United just issued a media advisory stating the following:

United Airlines CEO to Make Historic Route Announcement Tomorrow

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz will host a media conference call tomorrow to discuss an historic package of new and expanded international routes and talk about how they are a capstone to a breakthrough year for United.

The announcement is supposed to take place at 11am CT Wednesday, December 12.



What you guys think it's going to be?

I wonder if service to Africa could be in the cards, perhaps EWR-JNB.

USAirALB wrote:

I wonder if service to Africa could be in the cards, perhaps EWR-JNB.

This is what I was also thinking.

SonaSounds wrote:

United just issued a media advisory stating the following:

United Airlines CEO to Make Historic Route Announcement Tomorrow

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz will host a media conference call tomorrow to discuss an historic package of new and expanded international routes and talk about how they are a capstone to a breakthrough year for United.

The announcement is supposed to take place at 11am CT Wednesday, December 12.



What you guys think it's going to be?

Most likely from EWR or SFO. We know it won’t be from ORD as Chicago hasn’t seen a new TATL or TPAC route on UA metal in years.

EWR-Africa would be interesting.

JNB much more likely from IAH imo...

The Return of IAH-LOS or IAH-PVG?

USAirALB wrote:

I wonder if service to Africa could be in the cards, perhaps EWR-JNB.

I've heard that JNB is a "hot and high airport." Could UA's 777s or 787s make EWR-JNB with a full payload?

It's a "package of routes". I think it will include ORD.
ORD-TLV would be my first guess.

Will one of these be the new old route from LAX?

The fact that is says "routes" suggests its a much larger announcement than just one... but I do agree with the JNB notion

Wow, hope they can actually back it up as being “historic.” A few ideas:

EWR or SFO-BLR - first NA non-stop to BLR

SFO-GUM - first GUM to mainland non-stop

LAX-PER - first US to Perth route (?)

I don't think the resumption of a once-flown route qualifies as historic. My money is on EWR-JNB, IAH-JNB, or (long-shot) EWR-CPT.

Anything from IAH possible?

Could it be a package of international flights from Dulles to support the 2 additional banks Kirby discussed over the summer?

Return to JFK ?

asuflyer05 wrote:

Could it be a package of international flights from Dulles to support the 2 additional banks Kirby discussed over the summer?

With the recent announcement of the new Polaris lounge at IAD I was kinda wondering the same, same article pointed to the fact they were considering going to a 6 bank operation at IAD.

Historic? Adding a new hub? lol.

Personally, I think that there definitely has to be an IAD route because of their recently announced Polaris lounge, though the first routes that come to mind are IAD-PVG, ORD-TLV and IAH-LOS/JNB or EWR-JNB.

IAD seems logical with Polaris, I wouldn't discount more DEN adds either given the way NRT is selling and the way they've been adding out of there as of late (but obviously...no Polaris lounge)

How much slack is there in the widebody fleet next summer?

Anyone have a complete list of the new international routes UA has announced for 2019 so far? Like DEN-FRA, SFO-AMS, etc?

SonaSounds wrote:

United just issued a media advisory stating the following:

United Airlines CEO to Make Historic Route Announcement Tomorrow

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz will host a media conference call tomorrow to discuss an historic package of new and expanded international routes and talk about how they are a capstone to a breakthrough year for United.

The announcement is supposed to take place at 11am CT Wednesday, December 12.



What you guys think it's going to be?

link? reference?

Wall Street's going to love this.

EWR-South Africa is an intriguing choice, though I'd have pegged IAD or IAH as marginally more practical for that purpose. Didn't SA fly IAD in the past?

My guesses are one of EWR-JNB/CPT or SFO/EWR-BLR

Both will be excellent. And as an Indian who has family in Bangalore, and loves visiting Cape Town, I'll be well fine with either.

kiowa wrote:

SonaSounds wrote:

United just issued a media advisory stating the following:

United Airlines CEO to Make Historic Route Announcement Tomorrow

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz will host a media conference call tomorrow to discuss an historic package of new and expanded international routes and talk about how they are a capstone to a breakthrough year for United.

The announcement is supposed to take place at 11am CT Wednesday, December 12.



What you guys think it's going to be?

link? reference?

It's a media advisory as referenced in my original post.

If he is saying historic, Africa is my immediate reaction. If Africa, where though?

I'll say Nigeria or Ghana

I agree that EWR-JNB or IAD-JNB is a good bet (plus isn't SAA going to downsize at some point??). Some other off-the-wall ideas:

SFO-BKK or SGN (only directs to the US)
EWR-ACC, DKR, LOS, CAI

bluefltspecial wrote:

asuflyer05 wrote:

Could it be a package of international flights from Dulles to support the 2 additional banks Kirby discussed over the summer?

With the recent announcement of the new Polaris lounge at IAD I was kinda wondering the same, same article pointed to the fact they were considering going to a 6 bank operation at IAD.

MWAA Board of Directors meeting is scheduled for 830am Tomorrow morning to approve the 2019 budget which includes the $33.8m for the Polaris Lounge shell. I'm going to [selfishly] put 2+2 together here.

The pessimist in me thinks this will just be a showcase of what’s already out for sale. But we’ll see

IAD-MEL hopefully !

Maybe at least one of the following:
1. ORD -> BNE/SYD
2. EWR -> AKL/BNE
3. IAH -> CPT/JNB
4. SFO -> GIG/GRU
5. others?

I don’t have a clue - love to see ORD-AU to beat QF but IAH covers that off sufficiently with rumoured mixed results. So that’s purely my A.net dream!

UA surprised a lot of us with PPT didn’t they? Hoping something creative.

kngkyle wrote:

How much slack is there in the widebody fleet next summer?

