United Airlines Plans More 737 Flights From Tokyo Narita

United Airlines plans to base more 737 aircraft at its former Tokyo Narita hub, intending to fly to cities not currently served nonstop from the USA.

United Airlines Plans More 737 Flights From Tokyo Narita

Brian Sumers interviewed Andrew Nocella and Patrick Quayle and published a (subscriber-only) story on his The Airline Observer substack. Quayle is the Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances at United Airlines. Nocella is United’s Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. Quayle and Nocella are a powerful duo and have been bold in trying so many new longhaul routes and then making adjustments as necessary based on route performance.

In the interview, Nocella mentions that the Guam operation has been struggling but that rather than simply move some of the Boeing 737s based in Guam back to the Continental USA, it will move them east instead…to Tokyo Narita.

Long before Quayle took over, United maintained a hub from Tokyo Narita, reminiscent of the pre-787 Dreamliner days in which direct routes between the USA and many Asian cities were much less feasible. Indeed, United and Northwest Airlines (and later Delta Air Lines). From Narita, it operated to destinations throughout East Asia.

That is not coming back. Don’t expect service from Tokyo to Bangkok, Shanghai, Singapore, or Taipei because its JV partner ANA already handles that nicely. Rather, the new service to Cebu (CEB) in the Philippines will be a test case for future 737 travel to secondary markets. United will target markets that do not have nonstop service from the USA, with Nocella explaining, “We have a list of all these high-profile places that don’t have nonstop service to the U.S. that could be of interest. We’re going to try and see if we can make some magic.”

This will not include widebody aircraft, with Nocella adding:

“I don’t think we will be looking at flying widebody jets beyond Tokyo anytime soon. But we have these 737s and a slot portfolio at Narita, and all the feed from the United States on widebody jets, and it created a unique opportunity. This seemed like something we would like to try, and the advanced bookings indicate that it’s going to be very successful.”

Quayle added:

“Our job is solving problems and being creative, and not complaining. We have these assets that are out in the western Pacific, so let’s use it to try something different.”

I love that attitude. The interview also reveals that United uses “gut instinct” to evaluate new market opportunities (for example, for its Cape Town service, which has been wildly successful despite a clear business case for such service before it began).

What About A More Robust Guam Operation?

Since Quayle and Nocella are willing to experiment, I wonder if United would ever try a nonstop from San Francisco (SFO) to Guam, then try out other routes from Guam (some historic), like:

• Bali (DPS)
• Bangkok (BKK)
• Cairns (CNS)
• Hi Chi Minh City (SGN)
• Jakarta (CGK)
• Kuala Lumpur (KUL)

These routes would be more difficult from Narita due to intense competition, mostly by widebody jets.

Part of me thinks United would have already tried this if it saw any commercial case for doing so, but I would also think the cargo + military personnel needs for transport between Guam and the US Mainland could at least justify a 3x weekly service.

CONCLUSION

With Cebu service set to begin later this year and more routes under consideration, United is planning to expand 737 operations from Tokyo Narita. It is not at all clear if this kind of service will be successful, but kudos to United for thinking outside the box and looking at ways to expand the route map. I’m excited to see what comes next.

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