United adds 3 new Asia-Pacific destinations with a unique twist

United Airlines is once again flexing its muscle as the nation's most international carrier. The Chicago-based airline announced another batch of new routes on Wednesday, including three new destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, for the upcoming winter season.

The new route map pins include Adelaide, Australia; Bangkok; and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This expansion comes just weeks before the airline is slated to inaugurate its largest summer schedule ever, which includes some unique destinations like Bilbao, Spain, and Nuuk, Greenland.

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When all is said and done, United will offer a whopping 32 destinations in the Pacific, four times more than any other U.S. airline.

Here's everything you need to know about United's latest network expansion — and why it's so unique.

Bangkok

United will launch daily flights to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK) on Oct. 26. The airline will operate the 257-seat Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which features 48 Polaris business-class pods, 21 Premium Plus recliners, 39 Economy Plus extra-legroom seats and 149 standard economy seats, on this route.

While the airline has a slew of hubs across the U.S. — and a growing intra-Asia gateway in Tokyo — this new route will actually depart from Hong Kong.

That might be surprising for an airline that spent much of the previous decades dismantling its intra-Asia "tag flight" network, but this time, the airline is doing things differently, explained Patrick Quayle, the carrier's network chief.

For one, because United operates flights between Hong Kong and its San Francisco and Los Angeles hubs in both morning and evening time banks, the airline can add both Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City service using a single wide-body aircraft. That aircraft will flow from its transpacific flights to the new destinations and back in the time between the two banks.

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United's existing transpacific flights from San Francisco and Los Angeles to Hong Kong will be timed to connect easily to both tag flights in both directions, making the schedule as convenient as possible for travelers. (Of course, a nonstop flight to Bangkok would be better, but the rumors for that nonstop didn't seem to pan out this time.)

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Furthermore, Quayle explained that "we will have rights to sell local, in addition to obviously from North America," meaning that the airline will be able to sell flights from Hong Kong to Bangkok on its own or in conjunction with a transpacific flight. (The move also comes as United is reopening its lounge in Hong Kong.)

As for why Bangkok, United says that it's the most-visited city in Thailand, and it's gotten even more popular thanks to the hit TV series "The White Lotus."

Seats on these new flights will be available at a later date. Note that while Bangkok is technically a new pin for United's route map, the airline last flew there from Tokyo's Narita International Airport (NRT) as recently as March 2014.

In the 2010s, United dedicated multiple wide-body aircraft to operate the short intra-Asia tag flights — an inefficient and costly setup for what are likely lower-yielding flights. This time, however, United is timing the operation to only require a single aircraft for the two new markets.

Ho Chi Minh City

United will also add a new tag flight from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City beginning Oct. 26.

This daily service will also operate on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. As explained above, United will deploy an aircraft coming in from either Los Angeles or San Francisco. United will then send it out on a roughly six-hour round trip to Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN) before flying it back to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) to operate red-eye service back to the U.S.

Interestingly, United decided not to launch these two new routes from Tokyo, where it recently unveiled new services to Mongolia, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The choice of Hong Kong was more geography than anything else, explained Quayle.

"What we're doing is we're connecting things in the most efficient manner. And so for places like Taiwan, Mongolia, and even Cebu, that works more efficiently with the narrow-body aircraft out of Tokyo Narita, and that's timed efficiently so that our Newark, Houston, San Francisco, Denver, LA flights all come into Narita and then feed those flights," he said.

According to Quayle, Ho Chi Minh City is a "vibrant, fast-growing destination," and seats will be available for sale on this new route in the coming weeks.

This also technically represents a service resumption for United, as the airline last flew from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City in October 2016, Cirium schedules show.

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Adelaide

United is already the largest U.S. airline flying to Australia, and it will only get bigger next year with the introduction of service to Adelaide.

The carrier will launch first-ever flights from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Adelaide Airport (ADL) on Dec. 11 with thrice-weekly flights. The carrier will deploy a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on the new 8,070-mile route that will be operated in tandem with codeshare partner Virgin Australia.

Flights are already available for sale, and United says that this new route will be a "game changer" for service beyond its existing Australian destinations (Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane).

The airline expects to appeal to both business and leisure travelers, especially since the new flight unlocks 51 new one-stop itineraries to and from Adelaide, which used to be at least a two-stop journey. Note that no other airline currently (or in recent history) has flown from the U.S. to Adelaide, so it'll be interesting to see how United's service fares.

Manila, Philippines

In addition to the new destinations, United will add a second daily flight from San Francisco to Manila on Oct. 25.

The airline originally launched flights from SFO to Manila's Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL) in October 2023 — and, clearly, the service has been successful enough to add both daytime and nighttime flights. Better yet, the additional service will be operated by United's largest jet, the Boeing 777-300ER, which features 60 Polaris business-class pods, 24 Premium Plus recliners, 62 Economy Plus extra-legroom seats and 204 standard economy seats.

This additional flight is already available for sale.

No cuts

In an era when airlines have been busy cutting unprofitable routes, it's refreshing to hear Quayle reaffirm that "we're not cutting anything. Everything [announced today] is growth."

Of course, the airline must prove that it can fill these new flights, but previously launched winter flights will all be returning for another season.

"We've been very efficient in how we fly the network and we don't tolerate losses. We're here to return value to our shareholders, and we're here to connect the world. And so we think we can do both, and we think we are doing both really well," Quayle said.

Bottom line

U.S. airlines need to find places to fly their wide-body jets in winter when it's too cold in Europe for leisure travel. Historically, that meant adding flights and capacity to warm-weather spots closer to home (like Cancun, Mexico, and Hawaii) and experimenting with growth across the Pacific.

United has been the most aggressive carrier in expanding across the Pacific in recent years, and there's seemingly no stopping that growth during the upcoming season. Of course, we'll have to see how demand materializes come winter, especially now that airlines and analysts are sounding the alarm about what could be a looming slowdown in air travel demand.

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