If you’ve been excited about flying a United Airlines Boeing 737 to Mongolia, you’re in luck. The airline has just officially started selling flights to Ulaanbaatar.
The Chicago-based carrier just unveiled details of this creative new route, as seen for the first time on Cirium’s schedules.
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United’s new 1,900-mile route from Narita International Airport (NRT) to Chinggis Khaan International Airport (UBN) will begin May 1 with three-times-weekly service in each direction. (Westbound service will operate on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, while eastbound flight will operate on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.)
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Flights from Tokyo will depart at 4:30 p.m. and land in Ulaanbaatar at 8:55 p.m. The return service will depart at 9:55 a.m. and land in Toyko at 3:45 p.m.
United plans seasonal service in this new market with flights scheduled to end October 12, 2025.
These flights are timed to connect with United’s primary Transpacific departure and Narita arrival banks. United operates long-haul flights from Narita to Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Newark and San Francisco.
United will deploy a Guam-based Boeing 737-800 on this route, with 16 business class recliners, 48 economy plus pickup seats and 102 standard economy seats.
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Seeing a Boeing 737 in Mongolia might be disconcerting to some, but it is being operated as part of the historic Fifth Freedom Rights that United has in Tokyo for flights originating in the United States and continuing to other countries.
In recent years, United hasn’t really taken advantage of these rights, instead focusing on growing its hub in Guam. That said, Guam hasn’t been as busy or lucrative as it has in the past, so United appears to be experimenting with new uses for IT Jets stations in Micronesia.
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In fact, United has been busy in recent months turning its NRT presence into a de facto gateway hub within the larger region. The airline recently started new flights From Tokyo to Cebu in the Philippinesand is now adding three short-haul regional routes from the airport (Kaohsiung, Taiwan; Koror, Palau; and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia).
United says its joint partnership with Japanese airline All Nippon Airways will help these routes take off. (For example, ANA does not currently fly from Narita to Ulaanbaatar.) The new flights will also be supported by travelers looking for unique connections from the United States.
“We’re thinking about Tokyo differently than it’s been thought about in the past. I think Tokyo is a real asset for us… and when we went through the data, a lot of this traffic was connecting to Beijing, but it’s not doing that.” further.
If you’re looking to book the new route, one-way fares start at $326 in economy and $753 in business class. Introductory mileage rates are quite steep, with one-way economy flights starting at 30,000 miles and business class flights starting at a whopping 75,000 miles.
Saver awards were not available on the new routes at the time of publication.
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