United Airlines is adding another transpacific flight from its Los Angeles hub, with new service to Beijing, the Chinese capital, starting next spring.
United Airlines New Beijing Flight From Los Angeles
While most of the world has recovered from the global pandemic, China has not and air service between the United States and Mainland China remains depressed compared to pre-pandemic levels. Recovery was initially restricted by draconian flight controls instituted by the Chinese governments (including a penality-driven suspicion system if passengers arrived with COVID-19) but service has been slow to return even as such restrictions have been lifted. There still remains a flight cap between the USA and China (applied to both Chinese and US carriers), and US carriers remain under that cap.
From its LAX hub, United Airlines has resumed service to Shanghai (PVG) and also launched service to Hong Kong (HKG), a special administrative region of China. After requesting permission to launch another China route last month, United has announced it will launch service between Los Angeles and Beijing (PEK) starting on May 1, 2025. The flight will operate three times per week according to the following schedule:
- UA771 – Los Angeles (LAX) – Beijing (PEK) dep 11:10 pm arr 4:45 am+2
- UA772 – Beijing (PEK) – Los Angeles (LAX) dep 12:00 pm arr 9:35 am
The flight will operate Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays traveling east and Thursdays, Saturdays, and Mondays traveling west and utilize a Boeing 787-9 with:
- 48 seats in Polaris business class
- 21 seats in PremiumPlus premium economy
- 188 seats in economy class, including 39 Economy Plus seats with extra legroom
United also serves Beijing from its San Francisco (SFO) hub.
Air China, a Star Alliance partner, already operates two flights per day between Los Angeles and Beijing. Unlike United, Air China flights have access to Russian airspace, which makes them faster and more efficient than United (though one of Air China’s two daily flights seems to avoid Russian airspace).
Neither Delta Air Lines nor American Airlines serve China from Los Angeles, though Delta plans to re-launch its LAX to PVG service next May.
CONCLUSION
United will launch 3x-weekly service between Los Angeles and Beijing starting on May 1, 2025. The new flight is now bookable and represents an optimistic move considering its reported low load factors on its San Francisco – Beijing flight. The route will be United’s second to China from LAX, augmenting service to Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Will China allow contaminated US airlines now that bird flu is spreading all over the country?
Kind of pointless, but UA has excess wide body capacity at times and needs to put them somewhere. Traffic to/from China is soft at best.
Flight time is horrific
Pretty ideal for sleeping when flying to PEK, right?
Doesn’t China have a huge cargo market?
I mean it makes sense in a way because UA has hubs with a lot of Chinese population and Air China is apart of the Star alliance