Do you think Greenland was an unexpected route for United Airlines? There are probably more where that came from.
Chicago headquarters has been in progress when it comes to amazing new destinations. This spring brought inaugural flights to people like Senegal, Mongolia, Sicily and Bilbao, Spain … not to mention The launch of last weekend of the service without stopping Nuuk.
Then this fall: New flights A Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Adelaide, Australia.
More remote destinations could be on their way in the coming years.
New plane, new routes
Next year, United will receive its first Airbus A321XLR, a new type of a single corridor that can fly through the Atlantic Ocean, First debuted past fall by the Spanish flag carrier Iberia.
The impressive range of the aircraft and a relatively low operating cost has seen other carriers Save the plane as a “game change” That could allow more cunning routes for more destinations outside the rhythm. A great reason: less risk. It is much easier for an airline to fill a smaller XLR than a large Boeing 777, and a less expensive bet if passengers do not bite.
American Airlines, for example, has said his new XLRS Eventually new secondary cities should open In Europe and South America for the carrier, that is, once he first obtains enough airplanes to first cover the premium transcontinental routes that currently handle his A321T outgoing four cabins.
Entered the XLR mixture, which of course already is Flying to a long list of bordering dark places in Europe, Africa, Asia and, in fact, in the Arctic.
There are no United clues
Any indication of where could United fly once you get the new versatile plane? I asked the man who decides.
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“I don’t want to tell you, because the other two airlines will copy us,” said Patrick Quayle, Senior Vice President of United Network Planning, last weekend while I was in Greenland, referring to the US and Delta airlines. (I had to ask!)
“If I tell you routes,” Quayle reiterated, “they will definitely add them.”
In addition, United has turned its “seasonal route” in spotted ads, sometimes leaving breadcrumbs in the previous days to call part of the mysticism that an artist builds before throwing an album.
United Airbus A321xlr
Quayle confirmed that United hopes to get his first XLRS next summer. Part of the long -standing time of the carrier for the airplanes, which dates back to when he ordered 50 of the airplanes for the first time at the end of the last decade, is to replace portions of his Boeing 757 fleet aged, which works both at the national level and in a handful of more short short -cut routes.
Beyond that?
“It will be used for growth: new destinations,” Quayle said before referring to the recent wave of new cities that turn United’s head. “More in this same type of vein. Creative.”
During a Recent Appearance in CNBCThe United CEO, Scott Kirby, said more specifically that the carrier would fly to “smaller cities in Europe and North Africa” with the plane. That is not a big surprise; The biggest question will ultimately be where in Those regions that the carrier chooses to go.
We must bear in mind that these airplanes will be equipped in a premium configuration with polaris of polaris of suitable lieve-flat to fly long distance.
Get along
Beyond any plane, United executives have promoted this strategy to launch dark and especially novel routes such as a pillar for their United mileageplus Loyalty program: even if there are few data in advance to support the flight to that location. The idea: that such novel destinations will inspire travelers to fly with the carrier, win the first level elite status, win and redeem miles and, perhaps, Add a credit card attached to your wallet To help in that process.
That approach, Quayle told me, has roots on his bearer 2019 movement To launch the service to Cape Cape.
“By adding that, we obtained this unique vision of what our mixture of passengers was and what our passengers wanted, and we began to experiment,” Quayle recalled. “We add a Dubrovnik. We add a palm [de Mallorca]. And according to their success, we add the Azores. “
Sometimes, flying to new unexpected places does not work; United tried Bergen, Norway, a couple of years ago and ended up coming out after a year. But more and more, United’s fleet (and other airlines also to be fair) allows more of these calculated risks, which, for travelers, should be translated into some new travel options without stopping quite intriguing.
It is a bet that United is comfortable, as evidenced by his thoughts around the first non -scales flight between the United States and Greenland in almost two decades.
“We experience more. But most of these experiments have worked,” Kirby said at an industry conference earlier this month, promoting the benefit that airlines have to try new things. “You build a hotel in Nuuk, you’re a little stuck. You fly a flight to Nuuk and it doesn’t work, don’t fly it next season.”
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