United Airlines to Increase Flights to Hong Kong, Monitors Possibility of Haneda

United Airlines will increase service from San Francisco International Airport to Hong Kong International Airport in China by August. At the end of October, it should become a twice-daily service.

Currently the largest carrier across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, United continues to increase its flights, hoping to return to pre-pandemic levels as soon as it can. The latest increase appears to be in flights to Hong Kong (HKG) from its hub in San Francisco. The carrier had returned daily service to Hong Kong and will increase to two weekly flights in August. After October 25, it will fly to Hong Kong twice per day.

The route is being flown by a Boeing 777-300ER. This model is able to hold 350 passengers and is currently the largest in United's fleet. The aircraft has the most Polaris Business Class seats with 60, 24 United Premium Plus seats, and 266 Economy seats. 

In November and December, the first two full months with daily double service, United's seat offering will be able to surpass 21,000 on this route in one-way tickets alone.

Potential Competition

United faces competition from only one airline: Cathay Pacific. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Cathay has been flying the route on and off, and even stopped flights in March 2020, although they were later resumed in June. In 2021, a similar case was seen when Cathay stopped flights in February and resumed them again in June. Last year, Cathay Pacific only flew the route once in January and didn't fly it again until April.

Cathay's service didn't find a regular routine until August 2022. Before then, the airline would fly the route once in one month, and seven the next. Since January, Cathay has flown the route daily and will increase its services to three times daily at the end of October. 

The route will be flown with both the Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A350-900, with a capacity of 368 passengers and 280 passengers respectively.

Japan's Flights

While it is true that United will be increasing flights to Hong Kong, China, the airline also appears to be expanding towards Japan as well. 

As of May 9th, United filed an objection to Delta Air Lines' request for slot waiver flexibility at the Tokyo Haneda Airport. About one week ago, Delta asked the Department of Transportation (DOT) to extend the slot waivers to Haneda, citing low demand.

United, however, claims that there is high demand for the destination, and Haneda has been one of the locations with the strongest demand since returning after the COVID pandemic.

In November, Delta's fares on its route from Portland to Haneda surpassed $10,000, and United claims that the rise in ticket prices is to sabotage ticket sales. This in turn lowers the number of flights along the route and will create the "low demand" that Delta is citing. 

Should the DOT take Delta's slots away, United is prepared to add one or two flights to Haneda to its network.