In 1986, United Airlines took over Pan Am’s Pacific route network. This was arguably the beginning of the end for Pan Am, but it’s also what brought United into the big leagues as a true international carrier. At the heart of this deal was the acquisition of the Tokyo/Narita hub, something that seemed just a few years ago to be gone for good. With last week’s summer 2025 route announcement, however, the Narita hub is back.
The Tokyo hub might be considered one of the spoils of war. Pan Am and Northwest received the right to fly not only from Tokyo to the US but also beyond into Asia. Not only could they fly the routes, but they could carry local traffic on them as the primary carriers in the country in the wake of World War II.
Delta, of course, bought Northwest, but it has given up on that Tokyo hub completely in favor of its Incheon partnership in South Korea. It’s United’s hub that is far more interesting.
In 1986 when United took over from Pan Am, it was flying from Tokyo to Beijing, Hong Kong, Manila, Seoul, Shanghai, and Taipei. Over the years, the aircraft and destinations changed, but the sentiment stayed the same. By 2000, all of those cities were still served except for Taipei which was replaced by Singapore.
Back in the Pan Am days, the Tokyo hub was crucial. Aircraft couldn’t make it all the way to these destinations nonstop from the US, so a stop where an airline could carry local traffic was a gift. Over time, of course, aircraft got longer legs and that stop became less necessary. But the hub stuck around in one form or another to continue to serve the dwindling needs of travelers.
Beijing went away as an every-day option in 2004, but it was 2011 when things got really dire. That’s when United entered into a joint venture with ANA. This meant United didn’t need to fly beyond Tokyo, because ANA could carry those passengers more efficiently. The revenue split made it more attractive.
Taipei service ended in 2012. Hong Kong was gone for good in 2013. Singapore made it until 2016. The final straw was in October 2017 when the last Incheon flight operated.
It certainly didn’t help that Japan decided to open up the close-in Haneda Airport for international flights once again. That hadn’t happened since the new Narita airport opened in 1978. United got its first slot in 2014 which it flew from San Francisco. Airlines jumped at the chance to move to Haneda, because, well, you know….
As more flights moved from Narita to Haneda, the potential feed at Narita shrunk. Narita was written off as a mere low-cost airline airport that would make a living serving leisure destinations.
But Haneda couldn’t ever grow enough to carry all the capacity the capital needed. United continues to fly to Narita from Denver, Houston, IAH, Los Angeles, Newark, and San Francisco. ANA does Chicago/O’Hare, Honolulu, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in the US.
This story probably would have ended here were it not for the Continental merger back in 2010. See, in 1968 Continental started up Air Micronesia to serve the needs of the US’s westernmost territory, primarily via Guam and Saipan. That operation built up into something pretty massive.
There was the 767 (later 777) that brought people from Honolulu to Guam and sometimes on the Tokyo. Then there was the famed Island Hopper that went along all the little atolls and islands between Honolulu and Guam, the equivalent of taking the local bus with multiple stops.
But the biggest part of that operation was Japan. By the middle of 2006, Continental had flights from Guam and Saipan to nine Japanese cities, not to mention all the other places around the Pacific, even including Cairns in Australia.
While Guam was further than you might have though from Honolulu, it was close to Asia. The flight from Guam to Narita was just a bit shorter than Los Angeles to St Louis. That means within the Guam network, the 737 ruled.
When the airlines came together, the then-named Continental Micronesia was folded into United, but the crew base and separate aircraft base remained. It wasn’t until after the pandemic that United realized it could be sitting on a real opportunity here.
United didn’t need to serve the big cities of Bangkok and Singapore or Seoul and Beijing. It had ANA to provide that feed. But there were a lot of secondary cities in Asia that ANA didn’t serve. If United could somehow make its 737s float between a Guam and Tokyo hub, it could improve utilization and grow the Asian network for the two airlines.
The first attempt to dip its toe into this market was Cebu. The flight from Narita to Cebu starts this month on a Guam-based 737-800. The market is unserved by ANA.