There is some slack in certain fleets. It also depends on how many 767s and 777s will be out of action for Polaris mods. Using the fleet allocation diagram loaded to the UA Network thread as a reference, along with currently loaded schedule times:

763 - some slack - current planned schedule requires 29 frames (out of 38?)
764 - some slack - current planned schedule requires 13 frames (out of 16)
788 - no slack without cutting something - current planned schedule requires all 12 frames
789 - no slack without cutting something - current planned schedule requires all 25 frames
78J - no slack without cutting something - current planned schedule requires all 9 frames
772 - some slack - current planned schedule requires 9 Polaris frames (out of 12?), 19 sUA frames (out of 22?), and 19 sCO frames (out of 21?)
77W - not really any slack without cutting something - current planned schedule requires 17 frames (out of 18)

If the new route(s) involve the 787 fleet, I imagine we'll see a cut somewhere else, or a move to a different equipment type. I could see something along the lines of restarting IAH-LOS on the 789 while cutting IAH-SYD. I'm not sure that would count as "historic", though, as UA has served IAH-LOS before.

EWRandMDW wrote:

Maybe at least one of the following:
1. ORD -> BNE/SYD
2. EWR -> AKL/BNE
3. IAH -> CPT/JNB
4. SFO -> GIG/GRU
5. others?

The way Brazil is going, #4 is for sure going to be a disaster. It is more likely that they delete one of their GRU routes to fund expansion somewhere else than to add SFO-GRU.

IAH-CPH would be great although I doubt it's gonna happen

If IAD is involved, I'll go with these guesses:
IAD-LIM (752)
IAD-ACC (763)
IAD-TXL (763)

Has UA ever announced flights from one hub to three continents at the same time? That would perhaps qualify as "historic"...

FSDan wrote:

If IAD is involved, I'll go with these guesses:
IAD-LIM (752)
IAD-ACC (763)
IAD-TXL (763)

Has UA ever announced flights from one hub to three continents at the same time? That would perhaps qualify as "historic"...

And to add one more (since the original announcement mentioned "expanded" international routes too), I'll say that UA will make IAD-TLV daily instead of 3x weekly.

MCO-GRU..been rumored by employees for some time. Along with other routes from MCO. Also possible Europe routes out of Boston.

How about IAH-GEO!

Being "historic" my guess is routes to Africa. IAH-LOS/ACC, IAD-JNB, EWR-LOS/ACC/JNB. Something along those lines.

P.S. Gotta love people daydreaming about routes that guarantee a plane running out of fuel and have to ditch in the ocean. That or only able to load half of the plane with almost no cargo. Seriously, it's not that hard to just check the distance of some routes.

Uaflyguy wrote:

MCO-GRU..been rumored by employees for some time. Along with other routes from MCO. Also possible Europe routes out of Boston.

Are you talking about UA?

Given the fact that the announcement is listed as being made in central time, surely ORD and/or IAH are involved.

I’m guessing it’ll be a combination of new longhaul (some of which could be on the 757) and medium/shorthaul international routes.

It might even include a new transborder route to Canada.

FSDan wrote:

kngkyle wrote:

How much slack is there in the widebody fleet next summer?

There is some slack in certain fleets. It also depends on how many 767s and 777s will be out of action for Polaris mods. Using the fleet allocation diagram loaded to the UA Network thread as a reference, along with currently loaded schedule times:

763 - some slack - current planned schedule requires 29 frames (out of 38?)
764 - some slack - current planned schedule requires 13 frames (out of 16)
788 - no slack without cutting something - current planned schedule requires all 12 frames
789 - no slack without cutting something - current planned schedule requires all 25 frames
78J - no slack without cutting something - current planned schedule requires all 9 frames
772 - some slack - current planned schedule requires 9 Polaris frames (out of 12?), 19 sUA frames (out of 22?), and 19 sCO frames (out of 21?)
77W - not really any slack without cutting something - current planned schedule requires 17 frames (out of 18)

If the new route(s) involve the 787 fleet, I imagine we'll see a cut somewhere else, or a move to a different equipment type. I could see something along the lines of restarting IAH-LOS on the 789 while cutting IAH-SYD. I'm not sure that would count as "historic", though, as UA has served IAH-LOS before.

sCO had 22 frames. a bit more slack in that sub fleet; especially now that the 77W has taken over a few of the long heavy routes out of EWR.

Dominion301 wrote:

Given the fact that the announcement is listed as being made in central time, surely ORD and/or IAH are involved.

Actually I think it’s listed as central time because United HQ is in Chicago. If anything I think the timing indicates that there’s at least one SFO/LAX route because they’re waiting until 9am pacific time to make the announcement.

Dominion301 wrote:

Given the fact that the announcement is listed as being made in central time, surely ORD and/or IAH are involved.

I’m guessing it’ll be a combination of new longhaul (some of which could be on the 757) and medium/shorthaul international routes.

It might even include a new transborder route to Canada.

It could be, but it also could just be because UA is headquartered in Chicago.

My guess is multiple hubs are involved. Maybe each of their main hubs are getting a little love?

IAH-MAD Please!

UA buying some % of AV?
As for routes:
SFO-GUM
EWR/SFO-BLR
EWR-CPT/JNB
EWR-GEO
IAD/ORD-LIM
IAD-VVI
DEN-GRU
IAH-SCL

While I'm hoping for some new international long haul flights from ORD the fact that historic is included in this announcement make be agree with others who think this could include UA returning to Africa probably all new service to JNB and/or an additional (new) destination in India. The second thought that immediately comes to my mind is LAX-FRA while it isn't historic it would be nice to see UA back in this market with our own metal in addition to our JV partner LH.

if it is truly a "historic" announcement, it has to be something that is not currently linked or served outside of a ORD-TLV. I think the only historic routes would be a SFO-GUM connection and a JNB / ADD route.

ORD-BOM