United Airlines has announced a list of eight international routes it will add to its route map next summer, including its first U.S. air service to Greenland and Mongolia.
“What we’re trying to do is add experiences, in-the-moment lifestyle experiences, and take people to unique destinations around the world,” said Patrick Quayle, senior vice president of global network planning for the carrier.
The eight new destinations are Nuuk, Greenland; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Kaohsiung, Taiwan; the Portuguese islands of Faro and Madeira; Bilbao, Spain; Palermo, Sicily; and Dakar, Senegal.
Of these destinations, only Dakar, which is operated by Delta Air Lines, is currently served by a U.S. airline. Palermo, which Italy-based leisure airline Neos offers twice-weekly summer service to New York, is the only destination with U.S. service.
United will fly from Newark to five new destinations: Nuuk, Palermo, Bilbao, Faro and Madeira. Dakar flights depart from Washington Dulles. The airline will fly from Tokyo to Ulaanbaatar and Kaohsiung, and is increasingly using its Guam base for connecting services to Asia.
Most routes operate seasonally, with daily Tokyo-Kaohsiung and thrice-weekly Dulles-Dakar operating year-round. United had previously planned a Newark-Farro flight starting last summer, but postponed the launch while the FAA increased oversight of the airline’s safety procedures.
Each route will be launched between May 1 and July 11.
For Greenland, United’s new route to the capital Nuuk may be particularly attractive. This is the result of Greenland’s decision to extend the Nuuk Airport runway and build a larger Nuuk terminal, scheduled to open on November 28.
United will fly to Nuuk on a Boeing 737 Max 8. The old Nuuk runway was too short to accommodate a plane of that size.
United will also operate Max aircraft on two routes to Tokyo. Quayle said the airline saw an opportunity to capture tourism demand in Mongolia. Ulaanbaatar used much more connectivity services than Beijing, he said.
But the sharp decline in flights between the U.S. and China since the pandemic has created an opportunity in Tokyo.
Quayle added that Tokyo-Kaohsiung is currently geared primarily toward business travelers who tend to fly to Taipei and then travel by train to the southern Taiwanese city, which is three hours away.
United’s four new European destinations are all leisure-focused. Particularly remote is Madeira, located in the northwest of the African continent, about 250 miles north of Spain’s Canary Islands.
Quayle noted that these new and somewhat unusual destinations will build on moves made by United starting in 2019, when it became the first US airline to serve Cape Town. Since then, United has expanded into several international leisure destinations that are not mainstays for U.S. travelers, including Ponta Delgado in the Portuguese Azores. Dubrovnik, Croatia; Spanish island of Mallorca; Tenerife, Spain.
United also plans to begin flights to Marrakech, Morocco and Cebu, Philippines later this month.
Quayle said adding exotic destinations sets United apart from its competitors, which helps it acquire co-branded credit cards, among other things.
“What we’ve found is that as we add more unique content to the network, our customer base grows,” he said.
