trip in under 24 hours). Is UA taking a cue from AA? AA pulled back from some long haul routes and provided the explanation that some of them just don't justify themselves considering how long they tie up an aircraft each day. It will be interesting to see how UA deploys these new 787s coming next year.

Kmxu

Other than SFO-DEL, there are some new extra-longhaul routes announced in the past few months (EWR-HND, LAX-HND, EWR-PVG, SFO-HKG). They do need new aircraft. UA can certainly switch fleet types for some existing routes.