Sep 9, 2020, 10:00 am
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
United Airlines Strengthens Global Network, Adding New Nonstops to Africa, India and Hawaii
United to operate first-ever nonstop service between the United States and Bangalore, India and new service between Chicago and New Delhi, India
Announces new nonstop service between U.S. East Coast and Accra, Ghana; Lagos, Nigeria; and Johannesburg, South Africa
First-ever nonstop service between Chicago and Kona and between Newark/New York and Maui
CHICAGO, Sept. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines today announced plans to expand its global route network with new nonstop service to Africa, India and Hawaii. With these new routes, United will offer more nonstop service to India and South Africa than any other U.S. carrier and remains the largest carrier between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii.
Starting this December, United will fly daily between Chicago and New Delhi and, starting in spring 2021, United will become the only airline to operate between San Francisco and Bangalore, India and between Newark/New York and Johannesburg. United will also introduce new service between Washington, D.C., and Accra, Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria in late spring of 2021. In the summer of 2021, United will fly nonstops four times weekly between Chicago and Kona and between Newark/New York and Maui. And starting this week, United, the airline offering more nonstop service to Israel than any other U.S. carrier, begins new nonstop service between Chicago and Tel Aviv, the only carrier to offer this service.
United's newly announced international routes are subject to government approval and tickets will be available for purchase on united.com and the United app in the coming weeks.
"Now is the right time to take a bold step in evolving our global network to help our customers reconnect with friends, family and colleagues around the world," said Patrick Quayle, United's vice president of International Network and Alliances. "These new nonstop routes provide shorter travel times and convenient one-stop connections from across the United States, demonstrating United's continued innovative and forward-looking approach to rebuilding our network to meet the travel needs of our customers."
Offering nonstop service to three new destinations in Africa
United will become the only U.S. carrier serving Accra nonstop from Washington, D.C. and the only airline to serve Lagos nonstop from Washington, D.C., with three weekly flights to each destination beginning in late spring 2021. The Washington metropolitan area has the second-largest population of Ghanaians in the United States, and Lagos is the largest Western African destination from the United States. Now, with 65 different U.S. cities connecting through Washington Dulles, United will offer convenient one-stop connections to Western Africa.
United already provides seasonal, three-times-weekly service between Newark/New York and Cape Town. By adding new daily nonstop flights between Newark/New York and Johannesburg in spring 2021, the airline will operate more flights to South Africa than any other U.S. carrier, and will offer the only roundtrip, nonstop service from the United States to Johannesburg by a U.S carrier. These routes also offer easy connections for customers traveling to South Africa from more than 50 U.S. cities.
New nonstops to India from two U.S. cities
United has served India with nonstop service for 15 years and now builds on its existing service to New Delhi and Mumbai with two new routes. Beginning December 2020, United will introduce new nonstop service between Chicago and New Delhi and, for the first time ever, United customers will be able to travel nonstop between San Francisco and Bangalore starting spring 2021. Chicago has the second highest population of Indian-Americans in the United States, and customers from more than 130 U.S. cities can connect on United through O'Hare International Airport. Service from San Francisco to Bangalore connects two international technology hubs, broadening United's west coast service to India, which also includes San Francisco to New Delhi.
New nonstop service between Chicago and Tel Aviv
Beginning, Thursday, Sept. 10, United will start brand-new three-times-weekly nonstop service between Chicago and Tel Aviv. In addition to Chicago, United currently operates nonstop service between Tel Aviv and its hubs in Newark/New York and San Francisco and will resume service between Washington and Tel Aviv in October. The airline operates more nonstop service between the United States and Israel than any U.S. airline.
United expanding Hawaii service to the Midwest and East Coast
As customers look to resume leisure travel options, United will make it easier than ever to travel nonstop to Maui and Kona for the 2021 summer season. With the addition of new flights between both Newark/New York and Maui and Chicago and Kona, United will provide customers in the Midwest and U.S. East Coast with even faster and more convenient service to the Hawaiian Islands than any other airline.
