United Airlines is broadening its international network, adding 10 new destinations to its 2027 flight offerings, marking the largest network expansion in the company’s history with nine new European cities and one in Asia. The new routes will grow the carrier’s footprint in France, Italy, and Spain and will also expand its offerings into new markets such as Slovenia and Luxembourg.
At a press event in one of the airline’s hangars in Newark, New Jersey, on Tuesday morning, United CEO Scott Kirby extolled the “creativity that our team has when it comes to looking at new destinations, trying to find new places, trying to create exciting new dots on the route map for our customers.”
United’s 10 new destinations for 2027
Indeed, the upcoming routes offer a fresh mix of destinations, including several that are a bit unexpected. Here’s the full list:
- Okinawa, Japan: The first to launch will be San Francisco (SFO) to the southwestern Japanese islands of Okinawa (OKA), which will fly three times a week starting March 27.
- Luxembourg City, Luxembourg: Starting April 2, United will begin flying daily service routes from Newark Liberty International (EWR) to Luxembourg’s capital (LUX).
- Toulouse, France: On April 26, United will start flying daily from Washington, D.C. (IAD) to France’s southern “pink city” Toulouse (TLS).
- Ljubljana, Slovenia: The first nonstop from the USA to the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana (LJU) will take flight from Newark on May 12 and fly four times a week.
- Olbia, Italy: United will fly to the Sardinian city of Olbia (OLB) from Newark (EWR) starting May 27 three times weekly.
- Catania, Italy: Beginning on May 28, the airline will fly four times weekly from Newark to Catania in Sicily (CTA).
- Ibiza, Spain: On May 31, four times weekly service will kick off between Newark and the Spanish Mediterranean island of Ibiza (IBZ).
- Valencia, Spain: June 2 will mark the beginning of three times weekly service between Newark and Valencia (VLC) in eastern Spain.
- Marseille, France: Starting on June 4, United will begin daily service from Newark to France’s second-largest city: Marseille (MRS).
- Terceira, Portugal: United will begin flying three times weekly from Newark to Terceira in Portugal’s Azores islands (TER) on June 9.
West Coast travelers will soon have a direct route to the idyllic island destination of Okinawa, Japan.
Photo by Romeo A/Unsplash
United will be the only airline to fly nonstop from the U.S. to Okinawa, Toulouse, Luxembourg, Marseille, Ibiza, Valencia, and Ljubljana. Tickets are now on sale for all of the new routes, both on united.com and via the United app.
The aircraft making this new era of global flights possible
All together, this marks a major growth spurt for the Chicago-based carrier, which has gone from serving 20 European destinations in 2017 to 53 across the Pacific in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India next year.
A major factor behind the sudden increase in routes is the introduction of the long-haul narrow-body Airbus A321XLR aircraft, which can go the distance efficiently with 150 passengers—including 20 Polaris business-class suites and 12 Premium Plus seats, United’s version of premium economy—and will be used on the Luxembourg, Toulouse, Ibiza, Valencia, and Marseille routes.
“There are destinations we know our customers want to visit, but where the demand may not have supported a conventional wide-body,” Matt Stevens, United’s vice president of international network, tells Afar. “The XLR changes that equation. It allows us to match the right aircraft to the market while still delivering the elevated international experience our customers expect—that opens up an entirely new category of destinations for United and takes our network to a new level.”
Stevens says it’s thanks to new planes, combined with the rise in desire for travelers to “explore new and unique places” and the carrier’s ability to meet that volume because of “the international network we’ve built over the last decade,” that United can scale up at this rate.
Escape the crowds in Paris and roam the streets of Toulouse in southern France instead, courtesy of United’s forthcoming new nonstop flight.
Photo by Dat Vo/Unsplash
With a strong concentration in Europe, the new offerings do more than provide nonstop service to those destinations—they also open up entire regions. As an example, Stevens points out the ability to fly straight into Marseilles and using it as a jumping off point to explore the entire south of France before flying back from its existing flights out of Nice. In fact, the number of cities in each country is deliberate to create that flexibility, with four in France, six in Portugal, six in Japan, eight in Spain, and eight in Italy.
“When you have that kind of breadth, customers don’t have to build their trip around the usual round-trip itinerary—they can build the trip around the places they actually want to experience,” Stevens explains, adding that they’ll continue using that strategy as they create future routes.
But in addition to the convenience of building a trip around a series of one-way flights, it’s also about finding the right kind of places that will spark that travel magic. “Okinawa really stands out to me,” Stevens says. “It’s unlike anywhere else we fly. You have these beautiful subtropical islands and beaches combined with the culture, history, and cuisine people love about Japan. . . . It’s exactly the kind of destination that will inspire people to start planning a trip.”
Besides the 10 new destinations, United will also add more international service at airports where it already operates. This includes new daily service from Los Angeles (LAX) to Osaka, Japan (KIX), starting March 27 (and joining existing service from San Francisco to Osaka), three times weekly nonstops from Washington, D.C. to Milan (MXP) starting May 28, and Denver (DEN) to Paris starting May 27.
The carrier’s San Francisco to Tel Aviv (TLV) flight will also restart on March 28, three times weekly. And several seasonal routes that were introduced this summer will return next summer, including from Newark to Split, Croatia (CRU); Bari, Italy (BRI); Glasgow, Scotland (GLA); and Santiago de Compostela, Spain (SCQ).
