United Airlines plans to increase its Pacific network with new or expanded direct routes servicing Hong Kong, Manila, Taipei and Tokyo from the U.S., the carrier announced Tuesday.
United on Oct. 29 will launch daily year-round service between San Francisco and Manila, using Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, United SVP of global network planning and alliances Patrick Quayle said during a Monday press call. The carrier currently serves Manila via Guam and Palau, and that service will continue along with the new route, according to United.
"We will be the first U.S. airline to ever have service between the mainland United States and the Philippines," Quayle said.
The carrier on Oct. 28 also plans to launch daily year-round Los Angeles-Hong Kong service, operating with Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner aircraft, which will "complement our daily service from San Francisco," Quayle said, adding that the airline would not yet reinstate its Newark-Hong Kong service because of flight restrictions over Russian airspace. "As we await the resolution with Russia, then we can add the Newark flight back," he said.
The next service to be added on Oct. 28 is the resumption of daily year-round flights between Los Angeles and Tokyo Narita, Quayle said. This route, which will operate with Boeing 787-10 aircraft, was flown prior to United moving its L.A.-Tokyo service to Haneda in March of this year.
"For the first time, we will have two daily flights between Tokyo and Los Angeles," he said. "Think of Haneda like LaGuardia, right in the middle of the city and super easy to get to, but it has good domestic connectivity. Think of Narita a bit like JFK or Newark, where there is much more connectivity into the region of Southeast Asia."
United on Oct. 29 also is adding a second daily flight between San Francisco and Taipei, operating with Boeing 777-200ER aircraft.
In April, the airline also announced new direct service set to launch Dec. 1 between San Francisco and Christchurch, New Zealand, along with other South Pacific additions for the winter.
Quayle said that the Pacific region "is as strong if not stronger than the Atlantic today." When asked whether business or leisure is driving this demand to the Pacific, Quayle said both are.
"Part of it is business travel has shifted and where people are doing business has shifted because of geopolitics," he said. "But also, there is a ton of VFR traffic, which is visiting friends and relatives. There is a ton of people with the lust to travel, so we are seeing it all across the board. There is a really strong premium leisure component as well as business getting back in the air."
Quayle also noted that currently the carrier's Atlantic network is 30 percent larger than it was in 2019, its Latin American network is 10 percent larger than it was in the summer of 2019—with a planned increase in Houston-Buenos Aires flights from daily to 10 times weekly coming in the winter—and, excluding mainline China, its Pacific network by this winter will be about 40 percent larger than in 2019.
Further, as of last week, all of United's widebody aircraft have been configured with the same Polaris business-class seat, Quayle said.
RELATED: United to Expand Winter South Pacific Service