UA Starts DXB and DME

[AASuper80Fan]

Press Release

Source: United Airlines

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080506/aqtu538.html?.v=4

United Airlines Announces Plans to Launch Nonstop Service to Dubai and Moscow
Tuesday May 6, 4:00 pm ET

United's global network taps into two of the world's strongest economic markets

United strengthens the international footprint of its Washington Dulles hub


CHICAGO, May 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- United plans to tap into two thriving economies with new daily passenger and cargo service to Dubai and Moscow from its Washington Dulles hub. Pending government approvals, United plans to begin its Dubai and Moscow service October 26.

Dubai, a key Middle East trade port, real estate haven and major world hub for IT and financial services, will become the second, fast-emerging Middle Eastern city United serves. In October 2006, United launched three weekly flights between Washington Dulles and Kuwait, and in December 2007 we increased this service to daily.

Service to Moscow, Russia's prime financial, scientific and cultural center, will mark United's fifth new capital-to-capital service in the last two years, bringing the total to 12.

"Commerce and tourism are growing exponentially in both Dubai and Moscow, and many of our cargo and corporate customers are traveling and shipping there more often to capitalize upon the economic health in these regions," said John Tague, executive vice president and chief revenue officer. "With these new routes, we are continuing to show discipline with our capacity deployment by targeting profitable growth opportunities."

With United's first-ever flights to Dubai and Moscow, United's Washington Dulles hub now will serve 24 international destinations, including five that began operating in the past two years: Beijing, Kuwait, Rio de Janeiro (seasonal service restarts in September), Rome and Tokyo. Washington Dulles also offers customers traveling from Dubai and Moscow onward connecting service to 88 destinations in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.

"This further connects Virginia and the D.C. metro region to the global economy and that's good news for all of us," said Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.



The proposed schedule between Washington Dulles and Dubai is: Schedule Depart Arrive United 976 10:02 p.m. 6:50 p.m.* Boeing 777 (the following day) Washington Dulles (IAD) - Dubai (DXB) United 977 11:30 p.m.* 6:44 a.m. Boeing 777 (the following day) Dubai (DXB) - Washington Dulles (IAD) All routes and frequencies are subject to change.

*Scheduled departure times are for October 26-November 1. U.S. Daylight Saving Time ends on November 2, and flight times will adjust accordingly.



The proposed schedule between Washington Dulles and Moscow is: Schedule Depart Arrive United 964 4:45 p.m. 9:30 a.m.* Boeing 767 (the following day) Washington Dulles (IAD) - Moscow (DME) United 965 11:20 a.m.* 3:35 p.m. Boeing 767 Moscow (DME) - Washington Dulles (IAD) All routes and frequencies are subject to change.

*Scheduled departure times are for October 26-November 1. U.S. Daylight Saving Time ends on November 2, and flight times will adjust accordingly.

United plans to operate combined passenger and cargo service between the U.S. and Dubai using a Boeing 777 aircraft and between the U.S. and Moscow using a Boeing 767 aircraft.

Today, the Boeing 777 aircraft is configured with 10 United First Suite® seats, 45 United Business® seats and 198 United Economy® class seats, including 84 Economy Plus® seats. The Boeing 767 aircraft is configured with 10 United First® seats, 32 United Business® seats and 141 United Economy® class seats, including 67 Economy Plus® seats. Both of these aircraft will undergo United's multi-million-dollar product enhancement that brings to United First and United Business true flat-bed seats, on-demand entertainment and other spruced-up amenities that create the optimal space to work, sleep or relax while traveling to Dubai for approximately 13 hours and Moscow for approximately 10 hours. United remains the only U.S. airline to offer customers a choice of four different seating sections -- United First, United Business, Economy Plus and Economy.

The new route is expected to serve as an important cargo entryway for the Middle East region's high demand for petrochemical, construction and consumer goods and for Russia's growing demand for industrial and consumer commodities. Mail also is expected to represent a significant amount of cargo volume on these flights.

About United

United Airlines (Nasdaq: UAUA - News) operates more than 3,200* flights a day on United, United Express and Ted to more than 200 U.S. domestic and international destinations from its hubs in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. With key global air rights in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and Latin America, United is one of the largest international carriers based in the United States. United also is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides connections for our customers to 965 destinations in 162 countries worldwide. United's 55,000 employees reside in every U.S. state and in many countries around the world. News releases and other information about United can be found at the company's Web site at united.com.

*Based on the flight schedule between Jan. 1, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2008.

---

Source: United Airlines

[AA 1818]

I wish them the best with the new routes, but have to wonder why EK and Aeroflot have not already done the routes. This is good news for those who have miles with StarAlliance.

[Eric Diffoot]

Congrats to United, it's about time. Interesting to see United will become the first US airline to fly to Dubai and now join AA and Delta in flying to Moscow. Even so AA and Delta have been flying to Moscow before United, United gains the important route to Dubai, they'll get serious money from flying to Dubai. AA should do the same and fly out of Miami to Dubai with 777. Yeah BA flies to Dubai, but AA should take some serious thinking into this. Good to hear finally some good news coming from United.

[AASuper80Fan]

Actually UA is #2 to Dubai, DL does from ATL-DXB 6x Weekly.

