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For most of this year, only a limited number of flights have been permitted between the United States and China with United Airlines and Delta being the only US carriers offering services to Shanghai. Up recently, both airlines have been serving Shanghai via Seoul but with Delta planning non-stop service to Shanghai during the upcoming winter season, United Airlines has now announced that it too will be resuming non-stop service to Shanghai from later this month.
United Airlines Shanghai Service
From 21 October 2020, United Airlines will offer a 4x/week service between San Francisco and Shanghai on the following schedule:
UA857 SFO 11:50 – 16:30+1 day PVG (Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun)
UA858 PVG 13:30 – 09:30 SFO (Mon, Tue, Fri & Sun)
United will operate its San Francisco – Shanghai service using its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft and although the non-stop flight hasn’t yet been published to the schedules, it’s almost certainly safe to assume that this will be the same aircraft as the one that currently routing through Seoul. This means that United will be offering true Polaris Business Class and its Premium Economy cabin on this route.
Patrick Quayle, United’s vice president of International Network and Alliances is quotes as saying:
“United continues playing a critical role in keeping people and global supply chains connected to Shanghai and to cities around the world. We look forward to resuming nonstop service and offering our customers greater convenience and shorter flight times between San Francisco and Shanghai.”
It’s worth noting that while this is certainly a very welcome development, in November 2020 United plans to offer less than 40% of the routes it offered in November last year. For travelers to/from Shanghai this is good news, but this isn’t news that should be viewed as a sign that things are gradually returning to normality. Normality is nowhere in sight.
