United Airlines is adding several international destinations to its summer 2025 schedule that could be considered off the beaten path, including cities in Greenland and Mongolia.
Patrick Quayle, United’s senior vice-president of global network planning and alliances, said on 9 October the carrier plans to launch a host of new routes next spring, calling it the “largest international expansion in United’s history”.
In total, United’s summer schedule will grow by 11 routes, including flights to eight new cities – Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Kaohsiung, Taiwain; Nuuk, Greenland; Palermo, Italy; Bilbao, Spain; Madeira Island, Portugal; Faro, Portugal; and Dakar, Senegal.
“United has always been known as a leading international airline, but over the last eight years, our team has intentionally expanded our international network beyond traditional business destinations,” Quayle says. “We’re trying to fly to places that speak to all travellers, from honeymooners to adventure travellers and beyond.”
Company executives have discovered that adding more “unique content” to United’s network drives more air travellers to acquire the airline’s branded credit cards, he adds.
Beginning on 1 May, United will operate three weekly flights from Tokyo-Narita airport to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital and most-populous city. The seasonal flights will be operated with a Boeing 737 Max 8.
“United will be the only US airline to serve Mongolia, which has seen a large spike in visitors so far this year compared to 2023,” Quayle says.
The Chicago-headquarted carrier has a crew base with 737s stationed in Guam, which enable narrowbody operations out of Tokyo. While most Mongolian-bound air traffic flowed through Beijing prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, United has identified Tokyo as an alternative as air travel remains suppressed between China and the USA.
United will also launch a year-round, nonstop route route from Tokyo to Koror, Palau as part of its summer schedule expansion. It does not specify when those flights will begin.
Twice-weekly, seasonal flights between New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International airport and Nuuk, Greenland’s largest city, will begin on 14 June. That route, also operated with a 737 Max 8, will make United the “only carrier in the world to offer nonstop service to Greenland from the US”.
Then, in July, the carrier will launch year-round, daily flights from Tokyo to Kaohsiung. Those operations will complement United’s existing route from San Francisco to Taipei.
IDENTITY EXPANSION
Quayle acknowledges that most of the new routes are unconventional, pointing to United’s operations between the US and Cape Town, South Africa as evidence that non-obvious destinations can appeal to broad segments of air travellers.
Starting on 23 May, Dakar will become the sixth African destination in United’s network as the carrier plans to launch thrice-weekly flights from Washington Dulles International airport with a Boeing 767.
United will also launch its first nonstop routes from Washington, DC to Nice, France and Venice, Italy.
“We continue to add flights to places that no other US airline serves,” Quayle says. “United now flies to some of the most unique, unexpected and unserved locales around the world, and it’s something that’s becoming a core part of our brand.”
Quayle says that United has not dropped any routes from its planned 2025 international schedule, but it has shifted seasonal summer flights to Tenerife, Spain into the winter season.