United to operate first-ever nonstop service between the United States and Bangalore, India and new service between Chicago and New Delhi, India
Announces new nonstop service between U.S. East Coast and Accra, Ghana; Lagos, Nigeria; and Johannesburg, South Africa
First-ever nonstop service between Chicago and Kona and between Newark/New York and Maui
CHICAGO, Sept. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- United Airlines today announced plans to expand its global route network with new nonstop service to Africa, India and Hawaii. With these new routes, United will offer more nonstop service to India and South Africa than any other U.S. carrier and remains the largest carrier between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii.
Starting this December, United will fly daily between Chicago and New Delhi and, starting in spring 2021, United will become the only airline to operate between San Francisco and Bangalore, India and between Newark/New York and Johannesburg. United will also introduce new service between Washington, D.C., and Accra, Ghana and Lagos, Nigeria in late spring of 2021. In the summer of 2021, United will fly nonstops four times weekly between Chicago and Kona and between Newark/New York and Maui. And starting this week, United, the airline offering more nonstop service to Israel than any other U.S. carrier, begins new nonstop service between Chicago and Tel Aviv, the only carrier to offer this service.
United's newly announced international routes are subject to government approval and tickets will be available for purchase on united.com and the United app in the coming weeks.
"Now is the right time to take a bold step in evolving our global network to help our customers reconnect with friends, family and colleagues around the world," said Patrick Quayle, United's vice president of International Network and Alliances. "These new nonstop routes provide shorter travel times and convenient one-stop connections from across the United States, demonstrating United's continued innovative and forward-looking approach to rebuilding our network to meet the travel needs of our customers."
Offering nonstop service to three new destinations in Africa
United will become the only U.S. carrier serving Accra nonstop from Washington, D.C. and the only airline to serve Lagos nonstop from Washington, D.C., with three weekly flights to each destination beginning in late spring 2021. The Washington metropolitan area has the second-largest population of Ghanaians in the United States, and Lagos is the largest Western African destination from the United States. Now, with 65 different U.S. cities connecting through Washington Dulles, United will offer convenient one-stop connections to Western Africa.
United already provides seasonal, three-times-weekly service between Newark/New York and Cape Town. By adding new daily nonstop flights between Newark/New York and Johannesburg in spring 2021, the airline will operate more flights to South Africa than any other U.S. carrier, and will offer the only roundtrip, nonstop service from the United States to Johannesburg by a U.S carrier. These routes also offer easy connections for customers traveling to South Africa from more than 50 U.S. cities.
New nonstops to India from two U.S. cities
United has served India with nonstop service for 15 years and now builds on its existing service to New Delhi and Mumbai with two new routes. Beginning December 2020, United will introduce new nonstop service between Chicago and New Delhi and, for the first time ever, United customers will be able to travel nonstop between San Francisco and Bangalore starting spring 2021. Chicago has the second highest population of Indian-Americans in the United States, and customers from more than 130 U.S. cities can connect on United through O'Hare International Airport. Service from San Francisco to Bangalore connects two international technology hubs, broadening United's west coast service to India, which also includes San Francisco to New Delhi.
New nonstop service between Chicago and Tel Aviv
Beginning, Thursday, Sept. 10, United will start brand-new three-times-weekly nonstop service between Chicago and Tel Aviv. In addition to Chicago, United currently operates nonstop service between Tel Aviv and its hubs in Newark/New York and San Francisco and will resume service between Washington and Tel Aviv in October. The airline operates more nonstop service between the United States and Israel than any U.S. airline.
United expanding Hawaii service to the Midwest and East Coast
As customers look to resume leisure travel options, United will make it easier than ever to travel nonstop to Maui and Kona for the 2021 summer season. With the addition of new flights between both Newark/New York and Maui and Chicago and Kona, United will provide customers in the Midwest and U.S. East Coast with even faster and more convenient service to the Hawaiian Islands than any other airline.
