One of the routes has not had any flights before. Find out more here!
United Airlines has added two new transcontinental routes from San Francisco International Airport (SFO). It'll operate from its Pacific hub to both Norfolk and Richmond, both of which are in Virginia.
Last month, the carrier disclosed two transcon routes from SFO to Charleston, South Carolina, and Hartford, Connecticut. While Charleston, Norfolk, and Richmond have not previously had United flights from SFO, Hartford has, most recently in 2018.
While United will serve both long domestic routes next year, only two weekly flights will exist on both of them, all on the 166-seat Boeing 737 MAX 8. This configuration has 16 domestic first seats, along with 54 seats in economy plus and 96 seats in main cabin. The schedule, more or less the same for both routes, will allow connectivity to/from various Asia-Pacific destinations. Manila, Seoul, and Tokyo will be especially important.
UA2364: 8:15 AM-4:41 PM (5 hours and 26 minutes)
UA1297: 5:45 PM-8:57 PM (6 hours and 12 minutes)
UA1853: 8:15 AM-4:50 PM (5 hours and 35 minutes)
UA1807: 5:45 PM-9:08 PM (6 hours and 23 minutes)
The Star Alliance member will be the sole operator between SFO and ORF. Cirium Diio shows that it is a brand-new market, with no nonstop services with any airline in the past. It is, therefore, historical in nature. With 43,400 round-trip local passengers, ORF was SFO's tenth-largest unserved domestic market.
SFO to RIC is very different. United will coexist with Breeze Airways, which commenced the long route in May 2022. Running twice-weekly on the Airbus A220-200, it will be the first time the airport pair has had two carriers operating nonstop. Fortunately, both airlines will operate on different days of the week. While United will focus on the local market and some connectivity via SFO, virtually all of Breeze's traffic is point-to-point. With 70,000 local passengers, it was SFO's fifth-largest domestic market that did not have United flights.
While the list of upcoming routes in 2027 will almost certainly increase, the latest information, as of November 2, shows that the following routes will launch. They'll all take off at the end of March, as northern carriers, including United, will switch to summer schedules based on IATA slot seasons on Sunday, March 28, 2027.
The additions join four markets that materialized in 2026 or will do so in the remainder of the year. The first to launch was SFO to Carlsbad, California, on March 29, with two daily services on SkyWest E175s. Flights to Portland International Jetport Airport (PWM), Maine, followed on June 27, with a weekly 737 MAX 8 operation. Both airport pairs are brand-new, which is always great to see. PWM is the longest nonstop domestic service from SFO.
On November 17, United will lift off from SFO to West Palm Beach, with up to a daily MAX 8 service. Then there's SFO to Sapporo, Japan, with three weekly flights on the 787-9. Neither destination has previously been served from SFO. In fact, it'll be the first time that Sapporo has had nonstop flights from the Lower 48. Meanwhile, SFO is West Palm Beach's new longest domestic route.
United is widely expected to return to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in 2027, having flown there for years until 2015 and again between 2021 and 2022. Clearly, one route will be from SFO, along with Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), presumably all on the so-called A321neo 'Coastliner,' which has 161 seats. It has 50 orders for the equipment.
The airline is seemingly seeking up to 20 slot pairs at JFK, with some probably from JetBlue. While United will not have connectivity via JFK, it'd focus on the enormous local traffic and connectivity via SFO/LAX, especially, of course, to/from Asia-Pacific.
In the current month, United has up to 23 daily flights from SFO/LAX to its Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) hub, from which it is usually quicker to access Manhattan than it is from JFK. It is obviously massively dominant at EWR, which helps with achieving higher yields. The appeal of JFK is to capture a greater share of the considerable market between SFO/LAX and Greater NYC.