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A round-up of various pieces of recent United Airlines news including details of an increased service between San Francisco and Shanghai, an end to one of the airline’s 5th freedom routes and rumors that United will have to cut back at one or more of its hubs to improve unit revenue.
United Adds Flights To San Francisco – Shanghai Route
United Airlines has announced that, from 14 October 2016, it will be adding a second daily flight to its San Francisco – Shanghai route. Initially the route will be operated by one of United’s new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners but it looks as if this will be scaled down to a 787-8 from summer 2017.
The new flight it still, technically, pending government approval but that’s just a formality at this point and the schedule looks as follows:
UA857 SFO 13:35 – 18:45+1 day PVG
UA891 SFO 14:50 – 20:15+1 day PVG **new service**
UA890 PVG 00:05 – 19:10-1 day SFO **new service**
UA858 PVG 13:45 – 08:40 SFO
Route Notes:
- UA857/858 will be operated by a United Airlines 747-400 until 30 October at which point it will be replaced by a 787-9 Dreamliner until 28 February 2017 when the 747 returns
- Both services are operated daily except between 28 February & 23 May 2017 when UA857/858 stops flying on Saturdays
- UA891/890 is downsized to a 787-8 from 24 May 2017.
United Airlines Dreamliners & 747
When the Dreamliner replaces the older 747 passengers will be getting a much newer aircraft but will, in exchange, be losing the first class cabin.
The United Airlines 747 is fitted with 12 Global First seats and 52 Business Class seats while the 787-9 Dreamliner that replaces it has just 48 Business Class seats as its premium offering.
United Airlines Business First
When the 787-9 is replaced by the 787-8 Dreamliner the number of Business Class seats will decrease (again) down to just 36.
United Shutters Hong Kong – Ho Chi Minh City Route
[HT: Routes Online]
I can’t say that I pay as much attention to United as I should (I’m working on it) so it wasn’t much surprise to me that I had absolutely no idea that United operated a 5th freedom flight between Hong Kong and Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Unfortunately the fact that this flight exists was only brought to my attention by the fact that United is closing it down later this year.
As things stand, United Airlines operates the Hong Kong Ho Chi Minh route using a 737-800 aircraft on the following schedule:
UA179 HKG 21:55 – 23:40 SGN (Tue, Thur, Sun)
UA180 SGN 05:35 – 09:10 HKG (Daily)
Image courtesy of United Airlines
However, from 29 October 2016 United will not be serving this route any more – last flight from Hong Kong will depart on 28 October and the last flight back from Ho Chin Minh City will be on 29 October.
If you’re booked to fly on this route after those dates hopefully you’re already been contacted by United….if not I’d give them a call pretty soon!
Related thought: What will United do with the 737-800 from this route and, if it wanted to return the aircraft back to the US how would it do it? 737-800 has a max range of a little over 3,000nm which isn’t even close to getting it back over the Pacific.
Rumors That United May Have To Scale Back At One Or More Hubs
I’m not going to pretend that I understand the finer details of the airline industry and its metrics (I’ll leave that to the experts) but I do know that United hasn’t been excelling itself in Wall Street’s eyes for quite some time. Back in June, United CEO Oscar Munoz even used an investor call to, basically, apologise to Wall St for the airline’s failings…and things don’t really seem to be getting much better.
This article from the Motley Fool (which I suggest you read if you’re interested in this kind of thing) suggests that, although United has been good at maintaining its commitment to capacity discipline, its domestic capacity cuts have seen the airline lose market share (basically what United admitted to in the investor call).
United will be hoping that its new Polaris Business Class is a hit
The issue is that, if the airline increases its domestic growth to combat the loss of market share, it will only add to the excess capacity in the market place and may well start a price-war with its competitors (great news for flyers). If on the other hand the airline doesn’t respond, then it will continue to see market share erode or, at best, stay stagnant.
The Motley Fool is suggesting that United may be better off by following Delta’s lead (Delta closed it’s hub in Memphis and slashed flights at Cincinnati) and surrendering at hubs where the airline is taking a beating anyway….like in Los Angeles.
United already has an incredibly powerful hub further up the West Coast in San Francisco so the argument being made is that it doesn’t need to waste energy, resources and money fighting a losing battle a few hundred miles south when it can funnel its traffic through San Fransisco (like Delta does with traffic through its hub in Atlanta and Detroit for example).
United has an investor conference coming up in 4Q and the Motley Fool suggests that this is when we may hear United actually broach this very topic……and that would make very interesting listening.
Like I said, I’m at the edge of my comfort zone here so I suggest you read the Motley Fool article if you want the full story.
