United Airlines is expected to announce some new international routes tomorrow, and we have some hints about what we should expect…
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My guess on the twins: one of the many sister cities of Chicago? Which includes Prague among others.
Florence seems unlikely (if not impossible). The runway cannot handle aircraft larger than a 737 or A319/320.
Either that or they're seriously going on the offensive against Delta and launching trans-Atlantic service to the Twin Cities.
I wish it was Florence, but the picture you’re referring to there is actually Rome. If you look at a picture of the colosseum, that tower is just across from it, I believe part of the forum. So my guess is either an additional newark frequency to Rome, or wishful thinking, a new flight to SFO.
The picture of the castle is in fact Ireland, and wishful thinking again I’m betting on the SFO-DUB that was supposed to launch in 2020.
The pic to the left of that is actually Berlin. Since they’ve included Dubai in this collage, I imagine their throwing in the Dubai and Berlin announcements over the last few months into this one as well. So just a re announcement for these two.
The twins is the one that gets me. I though maybe Kuala Lumpur, but it’s unlikely. The 510 on the app also stumps me.
If it has to be transatlantic, then the cherry blossoms/bear could be DCA-BER?
In happier days I would have interpreted the cherry blossoms and the bear as Washington D.C. - Moscow, but of course that's a route we're unlikely to see now.
If it's Washington DC to Berlin (BER), then it would definitely be IAD and not DCA. DCA is narrow-bodies only and either entirely domestic routes only or almost entirely domestic routes.
I'd like to see a San Francisco-Malaga, but that's not going to happen. Alternatively, a EWR-AGP 0925-2145. That's also not going to happen.
Weren't some of these announced already? https://simpleflying.com/united-stockholm-prague-return-washington-start/
What about ORD-MAD? With the Chicago stars plus the bear and cherry blossom. There's a Statue of the Bear and the Strawberry Tree in Madrid plus Madrid has cherry blossom too.
If this is indeed limited to Transatlantic, the cherry blossom likely represents DC and the bear is Berlin, so I would assume that IAD-BER is one.
It also seems like Newark-Dubai, Chicago-Barcelona, and Newark-Malaga are sure bets.
Flight UA507 is currently from LGA-Denver, so a new route from Denver is likely. Either Paris or Rome would make the most sense from the destinations hinted at. United already flies from Newark to Stockholm, so the new Stockholm route is likely either ORD or IAD.
Finally, both LAX and LHR are shown, but assuming these will all be new routes, it can't be between those two. Assuming it is transatlantic, then either Paris or Rome from LAX could make sense, or else Frankfurt or Munich.
If there is a new route to LHR, that is most interesting because United already flies there from each of its hubs. Perhaps they're just adding more frequencies and/or new planes? But if it is new, the only possible clue is the twin sisters, which could suggest MSP-LHR, since Minneapolis and St. Paul are the "Twin Cities", but that seems doubtful. I would bet on increased frequencies from LAX or across the network.
Otherwise, the twin sisters could represent the sister cities of one of UA's hubs, probably Chicago, which has a ton of sister cities and displays all their flags at ORD on the walk from the L station. Plausible ones could be Prague, Accra, Galway (close to Shannon), Athens, Warsaw, or Amman. Shannon, Athens and Warsaw seem most likely.
SFO-FCO. The app at the end shows “New Nonstop Route”, “Gate G5” (SFO Intl Terminal Gate number), and passenger “Lily Golden” (Golden Gate Bridge and Lily is the flower of Italy based on a Google search). Additionally the image has Rome pictures from a tower in the Forum.
IAD-BER. Berliner Dom in the image and the cherry blossoms of Washington DC to the bear symbol of Berlin in the video.
EWR-AGP. Patrick Quayle circles it and the beach image with the cranes appears to be a Malaga beach from Google searches.
ORD-BCN
EWR-ARN
EWR-DXB
LAX-LHR
DEN or IAH-CDG
Iad to Berlin has already been announced. So that would be boring if they are including it again imo
As UA does, it is going to grow its international network because it has planes to deploy while the reopening of China remains somewhere in the future. Let's see how they do in the 3rd quarter but they managed to post a profit margin lower than American in the 2nd quarter.
- EWR-Malaga, ORD-BCN more or less confirmed. Malaga is interesting because Delta used to fly there for a while. BCN is a logical enough next transatlantic destination for ORD.
- EWR - PRG/ARN seem set to be resumed
- Was thinking Big Ben might imply a return to Gatwick, but most likely just a second daily LAX-LHR. With the twins in the video it would of course be cool to see MSP-LHR or SFO-KUL, but most likely just representative of 2x daily LAX-LHR.
- Castle probably means something in UK/Ireland, potentially a restart of EWR-MAN. Could be SFO-DUB as someone else noted. But this is by far the most vague clue.
- CDG most likely DEN because it's the next logical expansion point in Europe that's not served yet from DEN. Could be a restart out of IAH but DEN offers more connectivity options and follows the trajectory of adding transatlantic flights out of DEN instead of IAH.
