SPN Lifer

Return of GUM-KIX

United has announced plans to resume service between Guam and Osaka this summer, beginning Friday, 1 July 2022.

https://www.mvariety.com/news/united...5bdbaa990.html

UA will also be adding three weekly flights between Tokyo/Narita and Guam, bringing the schedule to 14 weekly flights between NRT & GUM.

mh3265a

And roughly timed when folks believe Japan will truly open up to visitors...

unitedbusiness

This is particularly exciting news for United’s Guam “hub,” with several routes re-starting later this summer.
Guam-Nagoya (starting 1 Aug)
Guam-Fukuoka (starting 4 Aug)
Guam-Osaka (starting 1 July)
additional frequencies Guam-Tokyo Narita (starting 1 Aug)
this is particularly good news for Guam, perhaps the impending re-opening of the GUM United Club, and the re-start of other Guam flights.
Let’s hope that Japan scraps all COVID-19 testing/quarantine requirements soon!

https://www.guampdn.com/money/united...1f44f3000.html

Wx4caster

I flew GUM to NRT two weeks ago in a jam-packed 737 and was mildly impressed by the coach class meal offered on this four hour flight compared to many of those I’ve had in premium cabins lately. On the HNL to GUM flight a few days earlier, the only meal option in row 3 of PP cabin was tofu.

looking forward to seeing more flights return! Now if only they could get the new club open in GUM.

jp12687

This is great. I was really bummed when UA stopped HKG service to GUM. That was my favorite way home from Asia 1-2 times a year with a long “layover” in Hawaii.

2023 will see a restart of Asia travel for me so happy to see this coming back as an option.

EpsilonZer0

Not a chance of Japan opening in July. A month ago everyone believed that maybe August they would reopen but that has been squashed. The guided tours are not going well. A fall timeframe is now more likely but with limitations.
The new route is for domestic vacation travelers from Japan

EWR764

I'm pretty sure this rounds out United's pre-COVID GUM-Japan network in terms of destinations. Scheduled elsewhere (e.g., CTS, SDJ, OKA, OKJ, KIJ, HIJ) had been pulled down over the years, though I am sure UA still ran charters.

How so? COVID cases? Or just a commercial failure?

SPN Lifer

Return of NRT-SPN

The governor of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (the CNMI) has announced that United plans to resume service between Narita (NRT) and Saipan (SPN), beginning in September 2022.

https://www.mvariety.com/news/govern...565a2ee0d.html

As a resident of the CNMI, it will be nice not to have to connect on Guam. Also, it would help the CNMI economy if Japanese tourists were to return to Saipan.

EWR764

This is a nice add! It's been a long time.

uanj

wow, that’s good news as well as a bit of a surprise!

trust77

This deserves a Hallelujah! for sure. CO back then prior to the start of the Cape Air Connection service in 2005 often flew GUM-SPN-NGO-SPN-GUM or GUM-SPN-NRT-SPN-GUM flights and I often wondered why UA just did not initiate this immediately when they took over the GUM-SPN flying back in 2018 or 2019? I feel for every SPN bound passenger who over the last three years has arrived to GUM on either the HNL or NRT non stop and has had to overnight at GIAA just to catch the SPN connection the next morning. And then during the pandemic what torture that was. Not sure why this took so long, or what were the barriers, but UA and CNMI Gov should have had this going much much sooner - especially when DL pulled out of SPN!

eta - CO also flew GUM-SPN-MNL-SPN-GUM routings, and even further back GUM-SPN-HKG-SPN-GUM services. Come on UA...

MatthewLAX

Is the island hopper still off-limits?

Anyone at GUM know what the hold-up is for the United Club there?

eng3

My first though after seeing this thread

SPN Lifer

The NRT-SPN service will be three times weekly, starting 1 September 2022. Apparently this new service is subsidized by the CNMI government under its Tourism Resumption Investment Plan (TRIP).

https://www.saipantribune.com/index....ght-on-sept-1/

Wx4caster

AFAICT, the NH lounge at the end of satellite 4 has been repurposed as a makeshift COVID processing area.