[AA 1818]

Congrats to United, it's about time. Interesting to see United will become the first US airline to fly to Dubai and now join AA and Delta in flying to Moscow. Even so AA and Delta have been flying to Moscow before United, United gains the important route to Dubai, they'll get serious money from flying to Dubai. AA should do the same and fly out of Miami to Dubai with 777. Yeah BA flies to Dubai, but AA should take some serious thinking into this. Good to hear finally some good news coming from United.

As for AA, I would love to see that happen. As a matter of fact, a few months ago one of the execs at EK said that MIA would be an interesting route for them, and more than likely the next step for them in their U.S. expansion (but we have since seen a Houston and a West coast city launched, so...).

[DAL767-400ER]

I'm wondering where the 763 will come from given how short UA is of additional longhaul planes. 777s are probably those originally planned for the now delayed SFO-CAN route.

AA should do the same and fly out of Miami to Dubai with 777.

No chance of that happening. AA is way too conservative as far expanding their longhaul network goes, otherwise they could have long gone into DXB from Chicago, or, which has been rumored for years, MIA-South Africa, and that route would print money like crazy.

[TAP-A343]

but have to wonder why EK and Aeroflot have not already done the routes.

Both EK and SU are flying to New York so I guess IAD is not so interesting for them.

[tsv]

I wish them the best with the new routes, but have to wonder why EK and Aeroflot have not already done the routes. This is good news for those who have miles with StarAlliance.

Agree, at least with respect to DME. SU already fly the route but only once a week. Is this because of lack of demand or equipment?

It appears SU has been slow acquiring new equipment to take advantage of the strong Russian economy. For example Delta, American, Singapore and now United have all announced or started new routes between America and Russia this year. Even Vladavia plans to start flying PKC-ANC with TU-204 from July 7th. But SU has been conspicuous by it's silence. Could this indicate a chronic Equipment shortage?

SU had 6 IL-96's on order but found a way to wriggle out of the contract. The IL-96's may not be the most efficient birds in the sky but they're not the worst either. If they had taken the extra 6 they would have been delivered by now and could have been used on SE Asia routes (where most of the 6 they do have are used). This which would have released some 767's for North America.

The other glaring mistake SU made was not to firm up their original order for the 787. For some reason they procrastinated so long they lost the initial slots allocated to them. They eventually re-ordered but for memory the new slots were 2 or 3 years later. Add this to the delays in the 787 program and it makes about a 5 year delay compared to their original schedule.

Anyway it will be interesting to see how UA does on this route. Starting off with a daily service seems a bit ambitious IMO and personally I don't rate their management team, too many losses, too few profits for my liking. But they do well on some of their routes and maybe this will be one of them.

DXB will also be interesting. We all know Emirates are highly profitable but how do other carriers do with flights to Dubai? Does the presence of Emirates help (because EK has turned DXB into a major hub), or hinder (because EK are such formidable competitors)?

[Uncle Jay]

An Old Guy

Understand, Im an old guy.

This is culture shock.

I mean, United-Fing-Airlines flying to a bunch of sand dunes and camels ?

Vladavia - what is that, national airline of Vlad, The Impaler ? With iron maiden seats ?

Only thing that rings a bell is Aeroflot screwing up. That remains constant.

Wadda world

[rohank4284]

It's good to see UA starting to serve more international destinations in the Middle East and Europe. Thankfully, you're not stuck flying Emirates to Dubai. I still wish that they would serve more Asian destinations like they did before 9/11, especially in South Asia, but maybe that'll coime later.

Rohan

[n777co]

Nice to hear that UA is able to add some roughts instead of taking some away. Maybe this is a sign that UA will start to work on adding many more international roughts with the possiblility of adding some new airplanes... (thats a long shot). But again good to hear that UA is actually making a smart move.

[AA 1818]

I still wish that they would serve more Asian destinations like they did before 9/11, especially in South Asia, but maybe that'll coime later.

Rohan

Two things are running against that idea - time and lack of equipment. Simply put, they have waited too long. With most Indian carriers considering flights to the U.S. (such as the expansion of AI, 9W and before long - Kingfisher will be flying to the U.S.), coupled with airlines such as AA, DL and CO eating into the market, and then the host of European carriers and now with the already established Gulf Carriers (EK and QR always come to mind strongly), then there is little ability of UA to offer anything that would be special enough to warrant passengers choosing them (save FF points). Even that point (of FF points) is diminshed when you consider that so many other Star partners can do the route with just one stop, and with AI soon joining Star there is no need to step onto AI's toes. Even if they desperately wanted to start service to India they could not have any competition-free routes to BOM. AI serves both ORD and will start SFO soon. Their only hope would be flights to other cities within India (Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi and the like) from SFO and/or ORD, and then maybe a DEL-IAD route (a prestigeous capital-capital route). BUT THE KICKER - the need the aircraft to do it.

As for Pakistan, the could stand to make a killing there. Apart from the Gulf carriers and PIA, there is little to no competition. Pakistanis travelling home have to connect somewhere. Offer some non-stop services and you can stand to make quite a preety penny.

Sri Lanka - maybe a seasonal, or 4X weekly flight from like ORD would work.

So in short - they need more planes and to find niche markets to make it sustainable!

[DAL767-400ER]

Sri Lanka - maybe a seasonal, or 4X weekly flight from like ORD would work.

No chance, such a route would be almost 8000nm long, impossible with the 772s, and neither 789s nor 77Ls finance themselves that easily .