Lately, United Airways introduced an unimaginable worldwide growth, whereby the airline added eight new locations. What made this so cool is how far-flung a few of the new locations are, starting from Kaohsiung, to Nuuk, to Ulaanbaatar.
Just a few days in the past, United Airways put its new Greenland route on sale for money tickets, and now the airline has made mileage seats out there on this flight as properly. Let’s go over all the main points.
United will fly from Newark to Nuuk as of June 2025
As of June 14, 2025, United Airways plans to launch a seasonal, twice weekly flight between Newark (EWR) and Nuuk, Greenland (GOH). The 1,849-mile flight will function with the next schedule:
UA80 Newark to Nuuk departing 11:30AM arriving 6:45PM
UA81 Nuuk to Newark departing 9:00AM arriving 10:30AM
The eastbound flight is blocked at 4hr15min and operates on Tuesdays and Saturdays, whereas the westbound flight is blocked at 5hr30min and operates Wednesdays and Sundays.
I admire how the eastbound flight is a daytime service, since that will be an uncomfortably quick redeye. That is presumably additionally ideally suited by way of crewing the flight, because the similar crew can work the flight in each instructions, relatively than needing to have a layover of three to 4 nights. I additionally think about that United is getting deal on parking on the airport.
United intends to make use of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 for the route, that includes 166 seats. Sure, this is identical airplane you’ll discover on many home United routes. It’s configured with 16 first-class seats and 150 economic system seats. On condition that the seats within the ahead cabin are simply commonplace home first-class recliners, the airline is promoting these seats as premium economic system, relatively than as enterprise class or Polaris.
Greenland is seeing an enormous increase in air journey subsequent summer time, on condition that the airport in Greenland’s capital metropolis of Nuuk is being expanded considerably, which means the airport can lastly deal with site visitors from jets. So not solely is Air Greenland shifting a lot of its operations from Kangerlussuaq to Nuuk, however we’re additionally seeing new service from United out of Newark, and new service from SAS out of Copenhagen.
E-book United’s Greenland flight with money or factors
With the flight now on sale, what are fares like? Presently economic system fares begin at simply over $1,100 roundtrip.
In the meantime premium economic system fares begin at simply over $2,800 roundtrip.
One-way fares are greater than half the price of a roundtrip. In fact you may also join from elsewhere in america, and based mostly on the searches I’ve accomplished, most fares from different markets are similar to the nonstop.
These flights at the moment are additionally bookable with miles. In case you’re reserving by United MileagePlus, I at the moment see one-way charges beginning at 40,000 miles in economic system, or 120,000 miles in premium economic system. The economic system award area is on the saver stage, so can be bookable with companion mileage currencies.
Availability is sort of good in economic system at that fee.
The saver award area can be bookable by companion packages, so there are methods to get barely higher pricing. For instance, you’ll be able to ebook the identical flight in economic system for 35,000 factors by Air Canada Aeroplan.
Will United’s Greenland service succeed?
I’ve seen some individuals counsel that United Airways has form of misplaced the plot with its newest growth, notably with including flights to Greenland. These individuals appear to imagine the route will final for one season. I’ve a special take.
For one, this isn’t a really expensive journey for the airline. This service makes use of up a single 737 for 2 days per week. In the summertime, lengthy haul demand with vast physique jets is thru the roof, however home journey demand isn’t fairly as strong. So there’s not some huge alternative price to United in working this route, because it’s not like United is having to forgo a flight to Athens or Rome so as to have the ability to supply this.
Subsequent, this route is nearly the identical size as a Chicago to San Francisco flight. Whereas United may not have as excessive of a load issue on this service as it could on a hub-to-hub flight, I can guess the typical fare can be significantly increased.
I additionally suppose this service displays that United is in a very completely different league than American and Delta with regards to its worldwide community. Sooner or later growth isn’t in regards to the direct efficiency of a single route, however relatively in regards to the total manner it contributes to the provider’s place in a market.
United has most likely acquired extra press for its new twice weekly flight to Greenland than simply about every other US airline has acquired for an additional route. That’s for good purpose, as a result of it’s not one thing we’ve seen a US airline attempt earlier than. You’ll be able to’t overstate the facility of that, and the way it positions United as the worldwide provider of the nation.
Final however not least, I believe there’s one main neglected purpose for this service — United MileagePlus. These days the “large three” US carriers are basically within the bank card enterprise, and so they simply have a really costly fleet of plane they fly on the facet. 😉
United CEO Scott Kirby was requested in regards to the rationale for the Greenland service in the course of the current Q3 2024 earnings name, and he mentioned the next:
We spend lots of time debating how and the place we’ll develop. And this announcement has clearly caught the eye of lots of people, most significantly, our prospects, and I believe it’s a really thrilling announcement. However the backdrop for the announcement is the truth that United Airways merely has the very best international gateways within the enterprise. And people international gateways enable us to fly efficiently to a broad vary of locations.
We closely fly into our companion hubs, which is the normal mannequin in our enterprise however we’re additionally in a position to do exactly as properly financially outdoors of our companion hubs. And so we glance throughout the globe, we search for new locations, we search for scorching locations and locations, most significantly, we will earn money in.
We now have a extremely good monitor document of this, little or no of what we’ve added over the previous few years we now have canceled. And in order we glance ahead, we search for these new locations. And on the finish of the day, Greenland has bought lots of consideration however it’s only two 737s per week. So its influence on our system can be small. However its influence on United, our model and our buyer profile and sign-ups for MileagePlus can be nice. And there’s a lot extra doable on this entrance than even I believed it was doable 5 or 6 years in the past.
This can be a nice clarification, and is logical sufficient. Equally, when Southwest expanded to Hawaii a number of years again, the airline cited its Speedy Rewards program as one of many main justifications. The airline hoped that elevated engagement in Speedy Rewards from having the ability to fly to Hawaii would partially assist justify the service.
I don’t wish to counsel with certainty that the Greenland service will return for a second season. I believe there’s likelihood it can, however there’s no assure. The most important wild card right here is Greenland’s restricted lodging capability. Regardless, this appears to me like a superb, low-risk gamble, which generates lots of publicity and helps place United as essentially the most international airline in america, if nothing else.
Backside line
United Airways’ new flight to Greenland is now on sale, whether or not you wish to pay money or redeem miles. The route will function from Newark to Nuuk, twice weekly with Boeing 737 MAX 8s. This must be one of many coolest routes we’ve ever seen a US airline function, so I’m glad to see this changing into a actuality.
What do you make of United’s Nuuk service?
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