New UA Routes SEP 2020 • EWR ↔ OGG/JNB • ORD ↔ KOA/DEL/TLV • IAD ↔ LOS/ACC • SFO↔BLR
Sep 9, 2020, 8:06 am
#76
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Washington, DC
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Posts: 2,528
Supposedly, it's 7 routes, so here are my guesses
1. EWR-OGG (the 4903 next to the lei is a giveaway)
2. EWR/IAD-ABJ-ACC (the bracelets on the guys hands are Ghana and Ivory Coast)
3. EWR-JNB (South African passport stamp, plus South African is basically dead at this point-it's logical UA'd want to beat DL to the punch on it)
4. ORD-DEL (ORD and DEL are on the map, and I think it's a stronger business case than IAH-DEL)
5. SFO-BKK (the phone says Bangkok)
6. IAH-AKL (there's a map of Australia/NZ at the bottom, but the focus seems to be NZ; this could also maybe be LAX/SFO-CHC)
7. IAD-VIE (the focus on Vienna in the map of DC is strange, so that's my guess Austrian's also getting out of the 767 game too, so UA picking it up fits)
1. EWR-OGG (the 4903 next to the lei is a giveaway)
2. EWR/IAD-ABJ-ACC (the bracelets on the guys hands are Ghana and Ivory Coast)
3. EWR-JNB (South African passport stamp, plus South African is basically dead at this point-it's logical UA'd want to beat DL to the punch on it)
4. ORD-DEL (ORD and DEL are on the map, and I think it's a stronger business case than IAH-DEL)
5. SFO-BKK (the phone says Bangkok)
6. IAH-AKL (there's a map of Australia/NZ at the bottom, but the focus seems to be NZ; this could also maybe be LAX/SFO-CHC)
7. IAD-VIE (the focus on Vienna in the map of DC is strange, so that's my guess Austrian's also getting out of the 767 game too, so UA picking it up fits)
Sep 9, 2020, 8:16 am
#77
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Austin, TX
Posts: 21,388
Now, that could be apocryphal, or feelings may have thawed, or it might well have been a minority opinion that I read. The fact that the open skies treaty is still in force suggests that the rift must not have been too substantial.
Sep 9, 2020, 8:20 am
#78
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: NYC (Primarily EWR)
Programs: UA 1K / *G, Marriott Bonvoy Gold; Avis PC
Posts: 9,003
I think any longhaul leisure (besides Hawaii, which under normal circumstances will work from anywhere) will be from coastal hubs. While COVID obliterated business travel to markets like NYC, BOS, SFO, WAS, the upper-income passengers who used to populate those flights are largely still employed, working seamlessly from home, at substantially the same pay, perhaps with a stash of money saved from six-months-plus of limited discretionary spending. Without delving into the socioeconomic impact of the virus, there's little doubt that these passengers are itching to travel again, and still have the means to do so.
A nonstop EWR-OGG on a high-J 767 (or, now that I think of it, probably a 788/789) on Saturdays, and daily during seasonal peaks, would probably be a winner, shuttling upper/middle class NY/NJ/PA'ers to their Maui timeshares, avoiding HNL or West Coast connections. This is especially true given the glut of WB capacity UA will likely have this winter, since LHR slot use requirements won't be enforced and most other EU flights probably won't even operate. Plenty of frames will go to ROW in the next few months, but with cheap fuel and no business case to serve many conventional markets, UA has a unique opportunity to try some experimental routes in a "what do you have to lose" scenario.
Somewhat unrelated, but friends in New York high finance report a bit of a sea change of late, with several well-known firms accelerating their return-to-the-office protocols to October and November of this year (from previous plans of early- to mid-2021). This is good news for the airline industry, if for no other reason than business travel was always going to follow the widespread reopening of offices. Whether employees are happy about it is another story entirely, but in a monkey-see, monkey-do world, all it takes is one player to start sending people back on the road for the competition to follow suit, and this brings us one step closer to it.
Eventually, the quarantine "recommendations" and orders will be lifted (there's a good-faith argument, supportable by facts, that they've been totally ineffective, anyway) and people will come back.
A nonstop EWR-OGG on a high-J 767 (or, now that I think of it, probably a 788/789) on Saturdays, and daily during seasonal peaks, would probably be a winner, shuttling upper/middle class NY/NJ/PA'ers to their Maui timeshares, avoiding HNL or West Coast connections. This is especially true given the glut of WB capacity UA will likely have this winter, since LHR slot use requirements won't be enforced and most other EU flights probably won't even operate. Plenty of frames will go to ROW in the next few months, but with cheap fuel and no business case to serve many conventional markets, UA has a unique opportunity to try some experimental routes in a "what do you have to lose" scenario.
