Yesterday United Airlines announced seven new routes, five of which are international. While most airlines are adding service to Cancun and Fort Myers during these tough and unusual times, United is adding service to destinations like Accra, Bangalore, Johannesburg, and Lagos.
United’s new longest route
Among the “big three” US airlines, United is by far the carrier operating the most ultra long haul flights. Up until this point, United’s five longest routes have been:
- Houston to Sydney, which covers a distance of 8,596 miles
- San Francisco to Singapore, which covers a distance of 8,446 miles
- Newark to Hong Kong, which covers a distance of 8,065 miles
- Los Angeles to Melbourne, which covers a distance of 7,921 miles
- San Francisco to Melbourne, which covers a distance of 7,855 miles
Two of the routes announced yesterday will earn spots on United’s list of top five longest routes:
- San Francisco to Bangalore will be United’s longest route, at a distance of 8,701 miles
- Newark to Johannesburg will be United’s fourth longest route, at a distance of 7,989 miles
San Francisco to Bangalore will be United’s longest flight
United modifying 787-9s to improve range
Here’s something that’s interesting, and that many people may not have known. Cranky Flier notes that up until this point, United wasn’t able to operate the above two long haul routes without serious payload restrictions.
The San Francisco to Bangalore route was pushing the limits in terms of distance, while the issue with Johannesburg is that the airport is at a high altitude, greatly limiting takeoff performance on westbound flights.
United is making some modifications to its 787-9s, which will increase engine thrust and improve the fuel management system. Together these changes will make the flights possible. These are entirely software changes, so it seems to be a relative easy fix.
While United will eventually install this software update throughout its 787-9 fleet, initially only a subfleet will have the changes. There’s a positive implication on that front — the subfleet of 787-9s will feature new Polaris seats, so you’ll be guaranteed new Polaris seats on these ultra long haul flights.
It’s pretty cool to see United continuing to push the limits of ultra long haul flying.
These long routes will be guaranteed to have new Polaris seats
Will American still launch Seattle to Bangalore flights?
American Airlines hasn’t operated scheduled flights to India in about a decade, making it the only one of the “big three” US carriers not to fly to India.
Earlier in the year American announced it would launch Seattle to Bangalore flights. That caught a lot of people off guard, both because this marked the beginning of American’s Seattle expansion, and also because Bangalore was the first city in India that American would serve.
At the time the route kind of made sense:
- American would be the only US airline to fly to Bangalore
- I would assume that American bet that United couldn’t add San Francisco to Bangalore flights due to range and payload restrictions
But now that United is adding Bangalore flights as well, does the route still make sense? As Cranky Flier notes, looking at traffic to Bangalore from US origins:
- San Francisco has 17.7% of the traffic (the most of any US city), accounting for over 200 travelers per day
- Seattle has 4.3% of the traffic, accounting for roughly 50 passengers per day
Presumably American’s Seattle to Bangalore route is reliant on a lot of connecting traffic, especially from other west coast origins. With United now adding service to Bangalore as well, American will face a lot of competition.
That’s not even accounting for United’s existing presence in India, United’s partnerships with Air India and Vistara, and United’s general strength with tech corporate contracts.
Personally I’d be very surprised if this doesn’t cause American to reconsider Bangalore flights. And if that happens, then you have to wonder about American’s Seattle strategy altogether.
Will American still launch Seattle to Bangalore flights?
Bottom line
It’s incredibly impressive how global of an airline United has become in the past few years, and in particular that the airline is adding ultra long haul flights even at this time.
What I didn’t initially realize is that modifications would be made to 787-9s in order to make these two new routes work, as they weren’t previously possible. Since a 787-9 subfleet will be used for these flights, it also means they’re guaranteed to feature new Polaris seats, which is great.
Now the big question is whether American will still move forward with its Seattle to Bangalore flight. Personally I’m highly skeptical.
What do you make of United’s new longest route? Do you think American will still launch Seattle to Bangalore flights?
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