A United Airlines Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft is seen taking off from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport.
Nicolas Economou | Nurphoto | Getty Images
United Airlines is planning to launch flights to Marrakesh, Morocco, and Medellin, Colombia, and ramp up its service to Asia, within the carrier’s latest bet that customers will proceed to shell out for trips abroad.
The flights from United’s Newark, Recent Jersey, hub to Marrakesh are scheduled to start Oct. 24 using a Boeing 767-300ER. The carrier’s Houston-to-Medellin flight is slated to begin Oct. 27, on Boeing 737s, it said Thursday. The airline can also be starting year-round service to Cebu, Philippines, from Tokyo’s Narita Airport.
“Our play here with these three cities is premium leisure,” Patrick Quayle, United’s senior vice chairman of network planning and alliances, told CNBC. “We see strong business [class] demand, and there is a powerful correlation with people buying in biz class and Premium Select with the length of haul.”
U.S. airlines have increased their international service coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic, and revenue growth from trips abroad has outpaced domestic sales. United’s international revenue grew 18% within the last 4 months of 2023, while sales from domestic tickets grew lower than 7%.
United also said it is going to offer 4 weekly flights between Shanghai and Los Angeles starting Aug. 29.
It is also adding a second day by day flight between Los Angeles and Hong Kong, and starting Oct. 25, could have second day by day flights between San Francisco and Seoul, South Korea, and between Newark and Porto, Portugal.
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