- United Airlines is adding a new route between Boston and London later this year.
- The start date is still unknown, as travel between countries is restricted due to the pandemic.
- JetBlue Airways, which has just expanded a partnership with American Airlines, will also fly from Boston to London this year.
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United Airlines is increasing its transatlantic presence later this year with a newly announced route between Boston and London, UK.
Only one daily flight will serve the route, departing at night from Boston Logan International Airport at 10 pm and arriving at London Heathrow Airport the next morning at 9:35 am. The return flight leaves London at 5 pm for a 7:30 am flight arriving in Boston.
“We are excited to offer travelers a convenient, nonstop option between Boston and London with this addition to our global network,” said Patrick Quayle, vice president of international network and alliances at United.
Operating the flight will be United’s Boeing 767-300ER, a wide-body aircraft with an ultra-premium three-class interior. Passengers will be able to choose between the airline’s Polaris business class, the Premium Plus premium economy class and the economy class.
The route is aimed at business travelers, with 46 business class seats available in a cabin that occupies most of the plane. All seats in business class are completely flat and offer United bedding from Saks Fifth Avenue so you can get the most sleep while crossing.
The Boeing 767 with premium configuration is the same aircraft that United planned to use for relaunching transcontinental flights between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and the West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. This similar premium service, however, was postponed twice until at least March.
Flying through friendly skies?
A new Boston-London route is a strange addition for United, which rarely deviates from its hub-and-spoke intercontinental route network with these types of point-to-point routes. All the airline’s intercontinental flights originating in the U.S. on the continent in 2019, for example, departed only from United hubs in Newark; San Francisco; Chicago; Washington DC; Los Angeles; Houston, Texas; and Denver, shows Cirium data.
United has made changes, offering additional flights to Florida and Latin America from non-hubs, but this is the first time for an intercontinental route addition during the pandemic.
And while United’s old slogan might be “come fly through the friendly skies”, the skies above the North Atlantic Ocean are about to become much more hostile to an airline. The new route arrives at a time when competitor JetBlue Airways plans to launch its first direct flights to Europe, leaving Boston and New York.
JetBlue was forced to delay the launch of the route due to the pandemic, but still plans to launch flights to London in 2021, just two years after the announcement was made. The airline’s objective is to disrupt the fares on the route, introducing a low cost and high luxury option, complete with a new seat in Mint’s business class and service offer.
United’s announcement also came just days after JetBlue and American Airlines announced an expanded partnership that sees the world’s largest pre-pandemic airline and New York’s “hometown airline” partner on new routes, schedules and frequent flyer programs, among others. JetBlue is not entering American’s transatlantic partnership with European airlines.
And while United took the call to fly from Boston to London, was London really calling?
Americans arriving in the UK are subject to mandatory quarantine, making travel between the two countries difficult. Most Britons, likewise, cannot enter the United States due to travel restrictions dating back to March 2021, when former President Donald Trump closed the American borders with Europe and subsequently with Ireland and the United Kingdom to contain the spread of coronavirus.
United, meanwhile, has been pushing for a travel bubble between the U.S. and London and has even tested free COVID-19 flights between Newark and London through pre-departure tests. But with restrictions that should not be lifted anytime soon, it remains to be seen when this flight will actually be launched.
“We will continue to monitor demand recovery and travel restrictions as we finalize a start date for this service in late 2021,” said Quayle.