Recently, United Airlines announced an incredible international expansion, whereby the airline added eight new destinations. What made this so cool is how far-flung some of the new destinations are, ranging from Kaohsiung, to Nuuk, to Ulaanbaatar.
We’ve seen these flights progressively go on sale, and the new flight to Kaohsiung is now bookable, so I wanted to go over the details.
In this post:
United will fly from Tokyo to Kaohsiung as of July 2025
As of July 11, 2025, United Airlines plans to launch a daily, year-round flight between Tokyo Narita, Japan (NRT), and Kaohsiung, Taiwan (KHH). I have a confession to make — this might be the first airport ever added by a US airline where I had to look up at the airport code, which shows just creative United’s expansion is.
The 1,508-mile flight will operate with the following schedule, as flagged by AeroRoutes:
UA837 Tokyo to Kaohsiung departing 5:30PM arriving 9:00PM
UA838 Kaohsiung to Tokyo departing 10:25AM arriving 3:15PM
The flight from Tokyo Narita is blocked at 4hr30min, while the flight to Tokyo Narita is blocked at 3hr50min.
United intends to use a Boeing 737-800 for the route, featuring 166 seats. Yes, this is the same plane you’ll find on many domestic United routes. It’s configured with 16 (domestic) first class seats and 150 economy seats. United will be marketing the forward cabin on this flight as business class, unlike on its Newark to Greenland flight, where the forward cabin of the 737 is marketed as premium economy.
This will be the first time in over 20 years that a US airline flies to Kaohsiung. Northwest was the last airline to operate this exact route, and it was discontinued in 2003. Meanwhile Continental Micronesia flew to Kaohsiung until 1998.
Why is United flying to Kaohsiung, Taiwan?
Understandably, there’s a lot about this route that may confuse people. What is Kaohsiung? Why would United fly there? And why would United fly a Boeing 737 there, so far from the United States?
Kaohsiung is a port city in Southern Taiwan, with a population of nearly three million people. It’s located on the opposite side of the island as Taipei, which is around 180 miles to the north.
The first thing to understand about the motivation for this route is that United is trying to profitably fly Boeing 737s from Tokyo Narita. Why? Well, historically United has had a base in Guam (GUM), and has 737s, including crews, based there.
United’s Guam network reportedly isn’t as profitable as it was pre-pandemic, so United wants to try something new with the aircraft. Rather than bringing them back to the US mainland, the airline instead wants to try flying them out of Tokyo Narita. I love United’s willingness to try new concepts. There are a couple of main reasons that United flying 737s out of Tokyo Narita could make sense:
- United continues to have a robust transpacific network out of Tokyo Narita, rather than just out of Tokyo Haneda (HND), so there’s value in having connectivity; meanwhile Delta has completely pulled out of the airport, while American just has a small presence
- United has a joint venture with All Nippon Airways, but the airline actually doesn’t have that huge of a regional network out of Narita, partly because ANA doesn’t have many narrow body regional jets, which are needed for the economics of some routes to work
So with its expansion at Tokyo Narita, clearly United hopes it can capture some connecting transpacific traffic, and also serve the local market.
Clearly Kaohsiung is a market where United feels there’s strong year-round demand, and the airline can get decent yields. Interestingly, the market is already served by several airlines, including EVA Air, Thai AirAsia, and Tigerair Taiwan.
It remains to be seen if this route succeeds in the long run. One thing is for sure — I commend United for its creativity, and trying something new, as it’s not something we often see from US airlines.
Bottom line
As of July 2025, United will be launching daily flights between Tokyo and Kaohsiung using Boeing 737s. This is part of United’s strategy of shifting some 737s from Guam to Tokyo. I hope this strategy succeeds, because it sure is fun to see a US airline so dedicated to maintaining fifth freedom flights from Asia.
What do you make of United’s new Kaohsiung flights, and do you think the route will succeed?
