United Airlines has long been the largest U.S. carrier across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. As of July 18th, 2023, the carrier continues to flex its muscles with even more services to the Asia-Pacific region starting in October.

Mabuhay, Manila!

From October 29th, United will become the only U.S. carrier with nonstop transpacific service to the Philippines. The carrier will launch daily flights from San Francisco on its 350-seater Boeing 777-300ER.

[SFO,MNL]

United presently serves Manila from both Guam and Koror, Palau with its 737-800 fleet. This is achieved thanks to the carrier basing some 737s at its Guam hub, from where they serve cities in Japan, the Northern Mariana Islands, the Marshall Islands, and Micronesia.

In addition to becoming the only U.S. carrier with nonstop transpacific flights to the Philippines, United will remain the only U.S. carrier with service to the country.

The only other U.S. carrier that has held regular services to the Philippines in recent history was Delta Air Lines. The carrier operated a fifth-freedom route between Seoul-Incheon and Manila with its Airbus A330-900neo that was axed in 2021.

United's daily SFO-MNL flight will compete directly with that of flag carrier Philippine Airlines. The latter, understandably enough, currently dominates the U.S.-Philippines market with nonstop service to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York JFK.

The scheduling of United's new service between San Francisco and Manila is as shown:

*All times displayed are local with respect to the departure and arrival cities

United's San Francisco-Manila service is scheduled to depart 40 minutes after that of Philippine Airlines, whose flight departs at 11:55 pm.

Los Angeles Expansion

From October 28th, United will add two services from its Los Angeles hub. The first of these will be a brand-new nonstop flight to Hong Kong. This service will operate daily on the airline's 257-seater Boeing 787-9.

[LAX,HKG]

At present, United is the only U.S. carrier serving Hong Kong. The new service from Los Angeles will add to United's current nonstop route offered from San Francisco. From both cities, United will compete directly with Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific.

The scheduling for the new Hong Kong flight will be as follows:

*All times displayed are local with respect to the departure and arrival cities

In addition to the new Hong Kong service, United will resume daily service between Los Angeles and Tokyo Narita. The carrier currently serves Tokyo Haneda from LAX so with this new service, it will connect Los Angeles to both Tokyo airports.

LAX will be the second hub, along with San Francisco, from which United will serve both Haneda and Narita Airports.

[LAX,NRT]

The resumed service to Narita will operate on United's 318-seater Boeing 787-10 and the schedule is as follows:

*All times displayed are local with respect to the departure and arrival cities

Los Angeles to Tokyo is a very busy market with seven airlines currently offering passenger service between the cities. Between LAX and Narita, United will compete with ANA, Japan Airlines, Zip Air, and Singapore Airlines. 

Increased Taipei Service

Also from October 29th, United will increase frequencies to Taipei. United currently serves Taipei with one daily flight from San Francisco, however, that will now increase to twice daily.

[SFO,TPE]

United's current service to Taipei operates on a 777-300ER. The second-daily flight, being added in October, will operate on a 276-seater Boeing 777-200ER. The schedule is as follows for this newly-added flight to Taipei.

*All times displayed are local with respect to the departure and arrival cities

Taipei is another busy market on the West Coast. From SFO, United will compete with Taiwanese carriers China Airlines and EVA Air, the latter of which is also a fellow Star Alliance member.

United - A Global Giant

With these new routes, United will serve 15 different international destinations across the Pacific this winter. As published in the airline's press announcement regarding these new flights, United's transpacific network will be 50% larger than all other U.S. airlines combined.

This Pacific expansion is just a continuation of the already rapid growth United has seen in its international network. Earlier this year, it added 40% more flights to Australia and New Zealand, including a brand-new route to Christchurch.

Not only that but this summer, United has seen itself operating its largest-ever transatlantic schedule, one that is 32% larger than that of 2019 and 10% larger than the next largest U.S. carrier.

United continues to offer more flights across the Pacific than all other U.S. carriers combined, further cementing its role as the American flag carrier and a global giant that's true to its slogan, "Connecting people, uniting the world."