United Airlines will concentrate more Boeing 787 Dreamliners at Chicago O’Hare next year.
In August, United announced the 787 was finally coming to Chicago, United’s home base. That included service to:
- Brussels (starting on March 28, 2020)
- Frankfurt (starting on March 28, 2020)
- Munich (starting on March 28, 2020)
In 2020, United will add the 787 to routes from Chicago to:
- Shanghai (starting in mid-May 2020)
- Beijing (starting in mid-June 2020)
- Sao Paulo (starting in autumn 2020)
- Tokyo Haneda (starting in autumn 2020)
The 787 will replace 777-200ERs or 767-300s currently operating all above routes. As of yet, the 787 does not show on any of the seven routes above and it is not clear which routes will receive 787-8s, 787-9s, or 787-10s.
United is the process of retrofitting its 787-8s and 787-9s to include its latest Polaris business class hard product, offering direct aisle access from every seat.
Eventually, United plans to operate longhaul service using 787s and 767s from Chicago O’Hare. United recently announced new service from Chicago to Zurich and the upgrade of its three daily London Heathrow flights to premium-heavy 767s with 46 seats in Polaris business class.
> Read More: United Dramatically Enlarges Business Class Cabin On 767-300
CONCLUSION
United will operate 48 Dreamliners by the end of 2019 and will take delivery of 15 more in 2020. For premium customers, the arrival of 787s into Chicago may seem like a downgrade until the Polaris retrofit is complete. Even so, the noticeable pressurization differences between the 787 and older Boeing aircraft will help more Chicago customers fight jetlag.
Are you happy to see United Dreamliners comes to Chicago?
“For premium customers, the arrival of 787s into Chicago may seem like a downgrade until the Polaris retrofit is complete”
Depends what route you fly, since quite a few routes don’t utilize planes with the new Polaris seats. Hell, if you are flying to Frankfurt, the 787 seat as it is could be considered an upgrade.
Agree. The 777-200s they fly out of Chicago to Asia are the old 8-across Continental planes. Ugh.
The 8 across (2-4-2) are pre-merger United planes. Continental had 6 across in a 2-2-2 configuration.
AA has already made ORD a 787 airport. United is following AA’s lead. Interesting that as AA eliminates Asia to ORD flying that UA downgrades their planes from 777 to 787. Makes me wonder if UA was and still is losing money on ORD to Asia flying. Even HND is going 787.
If UA deploy Boeing 787-10, which carries more passengers than 777-200ER, it should be considered an upgrade. 787-10 has the range to cover routes such as ORD-PEK & ORD-HND, which seats are high demand during summer.
han*e*da
No word on HKG?
Cannot find the 787 showing up on these route next year, tried to book a flight
I cannot either. I’ll reach out to United to see what is going on.
It looks like with the new SFO – DUB routes the 787 is going other places than ORD
I’ll cover this on Friday.