Somewhat unrelated, but friends in New York high finance report a bit of a sea change of late, with several well-known firms accelerating their return-to-the-office protocols to October and November of this year (from previous plans of early- to mid-2021). This is good news for the airline industry, if for no other reason than business travel was always going to follow the widespread reopening of offices. Whether employees are happy about it is another story entirely, but in a monkey-see, monkey-do world, all it takes is one player to start sending people back on the road for the competition to follow suit, and this brings us one step closer to it.
Eventually, the quarantine "recommendations" and orders will be lifted (there's a good-faith argument, supportable by facts, that they've been totally ineffective, anyway) and people will come back.
Sep 9, 2020, 8:26 am
#79
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: DAY
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Posts: 10,158
Keep in mind, the government remains a major shareholder in TG. Furthermore, from what I read, both the government and TG officials were offended by the FAA's decision, and there were accusations that it was motivated by a desire to keep TG from operating US routes (as a favor to US competitors), as opposed to actual deficiencies in aviation safety procedures in Thailand.
Now, that could be apocryphal, or feelings may have thawed, or it might well have been a minority opinion that I read. The fact that the open skies treaty is still in force suggests that the rift must not have been too substantial.
Now, that could be apocryphal, or feelings may have thawed, or it might well have been a minority opinion that I read. The fact that the open skies treaty is still in force suggests that the rift must not have been too substantial.
Limiting a single USA<->BKK route isn't going to have a material impact overall, but can't rely on everyone involved to be logical.
I am standing by to do a happy dance if BKK is announced.
Sep 9, 2020, 8:39 am
#80
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: New York, NY
Programs: UA, AA, DL, Hertz, Avis, National, Hyatt, Hilton, SPG, Marriott
Posts: 9,447
While I do agree on acceleration of returning to work (I work at one of these firms and am seeing it happen), I would also say that I have not read / seen / heard anything that suggests that companies are going to ramp up business travel as a result. Frankly speaking, it will be a way to boost a firm’s bottom line if they continue to hold a strict line on travel expenses, and if you cannot travel from NYC to 2/3 of the US without having to undergo a 14-day quarantine when coming back, then there is simply going to be no appetite to encourage this kind of travel, especially since the list of states can change day by day. These companies will simply not engage in any meaningful business travel unless it is absolutely essential and can be done without having to isolate for a material amount of time afterwards.
Once it happens, it'll trend pretty quickly. Again, monkey-see, monkey-do. There's some daylight regarding consumer confidence vis-a-vis COVID-19, and that's why I think it's good business for United to capitalize on this window, however long it lasts, to stimulate some bookings.
Sep 9, 2020, 8:44 am
#81
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Greer,SC,USA
Posts: 884
The X seems to be a reference to not have to island hop to get to New Zealand. Maybe that means Christchurch rather than Auckland, but there has to be an IAH route somewhere.Regardless, we'll find out soon.
Sep 9, 2020, 9:03 am
#84
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: MBS/FNT/LAN
Programs: UA 1K, HH Gold, Mariott Gold
Posts: 9,630
Looks like PsiFighter37
beat me to it, but here is the release too: https://hub.united.com/2020-09-09-un...647535777.html
Chicago - New Delhi, India
Chicago - Kona, Hawaii
New York/Newark - Johannesburg, South Africa
New York/Newark - Maui, Hawaii
San Francisco - Bangalore, India
Washington D.C. - Accra, Ghana
Washington D.C. - Lagos, Nigeria
beat me to it, but here is the release too: https://hub.united.com/2020-09-09-un...647535777.html
Chicago - New Delhi, India
Chicago - Kona, Hawaii
New York/Newark - Johannesburg, South Africa
New York/Newark - Maui, Hawaii
San Francisco - Bangalore, India
Washington D.C. - Accra, Ghana
Washington D.C. - Lagos, Nigeria
Sep 9, 2020, 9:06 am
#89
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: USA
Posts: 1,153