It's not something new and creative if NW flew it just over 20 years ago which they did.
as for the comment about AA and DL's size at NRT, DL doesn't have to support a JV partner at NRT by maintaining transpacific flights to/from NRT w/ less and less local Tokyo traffic on them. UA's only choice to keep traffic flowing over NRT is to take domestic aircraft which could be used on their domestic...
It's not something new and creative if NW flew it just over 20 years ago which they did.
as for the comment about AA and DL's size at NRT, DL doesn't have to support a JV partner at NRT by maintaining transpacific flights to/from NRT w/ less and less local Tokyo traffic on them. UA's only choice to keep traffic flowing over NRT is to take domestic aircraft which could be used on their domestic network to pump traffic through NRT.
Remember that UA will receive less than 4 dozen new aircraft in 2024, almost 100 fewer MAXs than planned, and yet it makes more financial sense to try to salvage the NRT hub than to add more domestic service.
Yes, DL left NRT and has a JV at ICN, an airport that not only has far more connecting flights beyond ICN than NRT or HND but ICN is a larger local market than NRT is.
I know a whole lot of people like to think that DOT profitability by global region data is voodoo math but it shows that UA made less money on its TPAC services in the 1st half of 2024 than DL.
Of course, part of that was driven by UA's disastrous attempt at massive expansion in the winter of 2023-24 but actual data shows that UA's vast network translates into nothing more than more dots and lines on a route map.
And KHH isn't even unique or new for US carriers.
all japanese and taiwanese full service airlines are 5* and united is 2*. how stupid do you have to be to fly a 2* airline with a very long history of unsafe flights and not japanese or taiwanese airlines? even japanese budget airlines are better than any american airlines. waiting for flights to be cancelled i guess...
If you're referring to Skytrax ratings, firstly CI is rated four stars, and secondly United is rated three stars.
Do premiers get upgrades on this route?
Yes. Silvers can get on the CPU list.
How you gonna compete Asian airlines using 737–800???
Older plane, worse service and higher price.
Good luck United.
I can see this being both good and bad for United.
It's about a 3 hour MRT ride from TPE to KHH + factoring in immigration and going from KHH to your final destination in Taiwan. So it ends up being about a 4 hour extension after flying 12+ hours long haul, while also having to tote around heavy checked bags.
The UA KHH flight will give people a chance to rest up in NRT,...
I can see this being both good and bad for United.
It's about a 3 hour MRT ride from TPE to KHH + factoring in immigration and going from KHH to your final destination in Taiwan. So it ends up being about a 4 hour extension after flying 12+ hours long haul, while also having to tote around heavy checked bags.
The UA KHH flight will give people a chance to rest up in NRT, shower in the UA Club or ANA lounges and won't really increase their total time since NRT is 2 to 3 hours shorter than the TPE flight.
I just wonder how this will affect their TPE yields and load factors. Right now UA is selling a lot of interline to CX for this route via HKG and I guess they want to reduce the spillage.
Hey Ben , can you write a post on why is UA being allowed to fly regional flights out of Japan. Seems like a random thing.
These are the seventh freedom flights - at the seventh freedom, a foreign airline can set a base in a country and operate flights to a third party country. UA inherited the right from Pan Am when they bought Pan Am's TPAC network back in the late '80s.
After WW2, planes had less range. Pan Am and Northwest got rights to have a hub in Tokyo and operated it for several decades. In fact, Delta dismantled the hub only recently, dropping NRT to SIN and MNL among others.
Found the CCP troll.
Ugh, replying to the wrong comment. "Darren" is the CCP troll.
Taiwan is part of China. Make that clear.
@Darren Holmes
You're right, there's no such country called Taiwan.
Because it was, is, and will be a part of the Republic of China.
May god bless KMT.
Don't bless the KMT. Bless the TPP.
Back to the subject of air service, Northwest Airlines served KHH in the late 1990's using 757's. There was also a KHH-LAX non-stop on EVA but it didn't last long.
In that case, Free Taiwan!
NW flew NRT-KHH 2001-2004...
Glad they're trying this! KHH is an underrated city and very inexpensive. Loved my time there.
If you haven't done so already, you should really review their Island Hopper!