It was just a couple days ago when I talked about how Delta was strengthening its southern European operation next summer, including the addition of only one new city (Catania). American was similarly conservative in bulking up between hubs and strengthening Philly. Then there’s United. Its plan — which was just released this morning — is wildly different.
There are two main themes here. The first is taking advantage of the power of the Newark hub by going into places that nobody would have ever considered until recently. The second is showing what’s old is new again with the return of the Narita hub. Let’s take these in that order.
Newark Gets Unique Destinations
United July 2025 Atlantic network (excluding India) via Cirium
In addition to boosting frequencies in the Newark – Athens, Dubrovnik, and Palma de Mallorca markets, Newark is getting five new summer seasonal routes to some pretty hard-to-get places.
- Bilbao (Spain) 3x weekly from May 31 on a 757-200
- Faro (Portugal) 4x weekly from May 16 on a 757-200
- Madeira (Portugal) 3x weekly from June 7 on a 737-8 MAX
- Nuuk (Greenland) 2x weekly from June 14 on a 737-8 MAX
- Palermo (Italy) 3x weekly from May 21 on a 767-400ER
What’s so interesting about this list — beyond the sheer number of new destinations — is just how hard it can be to get to these places.
Bilbao has regular service from all the usual European hubs, but the connectivity isn’t as good as you’d hope for Americans. For example, the flight to Dublin is in the evening, so it requires an overnight to get back to the US. Oddly, even TAP’s flights to Lisbon are all in the afternoon. And it’s something of a backtrack to go through most other European hubs. Frankfurt and Munich, for example, are more than 1,000 miles out of the way. Madrid is really the best option, but that’s going to work for American and its partner Iberia, not United.
Faro seems on the surface that it would have better connectivity since it has Heathrow flights on BA, but those are also in the afternoon. This is about serving European traffic, so if Americans want to go, there are just few well-timed options.
Madeira is even more difficult. Even the shortest routing via Lisbon on TAP is more than 25 percent further than going nonstop. And most people aren’t going to connect on TAP anyway. On a side note, lucky United pilots get to see their flying skills put to the test. The winds are tricky there, and if you just search YouTube you’ll find plenty of examples of, shall, we say, challenging landings.
Palermo, ok, that’s not as difficult but it’s been on United’s list for awhile. In fact, it was announced for summer 2020, but COVID ruined that plan. Today only Neos flies to the US with an infrequent JFK flight. But Neos is a leisure carrier that doesn’t have a true premium cabin, just a premium economy option. With Delta going into Catania, the island of Sicily will now be well-covered.
Lastly, there’s Nuuk. That is nearly impossible to visit from the US. The best way to get there now is on Icelandair via Keflavik which nearly doubles the amount of miles you have to cover. You could try to find your way to Iqaluit in Northern Canada and then hop over, but that’s not a serious option. Nuuk has recently extended its runway and a new terminal opens in late November, so next summer is the first time this has even been technically possible. Since it’s on a 737 only 2x a week, there isn’t much risk for United. But that brings us to a broader point.
While American and Delta strengthen connectivity to their partner hubs and try to connect more dots that way, United is all about trying to expand the map. It wants to be called the US’s flag carrier, and it is certainly making a strong case for that. Newark makes this possible thanks to the local and connecting traffic base there. But in some markets, the nonstop opportunity just isn’t big enough, and that’s where Tokyo comes back in.
The Re-Hubbling of Tokyo
United July 2025 Pacific network (excluding India) via Cirium
Narita Airport in Tokyo was all but given up for dead. When more slots became available at close-in Haneda, Delta pulled out of Narita entirely, shutting the hub it inherited from Northwest. United had a bigger footprint and couldn’t pull everything from Narita, but the assumption was it would eventually go away. That hasn’t happened.
United continues to serve Narita with flights from Denver, Houston/IAH, Los Angeles, Newark, and San Francisco. It also connects with United’s Guam-based operation with flights there and to Saipan.
This year, we got a glimpse into what United was thinking could be possible. It began operations to Cebu in the Philippines as a winter market, connecting a city to Narita that wasn’t flown by joint venture partner ANA. I’ll have more to say about this in a future post, but suffice it to say, United still likes this plan.
It is now going to launch three routes from Narita using 737-800s:
- Kaohsiung (Taiwan) 1x daily year-round from July 11
- Palau year-round
- Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) 3x weekly seasonal from May 1
None of these routes are served today by ANA, so this creates connectivity both from the US and within Asia. Palau is an obvious option. Delta flew that until 2018 when it shut the Narita hub, but now United can take over.
But Ulaanbaatar is the one that I find most fascinating. This is a market that has increasingly become a bucket list trip, and most often that has meant going via Beijing. There are a couple options through Seoul, but with Beijing service falling off and general geopolitical concerns there, a new option becomes much more interesting. I would think that United will be able to take a big piece of this market. It’s not enormous, but it could very well be enough to fill an occasional 737.
It’s really United’s Guam base that make this all so interesting. With that base it inherited from Continental, it has a jumping off point for using 737s throughout Asia on shorter hauls. It’s a structural advantage others don’t have, and it’s one United appears to be trying to exploit.
The Other Odds and Ends
Those were the two big highlight trends, but there is more happening.
- Washington/Dulles will get new 3x weekly year-round service to Dakar plus seasonal flights to Nice and Venice.
- Houston/IAH will see flights to Puerto Escondido in Mexico.
- San Francisco will have flights to San José in Costa Rica.
On top of all this, United says none of the airline’s international routes are being cut for next summer. It is shifting Tenerife from a summer to a winter seasonal market, but that’s it.
Considering this new batch of routes, I’d be shocked if they all work. But that’s the point. Try a bunch, and if you get a decent number that do work, you’ve won. If they all work, you probably didn’t dig deep enough.
Now here’s the scariest thought. None of these routes rely on the longer range A321XLR. That airplane is supposed to be delivered to United in January 2026, so if we think the summer 2025 plan is wild, I imagine 2026 is going to be something else.
