As United faces mounting competition from Frontier and soon Norwegian in Denver, it is embracing the fight rather than abandoning it. Today the carrier announced new seasonal service to London starting next spring.
United has tried service between Denver and London Heathrow in the past, but it failed. The last year it operated was 2011. But that was before the 787, which seems perfectly suited for a route like DEN-LHR.
The new flight will operate between March 24, 2018 and October 26, 2018 on the following schedule:
|
Flight |
Depart |
Time |
Arrive |
Time |
|
UA 27 |
DEN |
5:35 p.m. |
LHR |
9:40 a.m. +1 day |
|
UA 26 |
LHR |
11:40 a.m. |
DEN |
2:30 p.m. |
The new flight will utilize a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 219 seats:
- 36 in United Polaris business class (not the new Polaris seats)
- 70 in Economy Plus
- 113 seats in United Economy
With United returning to London, the carrier will be Denver’s only to offer both transatlantic (London) and transpacific (Tokyo) destinations.
This is All About Norwegian Airlines
Norwegian Airlines will start year-around twice-weekly service to London Gatwick on September 16, 2017. British Airways has served Denver for years in a four-cabin configuration (first, business, premium economy, economy). Is there room for United?
United wants to squeeze out Norwegian. By offering attractive fares, United can not only compete for local traffic but use the resources of its hub to funnel in traffic from across the west.
Here’s how I know United is deliberately thinking of Norwegian. Its press release characterizes service in the following way–
United Economy offers complimentary food, soft drinks, juices, beer and wine, tea, coffee and inflight entertainment. Additionally, the seats feature an adjustable headrest and a personal on-demand entertainment system.
Norwegian also offers on-demand entertainment and adjustable headrests, but charges for food and drink. I’m surprised United did not mention wi-fi. Norwegian still does not offer wi-fi on its longhaul fleet. United does.
What Denver Gains, Newark Loses
United is slot-controlled in London Heathrow and to accommodate the new flight, Newark will drop from six daily flights to five starting next spring.
CONCLUSION
I think United’s new service to London is a gutsy move and I’m so happy to see United running toward competition rather than away from it. I hope the new London flight does well. In the meantime, the new flight is already loaded and upgrade space is looking great right now. It might be time to lock in a trip now.
image: UNITED AIRLINES
How are the flights pricing compared to Norwegian?
“I’m surprised United did not mention wi-fi. Norwegian still does not offer wi-fi on its longhaul fleet. United does.”
If this is a competitive response to DY, I’d imagine it’s because WiFi likely isn’t all that important to the ultra-budget leisure flyers that largely comprise Norwegian’s potential customer base. When I fly for leisure, I’m just not that interested in shelling out $20 for WiFi to watch cat videos on Instagram. Food and drink certainly do make a difference, though – it’s certainly possible UA’s prices equal out, or at least get close, when you factor in DY’s fees.
that’s because United knows its Wi-Fi sucks!
I think this route can work for United even with the competition. As long as they aren’t too much more expensive than DY then I think they can steal some of their customers and possibly even some of BA’s customers. It seems like DEN is getting a lot of new intercontinental service lately with LH to MUC, Edelweiss to ZRH and DY to CDG and LGW so UA really needs to catch up, with only one intercontinental flight to NRT. Despite that I doubt UA will add any other intercontinental flights from DEN though, given that FRA and MUC are already covered by LH and there doesn’t seem to be any other major intercontinental markets to connect DEN to.
To go after Norwegian, United should also have highlighted the free checked bag. DY charges $45 each way for that and the weight limit is only 20kg.
On every one of Norwegian’s Dreamliner TATLs once you add in the checked bag and meal service (another $45, making an additional $180 round trip) DY’s fares are consistently $50-70 more expensive than the mainline carriers (or I haven’t come across a single example). They also launched LGW-SIN and with checked bag and meal they’re more expensive than Singapore Airlines.
So good to see United help out Norwegian pour more Krone down the drain. And (PDX-)DEN-LHR is a good option for me too.
Of course that should have read …. DY’s fares are consistently $50-70 more expensive than the mainline carriers (or I haven’t come across a single example otherwise).
That hasn’t been my experience. However, everyone needs to crunch the #s for themselves.
Maybe UA is going to sell basic economy fares on the route to match DY?
This is a great addition. Somebody like me in Arkansas sees little difference in connecting at EWR or DEN, so I don’t think dropping that EWR frequency will really be that big of a deal.
I also live in Arkansas and United’s service to London from Denver doesn’t make much sense as a connecting city since you are going significantly west to ultimately go east, adding a lot of travel time. United doesn’t serve Newark nonstop from Arkansas so that also isn’t a good option. In fact the only logical single-stop connection on United from Arkansas to London is via Houston. Both Delta (Atlanta) and American (Chicago) have more convenient same-general-direction single-stop connections to London.
Same united, same 2-Star service