We’ve seen quite a few new international route announcements from American and Delta lately, and it looks like United will be the next airline to announce new routes.
United will be announcing three new international routes tomorrow, and they’re making a game of allowing people to guess the new routes. They’re giving clues in the form of word jumbles (which they call “world jumbles” — hah).
So, what are the new routes likely to be?
It looks to me like San Francisco to Amsterdam will be the first one.
We think it’s time for another international route… or three. Can you guess our first new route from this world jumble? All will be revealed tomorrow morning! #NewRoute ✈✈✈ pic.twitter.com/e3HS5aymCQ
— United Airlines (@united) August 29, 2018
The second one seems to be Newark to Naples.
We’re announcing three new international routes… tomorrow. Here is the second world jumble hint. Can you guess this one? #NewRoute pic.twitter.com/L1i0CL2Pvw
— United Airlines (@united) August 29, 2018
The third one seems to be Newark to Prague.
Last but certainly not least, here’s our world jumble hint for #NewRoute No. 3. All three of our new international routes will be announced tomorrow morning! Stay tuned 😉 pic.twitter.com/iZjekGQMnu
— United Airlines (@united) August 29, 2018
It’s possible that I’m wrong about any or all of those, so I’m curious if anyone has a different take. San Francisco to Amsterdam and Newark to Prague both seems predictable enough, though the Newark to Naples route is a bit surprising, which makes me believe that maybe there’s another word combination that I’m missing.
Anyone have a different take on United’s upcoming route announcement?
SFO - AMS would be nice. It might place some pressure on KLM to drop their prices :-)
I don’t know a single person who’d want to fly United internationally when there is any competition on the route from an international player. Any player really.
@greg
Actually there is a bank of Star Alliance flights LH, Swiss, Austrian, LOT, SAS, scheduled for US connections at AMS.
I was expecting that SFO - DUB would happen by now on UA
How did you guess these?
@Micah
I live and work in Silicon Valley (I just came back to my office after picking up dinner @ the Stanford Mall), and I'm intimately connected with tech and do quite a bit of work in Europe. I know lots of people traveling regularly to London, Munich, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris, etc. I can't say I've ever run into a person saying "I'm going back and forth to Amsterdam a lot." I'm not saying there...
@Micah
I live and work in Silicon Valley (I just came back to my office after picking up dinner @ the Stanford Mall), and I'm intimately connected with tech and do quite a bit of work in Europe. I know lots of people traveling regularly to London, Munich, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris, etc. I can't say I've ever run into a person saying "I'm going back and forth to Amsterdam a lot." I'm not saying there isn't tech there, but it's not like Tel Aviv where tons of people were doing that trip all the time.
Obviously, they know exactly how many people a day are traveling from the west coast to AMS via FRA and MUC, so if that's the choice, they must think it's a good idea, but it surprises me. I guess we'll find out in a few hours...
@Greg
Amsterdam is one of the top Hi-Tech cities in Europe, connecting it to SFO probably means a good amount of premium demand for UA. Even though KLM already has a daily nonstop, UA thinks they have a chance to take market share. Also KLM is Skyteam and UA is *A.
UA also has had great success growing their SFO-TLV route which also relies heavily on hi-tech demand. Seems like a similar pattern.
Naples isn't too surprising. Italy's population is basically 50% American tourists.
More flights out of EWR - Just don't travel on July 5th to any of these new cities!
I'm curious why SFO - Amsterdam is the most logical use of an airframe, since it's pure O-D traffic, and KLM already runs a daily nonstop.
Still waiting for EWR-GIG and still can't believe that UA doesn't serve the route.
God help those poor tourists trying to squeeze in the Dubrovnik.
Hmm... Wish the destinations were exotic
Back to Africa Ghana
Good chance at least EWR-PRG/NAP see Polaris J with some regularity. By next summer, more than half of the 763 fleet should have Polaris installed (out of 38 frames) and I expect both to be 763 service, rather than 764..
I suspect SFO-AMS will be 787
Great. More new routes, more reasons to keep those horrendous 2-4-2 J cabins.
Is there any news on a timeline? I'm guessing they won't start until late spring?
@ Nun -- No news yet, but my guess is that these are routes for next summer.
AA just announced a new route to Bologna, so maybe we'll see a raft of ridiculous Italian flights until the next recession hits, or until Air Italy stabilizes, joins an alliance, or exits the market.
Safe to assume none of these would be particularly high on the priority list for real polaris seats?
@ Evan -- I would guess Amsterdam will be a 787, so is unlikely to have the new seats. Doubt the other routes will be a priority for reconfigured 767s, though by next summer you never know.
3 anagrams, no? I think you got them all correct. Good on you!
Anecdotally, a lot of my clients are flying to NAP these days. Parts of Italy near there are all the rage among wealthy leisure travelers so it actually makes some sense. You also no longer have Meridiana flying there so there is a small void to fill.
Hmm...
There was a BIG rumor going around that there would be a new route from DEN. Interesting.