Just last week, United announced a trio of new flights. Palau, a market Delta served until 2018, will join the network as will Kaohsiung in Taiwan and Ulaanbataar in Mongolia. All of these routes are less than 2,000 miles… an easy jaunt for the 737.
But most importantly none of these markets are served by ANA, nor are they served by rival Japan Airlines. Kaohsiung and Palau aren’t served by Korean via Incheon either. United is creating connectivity that just doesn’t easily exist on other airlines, stretching its international network to reach new spots that most other US carriers wouldn’t ever even consider.
This is about United taking advantage of its strengths. It has big hubs in the biggest cities. If anyone can make some of these further-afield destinations work, it’s probably United. At the same time, it has this Guam operation which is very unique and can turn into a real Asian advantage.
5 comments on “The Unexpected Rebirth of United’s Narita Hub”
It might be also worth noting that they already serve Palau from Guam, with the Koror flights also heading to Manila.
I was excited about these new revival of NRT from UA. However, this bears the question, why is ANA not flying these routes already? Without knowing better, I would assume UA has higher cost than ANA (when flying from NRT). It is likely a fleet thing as ANA doesn’t have a massive narrow body fleet (do they need ETOPS for these routes? Do ANA has ETOPS on the narrow bodies if they are mostly for domestic flights?) Theses routes are not without competition. A quick google flight search indicates MIAT flies NRT-UBN with a JAL codeshare. MIAT seems to charge a premium on this route. Meanwhile NRT-KHH is flown by Thai AirAsia and even this ULCC charges a small premium on this route compared to the much more competitive NRT-TPE route.
Glad to see Godzilla!! I missed you
United scored a major coup when it acquired Pan Am’s Pacific operation decades ago and got a major advantage in transforming itself into a global carrier compared to AA and DL; all 3 of the current US global megacarriers were predominantly domestic up to that point while international was primarily operated by carriers that are no longer with us.
The Japanese government’s decision to open Narita and the limits of aircraft range provided ready ingredients for the development of Tokyo as the primary connecting hub to Asia.
UA’s decision to buy the 744 and later the 777 and its hub at SFO allowed it to push deeper into Asia overflying NRT. NW didn’t have a strong west coast presence and was slow to make a decision on a long range twin so was less capable of serving the rest of Asia beyond Tokyo nonstop from the US.
DL’s merger with NW came just before the Japanese government started the process to re-open Haneda to US flights; DL’s fight to try to move its NRT hub to HND ended w/ DL’s decision to abandon the beyond Tokyo flying with Delta becoming the largest foreign carrier at HND as it shifted its connecting hub to ICN in partnership with KE.
S. Korea made the decision like many countries around the world that ICN would be the sole longhaul international airport for Seoul while Japan is still in a transition period with the role of NRT set to become the low cost carrier for Tokyo. Who knows when or if HND will gain enough capacity to replace NRT for international flights but the two Tokyo airport setup is pulling significant amounts of local Tokyo traffic off of US-HND flights.
UA is also fighting decreased US-Micronesia traffic due to the weak Yen.
UA’s beyond NRT flights now are on narrowbodies which they can make work because of the GUM pilot base and, so far, with few daily, year-round flights.
Thus, UA is making the best of a less-than-ideal situation in many regards but they will not return NRT to anywhere close to the position that UA or NW/DL had with a Tokyo hub – and UA does not need to with its nonstops deeper into Asia or DL’s growing presence from the US nonstop to destinations beyond Tokyo and Seoul and its position at ICN with KE where DL will soon have the largest US carrier operation in Asia at a single airport.
There is only so much that DL and UA can do to serve E. Asia. UA is ahead of DL and has advantages in many regards but DL will have some strengths that UA is not anywhere close to duplicating.
This makes sense given UA’s existing assets in the region and is worth a try. HND’s slot constraints don’t allow significant breadth or depth of connectivity beyond TYO. Given that UA/NH still want to make use of US-NRT frequencies due to HND’s limited slots, any attempt to help fill US-NRT flights with niche (and potentially high yielding given the lack of access) traffic beyond NRT would be super helpful. Who knows if it will make money but kudos for the creativity!