For a few years now, MIAT Mongolian Airlines has been working toward launching flights to the United States. The airline recently modernized its long haul fleet, by taking delivery of its first Boeing 787. At this point there’s just one thing standing in the way of the airline launching this service, so I wanted to take a look at where things stand.
MIAT Mongolian plans to fly Boeing 787 to San Francisco
Back in 2019, Mongolia’s national airline, MIAT Mongolian Airlines, began the process of filing with the Department of Transportation (DOT) for launching flights to the United States. Those plans were suspended for some amount of time during the pandemic, but then resumed again in early 2023.
Really there have been two things standing in the way of this service launching:
- The carrier’s only long haul aircraft was the Boeing 767, and that’s not capable of operating these flights nonstop
- Mongolia doesn’t have a Category 1 rating with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is required for an airline to be able to fly nonstop to the United States
Fortunately the first of those points has been taken care of. MIAT has ordered two Boeing 787-9s, and has already taken delivery of the first of these jets. Specifically, the airline acquired these planes secondhand, as they previously flew for China’s Suparna Airlines, part of struggling Hainan Group. The second plane should join the carrier’s fleet in the coming months.
In regulatory filings, the airline has made it clear that when United States service launches, the airline hopes to fly between Ulaanbaatar (UBN) and San Francisco (SFO), which is a 5,827-mile journey. It remains to be seen what kind of frequencies the airline will offer, though I’d imagine they’ll be less than daily.
The remaining challenge at this point is achieving Category 1 status with the FAA. This is something that needs to be done on a government level, and it’s something Mongolia is currently working on. Today (January 5, 2024), the airline has filed with the FAA, requesting permission to fly to the United States as soon as the country achieves a Category 1 rating, so it seems that plans for this service are still in the cards.
Could MIAT Mongolian make flights to the USA work?
Lots of airlines have aspirations of flying to the United States. Sometimes it’s because airlines see an actual business case for it, sometimes it’s for prestige, and sometimes it’s for developing tourism and investment. It’s anyone’s guess if this route ends up coming to fruition.
This might surprise some, but I’m going to put this in the “likely happening” category, given that the airline has the planes to offer this service, and has been planning this for years. That of course assumes the country can achieve an FAA Category 1 rating.
MIAT’s plans are ambitious, no matter how you slice it:
- There are estimated to be under 20,000 Mongolian Americans, so that’s hardly a large population for establishing air service
- I imagine this route would largely be about developing tourism, in hopes that a nonstop flight to Mongolia will encourage more people to visit this fascinating country
- Mongolia has a pretty robust mining industry, though it’s hard to estimate just how much lucrative business traffic there is between the United States and Mongolia
- I imagine cargo could be another significant factor here, since this would be the only nonstop cargo link between Mongolia and the United States
As much as this seems unsustainable on the surface, perhaps there is some merit to this, in the overall context of attracting more visitors to Mongolia? The airline is government owned, and even if the carrier lost some money, that might be more than made up for by the additional incremental tourists.
Bottom line
MIAT Mongolian Airlines is moving forward with preparations for launching flights to the United States, with plans to fly to San Francisco. The airline has started to take delivery of Boeing 787s. The only thing standing in the way of the service at this point is a Category 1 rating with the FAA, but that’s something the Mongolian government is actively working on.
This is one of the more out-there new routes on the horizon, and I’d love to see this launch.
What do you make of MIAT launching flights to the United States?
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