United Just Announced Its Biggest International Expansion Ever. Here Are the New Routes

14.10.2024 - 21:41 / afar.com / John F.Kennedy / Patrick Quayle

In a move that has aviation circles buzzing, United Airlines announced its biggest international expansion ever, with eight new international cities added for 2025. The new routes span multiple continents and include destinations that are especially difficult to access, such as Senegal, Greenland, Taiwan, and Mongolia.

“It’s the largest international expansion in United history,” said Patrick Quayle, United’s senior vice president of global network planning and alliances, on a conference call with media prior to the announcement.

Here’s what passengers need to know about United’s expansion plans for 2025.

In recent years, airlines have tended to announce their forthcoming expansion plans with grand reveals. (American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have already announced their schedules for 2025.) However, what’s especially notable in United’s news is how far-flung many of its new destinations are—especially compared to its main competitors’ networks, which are focused predominantly on first and second cities in Europe.

In addition, seven of the eight new routes include service to destinations vastly under-served by other North American airlines (currently, Delta flies to Dakar only from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport).

United’s new international destinations for 2025 include:

As demand for travel shows few signs of slowing, United says it’s responding to a collective desire among many travelers to experience destinations that are largely unknown on the tourism circuit.

“I think really people look to United to tell them where to fly,” Quayle said. “What we’ve found is, as we grow our customer base, that savvy traveler who has been to Paris, Rome, and Madrid so many times is looking for something different.”

Quayle also noted that United considers routes that have performed well in the carrier’s network and tries to expand on that. One example of that strategy: Cape Town, South Africa was United’s first non-stop destination on the African continent, which was added in 2019 and has since become one of the carrier’s most popular international routes.

The Sicilian capital of Palermo, another of United’s just-announced new routes, is also proving to be a much-desired destination—thanks in part to the widespread popularity among tourists following the second season of The White Lotus, which was filmed there. Delta is also scheduled to start flying to Sicily in 2025, albeit to its other airport in Catania.

All routes except Dakar and Nuuk are now available to book on United’s website. In Greenland, Nuuk’s airport hasn’t actually opened yet—it’s slated to come online in late 2024. However, when it does, United will be the only carrier to offer nonstop service from the United States to the