HKG-SIN to return! (cargo only initially)
 

It will launch as cargo-only service, but United applied to the DOT today for rights to carry 5th Freedom traffic on the HKG-SIN route 1x daily. The company hopes to launch the route on a 77W as soon as this Sunday, 10 May 2020.

No timeline for when passengers might be carried, but the filing contemplates that eventuality and seeks permission for such.

Update: A UA spokesperson says "no plans to resume passenger service on this route at this time." But also still requesting that permission, just in case. ;)

Link goes to my site reporting the story; you've been warned per FT rules.

Probably is the only way to be able to serve SIN for the foreseeable future. Don’t see the non stops from the US coming back anytime soon

Ironic since the 787 is now the backbone of UA’s longhaul fleet and could make the nonstop. :)

But can it do so profitably at current or near-term forecast demand levels? Even with fuel so cheap?

I'm sure the nonstop will return eventually. But I'd bet that pax service via HKG comes first.

Any flight to SIN or HKG is a welcome news, although I can see it may just only cargo.

With the demand so low and HK airport landing fee to be quite high, perhaps a single flight to HKG and continuing to SIN may be a good way to go instead running 1xHKG and 1xSIN. from SFO.

I don't mind how it is going to be done, I have travel needs to both.

I guess the question is whether there will be so much overlap in the future, as SQ flies those routes, obviously. And supposedly they are partners. I mean, BA and AA have cut a lot of the excess NYC-LON routes.

Interesting how they requested to carry passengers. I have always thought of the sfo-sin flights as some of the most jammed and profitable flights in the system. I mean they would SELL full J 10k tickets 3 days out and the planes would very commonly be booked full days before departure. Upgrades were VERY rare.

This may have to do with the fact that UPS returned some of the frequencies back to the DOT.

I don't think we have to read into this too much.

Pre-COVID-19, UA served both SIN and HKG 2x daily. If the demand will not support 2x after COVID-19 is all over, UA then can mirror SQ's model.

I would say UA applies just in case.

United is seeking to relaunch HKG-SIN, first as an all-cargo service with 77W effective May 10, and, if demand permits, eventually to add passenger service. https://www.regulations.gov/document...2020-0047-0001

I suspect we will shortly see the SFO-SIN flight deferred to an October 2020 relaunch, and any passenger UA service to Singapore (most optimistically, July 6) would be a fifth-freedom route via HKG for at least this summer.

UA seeks fifth freedom authority to carry local cargo (and eventually passenger) traffic. Back to the future...

BA and AA are in a joint venture with antitrust immunity. UA and SQ are not. They may be "partners" in Star Alliance, but they're competitors. That's how we got the huge quantity of Singapore-US nonstop flights in the first place: UA made its move, and SQ fired back with way more capacity than there was demand. SQ was hoping that UA would run from the routes.

OT, but since inception, UA's service to both HKG and SIN has been anything but stable. This is yet another deja-vu chapter.

I'm confused, but since when did UA did a fifth freedom flight from HKG-SIN?

Did UA even planned to fly SFO-HKG this summer or that was suspended indefinitely?

SFO-HKG-SIN doesn't seem like a bad idea if the economics work and travel restrictions are lifted, bit it's hard to see light at the end of the tunnel when COVID-19 continues to get worse in the US.

A few older threads:

Welcoming back UA 895/896 HKG-SIN on the 747-400!!!

United! Please at least make HKG-SIN RPU capable!

Last HKG-SIN on Oct 27 2017 anyone will be there?

David

This is what their business strategy bite them in the last few years. Cut all Fifth freedom flights and make sure all business goes to UA and UA only. Now what? Nobody is welcoming Americans and the fifth freedom flights, profit or not, can still get the business going.