TravelingForMiles.com may receive commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on TravelingForMiles.com are from advertisers and may impact how and where card products appear on the site. TravelingForMiles.com does not include all card companies or all available card offers.
Some links to products and travel providers on this website will earn Traveling For Miles a commission that helps contribute to the running of the site. Traveling For Miles has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Traveling For Miles and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. For more details please see the disclosures found at the bottom of every page.
Yesterday, United Airlines used social media to run a teaser trying to get customers (and potential customers) to guess what new routes the airline was set to announce today. If you didn’t see that teaser or if you failed to guess the new routes, this latest announcement will tell you all you need to know – United Airlines will be flying five new international routes to Africa and India, as well as offering two new routes to Hawaii.
United Airlines New International Routes
New Services To Africa
From Spring 2021, United Airlines will offer non-stop services to three new destinations in Africa. Flights from Washington D.C. will serve Accra (Ghana) and Lagos (Nigeria) and the airline will add a new service between New York/Newark and Johannesburg to compliment is existing service to Cape Town.
- Washington D.C. – Accra will be operated 3x/week by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
- Washington D.C. – Lagos will be operated 3x/week by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
- New York/Newark – Johannesburg will be operated daily by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
The new route to South Africa will see United operating more flights to South Africa than any of the other US carriers (not a high bar to clear) and it will be the only US airline offering roundtrip, non-stop service from the United States to Johannesburg.
New Services To India
From December 2020, United Airlines will start to offer a non-stop service between Chicago and New Delhi and from Spring 2021 the airline will offer a non-stop service between San Francisco and Bangalore.
- Chicago – New Delhi will be operated daily by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
- San Francisco – Bangalore will be operated daily by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
If I’m not mistaken, this is United’s first route to Bangalore, and considering American Airlines has already declared its intention to launch a service between Seattle and Bangalore, this new route is clearly meant as a shot across American’s bows and an indication that American shouldn’t expect to have a monopoly on services between the US and India’s technology hub.
United’s New Routes To Hawaii
United has just announced that it plans to “make it easier than ever to travel nonstop to Maui and Kona for the 2021 summer season” by adding new services to these two popular destinations from Newark and Chicago.
- Chicago – Kona will be operated 4x/week by a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner
- New York/Newark – Maui will be operated 4x/week by a Boeing 767-300ER
United hasn’t given any accurate start dates for these new flights and its interesting to note that while a number the other routes are said to be starting in spring (which, confusingly, is when an airline’s summer season is normally said to start), these Hawaiian routes are said to be starting in “summer 2021” which would seem to suggest that we shouldn’t expect them to be operating much before June next year.
Bottom Line
United Airlines has just announced that it will be launching 5 new international routes and 2 new domestic routes between December 2020 and Summer 2021. The 5 new international routes are focused on offering new services between the US and Africa and India while the new domestic routes will see the airline offering more connectivity to Hawaii from the East Coast and the Mid-West.
What do you think of United’s new routes?
Is Washington Dulles to Honolulu going to continue?
That is one beloved nonstop in the DC area !
Currently in the schedules for next year operating on Saturdays only…but things can quickly change.
I was hoping for some new service to Europe or SE Asia.
Those would have been of more interest to me too…but United has a lot less competition to worry about on routes like these.
I am looking forward to resumption of usable SE Asia/China service. By usable I mean no barriers like quanrentines longer thasn my average trip ove there.
I would have liked to see Kenya service. I loved my trip there and hope to return.
Me too…but we may be waiting a while…
[…] they can get from the leisure market (it’s no surprise that United announced new routes to Hawaii yesterday and that Southwest plans new routes to Palm Springs […]
[…] little under three weeks ago, United announced a number of new international routes to Africa and India as well as two new domestic routes that the airline said would “make it easier than ever to […]
[…] schedule in November, tomorrow (3 October) will see United opening up reservations on 3 of the new non-stop flights it announced at the beginning of September. The schedules will be as […]