United Continental Plans San Francisco-Singapore Nonstop Routes
January 28 2016 - 8:30PM
Dow Jones News
By Susan Carey
CHICAGO-- United Continental Holdings Inc. said it plans to
introduce daily nonstop flights between its San Francisco hub and
Singapore starting June 1, making United the first airline to offer
nonstop flights between the two cities and the only carrier to link
Singapore and the U.S. without a stopover.
United said it would operate the flights with Boeing Co. 787-9
Dreamliners outfitted with 252 seats. The fuel-efficient,
long-distance Dreamliner will fly for 15 and a half hours eastbound
and 16 hours and 20 minutes westbound, United said. The route, at
8,446 miles, will be the longest scheduled flight operated by any
U.S. carrier, according to the nation's No. 3 airline by
traffic.
The new service, subject to government approvals, will shave up
to four hours off the one-way journey, which all airlines ply with
a stopover en route. Singapore Airlines now serves the route via
Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei and London, according to its website.
Other Asian airlines also make stops en route, and a few carriers
go the other direction, linking the U.S. West Coast with Singapore
via stops in the Middle East.
United itself currently serves Singapore from San Francisco with
connections in either Tokyo's Narita Airport or Hong Kong. The
Chicago-based company said it would end its flights between
Singapore and Narita in June, giving customers the option of flying
on its Pacific partner All Nippon Airways instead. But it will
maintain its Singapore-Hong Kong flights.
San Francisco has long been a hub for United. But in recent
years it has built up its trans-Pacific network from that airport,
and the introduction of Dreamliners to its fleet has enabled United
to add flights to new, faraway destinations such as Chengdu, China,
This summer, the carrier plans to launch flights from San Francisco
to Auckland, New Zealand, Xian, China, and Tel Aviv. At the end of
2015, United had 25 Dreamliners in its fleet.
Those planes currently are staffed by flight attendants from
merger partner Continental Airlines. The San Francisco base was
once home to United Airlines attendants who often flew on trips to
Asia. But because the flight attendants haven't reached a new,
joint labor contract in the five years since the airline merged,
they fly only on the planes that were operated or on order by each
partner before the merger.
This has led to an influx of former Continental attendants to
the San Francisco base, causing some tensions between the two
groups as former United cabin crew members feel they are losing out
on some of the most-sought flying opportunities. United has said it
is working hard to get a contract with the combined group of
24,000. The former United also has orders for Dreamliners.
Write to Susan Carey at susan.carey@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 28, 2016 20:15 ET (01:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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