We’ve seen several recent route announcements this month including On the heel’s of Delta Announces Expanded Transatlantic Service and American Airlines Launches Several New Routes to Europe, and United Airlines Adds Washington, D.C. to Tel Aviv (TLV) Service. Now it’s time for United to expand their service to Europe for next summer, which is this latest news.
United Airlines announced they’ll be launching new nonstop year-round service between San Francisco and Amsterdam; summer seasonal service between Newark and Naples, Italy beginning May 22, 2019; and summer seasonal service between Newark and Prague on June 6, 2019.
Per United,
Beginning March 30, 2019, United will be the only U.S. carrier to offer nonstop service between San Francisco and Amsterdam and is the airline’s fifth nonstop flight to the Netherlands. United currently operates daily, year-round services between Amsterdam and Chicago, Houston, New York/Newark and Washington Dulles.
United will be the only carrier offering customers nonstop service between the U.S. and Naples, Italy, beginning May 22, 2019 through Oct. 4, 2019.
Beginning June 6, 201 through Oct. 4, 2019, United will offer daily nonstop seasonal service between New York/Newark and Prague, also known as the Golden City, the City of a Hundred Spires and the jewel in the crown of Central Europe.
United’s service from San Francisco and Amsterdam is meant to compete with Delta’s/KLM large presence in Amsterdam, so it will be interesting to see how this route does. United will be using a Boeing 787-9 aircraft on this route year-round.
Adding service from Newark to Naples, Italy (NAP) is certainly exciting, however as the first airline to offer service from the U.S. there, this route could be a gamble, so we’ll if it performs well enough, to be an annual summer destination.
Newark to Prague, will compete head to head with Delta’s New York (JFK) to Prague seasonal service. Again, United could have trouble winning market share on this route, so time will tell.
It’s exciting to see United add these new routes to their network, however I’m not overly optimistic that they’ll all be sustainable.
What are your thoughts on these new routes? Feel free to share in the comments below.
Anyone know what aircraft they’ll be using for the Naples flight?
DOH! I just went to the link and saw my answer. 767-300 Mahalo