United Airlines will increase its flights from San Francisco International Airport to Hong Kong International Airport in August, reaching twice-daily service by the end of the year.
Increasing service to Hong Kong
Now the largest carrier across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, United continues to increase its flights, hoping to return to pre-pandemic levels as soon as possible. The latest increase is in flights to Hong Kong (HKG) from its hub in San Francisco. The carrier returned to Hong Kong on March 3 with daily service and will increase to twelve weekly flights in August. Then, beginning on October 25, United will fly to HKG twice daily.
The route is being flown by the Boeing 777-300ER with a capacity for 350 passengers. This aircraft is the largest in United’s fleet and has the most Polaris business class seats, 60. United Premium Plus has 24 seats, and economy has 266 seats. In November and December, the first full months with double daily service, United’s seat offering on the SFO-HKG route will surpass 21,000 (one-way).
“United returned to the Hong Kong market just two months ago after a pause of nearly three years, and we are excited to announce that we will be adding more flights between Hong Kong and San Francisco this August.” – Walter Dias, Regional Director of Greater China, Korea, and Southeast Asia Sales, United Airlines
Facing competition
United only faces competition from one carrier on the San Francisco – Hong Kong route, oneworld carrier Cathay Pacific. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cathay Pacific has been flying the route off and on. In 2020, the carrier stopped flights in March and resumed them in June. The following year, flights stopped in February and resumed again in June. Last year, Cathay Pacific flew the route once in January and did not fly again until April.
Cathay’s service on the route did not find a regular rhythm until August 2022. Before then, it would operate the route once one month and then seven the next. Since January, Cathay has flown the route daily and will increase its services to three daily at the end of October. Both the Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A350-900 are deployed to San Francisco, with a capacity for 368 and 280 passengers, respectively.
Flights to Haneda
Yesterday United filed an objection to Delta Air Lines’ request for slot waiver flexibility at Tokyo Haneda Airport. Last week, Delta asked the Department of Transportation to extend the slot waivers at Haneda, citing low demand. United claims there is plenty of demand for flights to Haneda and that it has been one of the destinations with the strongest demand since returning after the COVID pandemic.
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In November, Delta’s fares on its route from Portland to Haneda surpassed $10,000, and United claims the carrier is raising its prices to sabotage ticket sales. United believes the hope is that no one will book the flights, creating “low demand.”
If the DOT takes Delta’s slots away, United is ready to add one or two more Haneda routes to its network.
