United Airways seemingly is not involved about transatlantic demand for subsequent summer time.
The service introduced on Wednesday that it was including one more new long-haul path to Europe — San Francisco to Barcelona — for the upcoming summer time season, a service spokesperson informed TPG.
United will launch this service on Might 23, 2024, and the route will function every day all through the summer time season onboard a Boeing 777-200ER, outfitted with 50 Polaris business-class lie-flats, 24 Premium Plus recliners, 46 Economic system Plus seats and 156 commonplace economic system seats.
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The 5,970-mile flight will function by means of Oct. 25, 2024, United informed TPG. Be aware that this new flight is already out there for buy on the service’s web site.
The addition of flights from San Francisco brings the full variety of nonstop locations that United provides to and from Barcelona to 4, complementing present providers to town from Chicago, Newark and Washington. It is the primary time United has flown this route from San Francisco.
In complete, United plans to function 30% extra flights to Spain throughout 2024 as in comparison with 2023. This consists of service to 5 locations in Spain, three of which — Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Tenerife — are unique to United. (No different U.S. airline flies to those three locations.)
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The opposite two cities, Madrid and Barcelona, see way more competitors, together with on the San Francisco-to-Barcelona route, which is already operated by Spanish flag service Iberia.
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Iberia plans to relaunch its service out there in March 2024, Cirium schedules present, so United will face some competitors on this new route.
That stated, United operates a hub in San Francisco, so it ought to be capable to enchantment to locals primarily based within the Bay Space, in addition to those that are on the lookout for one-stop choices passing by means of the San Francisco Worldwide Airport (SFO).
It will be attention-grabbing to see how United’s new flight fares, particularly since American Airways additionally introduced a brand new service from its mega-hub in Dallas/Fort Value to Barcelona for the upcoming summer time season. Whereas the 2 carriers will not go head-to-head in the identical market, they are going to compete for connecting visitors between the West Coast and Barcelona.
With all this extra capability, we might even see some enticing pricing within the coming months.
United’s new Barcelona flight piggybacks off of the airline’s splashy long-haul route announcement it made in October, when it introduced an all-new vacation spot — Faro, Portugal — and three new and resuming routes: Newark to Reykjavik, Newark to Brussels and Washington to Rome.
All of this development comes as some analysts are sounding the alarm about transatlantic demand for subsequent summer time. Final week, airline analyst Helane Becker of TD Cowan wrote in a analysis word that airways are including an excessive amount of capability for subsequent yr after seeing document demand and powerful pricing energy in summer time 2023.
United CEO Scott Kirby wasn’t phased by the report, although. “I feel that they are overstating the problem for subsequent summer time, and largely, there’s larger capability development within the winter,” he informed TPG.
“We really feel actually good, nonetheless, about transatlantic demand,” Kirby added.
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