- FCO most likely SFO and not DEN; I doubt they would launch DEN-FCO before DEN-AMS/DUB/ZRH
- Seems confirmed based off of the map that TFS is returning next year which is slightly surprising, but based on the Malaga addition, it seems like United's seasonal holiday Spanish routes are working. Wonder if Bergen and Dubrovnik will return next year.
- Thought at first that the cherry blossoms and bear first was SFO/LAX-Japan (i.e. Nagoya), but given that Japan just re-opened today and United hasn't even restarted DEN/IAD-TYO yet, IAD-BER seems much more likely
- Some talk about Florence/PSA but I don't personally see anything that would indicate this
Do we know it's only transatlantic? The natural interpretation of the blossoms and bear for me is SFO-KIX, and would coincide with the removal of covid restrictions in Japan.
I wonder if IAH-CDG isn't more likely, since they already have IAH-AMS. SFO-FCO is spot on as far as I'm concerned.
Having just returned from Barcelona, I think United is missing a bet by not adding flights to Barcelona from every one of its hubs. Barcelona must really be a popular destination for travelers, if you can judge by the large number of people dragging rolling suitcases around everywhere. We would have loved a BCN-SFO nonstop; instead we endured a Delta miss-connection as a result of sitting on the tarmac for an hour at JFK waiting for our gate.
The castle in the top right is McDermott’s Castle, on Lough Key, Co Roscommon, Ireland, which is nowhere near any airport, but pretty much equi-distant to both Dublin and Belfast. Could be either.
The twins signify Rome? In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus are twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome.
Alicante would be a resumption of an old route, one of the many thin markets CO served with 757s.
Definitely gotta be another route to FCO given the tower next to the colosseum and also perhaps the twins are Romulus and Remus whose story is the basis for the founding of Rome? Looks also like Paris, Stockholm, Barcelona and London.
If they wanted to offer Dulles-Berlin, a bear and some chantilly cream would also work. Dulles is next to Chantilly, VA.
If you look the ORD-BCN route was already leaked by BCN's airport management.
https://twitter.com/AeroinfoBCN/status/1579862504926515200/photo/1
Twins are likely the Sister Cities of San Franciso and Bengaluru, India. This route is already announced - between SFO and the city thats called the Silicon Valley of India - Bengaluru.
United stopped serving Paris from IAH back around the time Smisek got pissy about the City of Houston building international gates at Hobby. 2014 I think.
IAD - Berlin
ORD - Barcelona
EWR - Dubai
EWR - Malaga
EWR - Stockholm
EWR - Prague
EWR - Belfast
IAH - Paris
LAX - London
Sure/confirmed bets are EWR-DXB (picture + announcement), EWR-AGP (map of Spain), IAD-BER (bear + cherry blossom).
As previously mentioned, the app screen probably confirms SFO-FCO
Looking at the F/A's hand, the stars are Chicago's flag, and the emereald green nails suggest Ireland. Maybe ORD-DUB is becoming year-round or they're adding another ORD-Ireland route?
On the map page: 7998-580-646 = 6772. The reat circle distance between ORD and MAD is 6762 kilometers... maybe?
For the Swedish flag, the EWR flight will relaunch in 2023, so maybe thats the anouncement, or it might be something else. The guy with the book is wearing the colors of Washington DC's flag, so could IAD-EWR be on the horizon?
I have no idea what clue the twins give, but it suggests a flight between "twin" or "sister" cities - probably related to Paris, since it is the only city (apart from Dubai) on the collage with no direct clue on the video so far.
We also know that there will be a route from LAX and one to LHR.
I'm betting LAX-CDG and SEA-LHR
Forgive my ignorance as an Aussie, but dont Americans refer to Minneapolis and St Paul as the twin cities? Maybe they are increaing service from there!
There are rumours in Australia that United may be starting service to Brisbane, Australia soon.
There are also rumours of United starting nonstop services to Australia and New Zealand from Chicago and other interior cities - Denver, Dallas and Houston have been mentioned.
United is starting service from San Francisco to Brisbane later in October. It’s not a rumor. It’s happening
CO flew IAH-CDG for decades. UA dropped it long before the pandemic, after losing contracts/traffic for much of the IAH-Africa flows to both AF and KL.
AF also already flies DEN-CDG, so would be interesting to see if UA believes they can run AF out, or if the market can sustain two.
Unless it's an oddball trip to Germany, UA would likely get wiped out on such an offensive, as MSP to CDG, AMS, and LHR are all hub2hub routes for DL and its partners.
UA would be at a terrible disadvantage with no feed and little market recognition (for the specific route), on either end.... just don't see them being that willing to pointlessly burn money.
Barcelona is highly cyclical and not particularly high yield.
The only reason it's likely seeing the attention that it is now from US carriers, save from the likes of NYC and ATL, is because of the excess of aircraft due to China and other parts of Asia not yet being fully recovered/accessible.
Shannon airport is about the same distance from there as Dublin. Either is more likely than Belfast in my view.