United Airlines will announce several new 2025 routes tomorrow and has released a pair of teaser videos that offer clues about the new routes. Here are my predictions.
My Predictions For United Airlines New 2025 Routes
United has released this video which purportedly offers clues concerning the new routes that will be officially unveiled tomorrow morning:
View this post on Instagram
Clues include:
A horse?
I cannot think of an international destination named after a horse, but maybe a place known for riding horses?
A rock?
This makes me think of the 12 Apostles or Ayers Rocks (Uluru) in Australia…but United already serves Melbourne and won’t start flying to Ayers Rock Airport (AYQ). Maybe a new Perth route?
Ocean in a glass? Another beach destination perhaps?
The birds of paradise?
More Hawaii flying? Actually, strelitzia is native to South Africa and United’s routes to Johannesburg and Cape Town have been very popular. Maybe a new route from Chicago?
This flower is a mystery to me…it looks like the tile in my bathroom and I’m not drawing any clues about the shape or color. Much of the world’s tile is made in China and India, but I don’t expect new routes to those places (at least not until the Russian airspace ban is lifted).
On the other hand, agapanthus is a very popular purple flower in South Africa.
How about the strawberries?
China is the world’s largest producer of strawberries, followed by the United States, Mexico, Egypt, and Turkey…wouldn’t it be great to see service to Cairo or to Istanbul?
Finally, this gift exchange:
The only thing I can think of is that the light blue, dark blue, and white colors are the colors of the flags of Botswana or Estonia. But I’m not expecting new 757-200 service to Talin or Dreamliner service to Gaborone…maybe UA will finally launch the Airbus A321XLR in 2025?
The board in the background lists GUM next to SFO. While that is ostensibly just a list of United hubs, could it also suggest a launch of San Francisco – Guam service?
Then there is still the rumor of Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City…
Patrick Quayle, United’s SVP of Global Network Planning and Alliances, also has a video of his own (that Instagram is not allowing me to embed below).
Two things struck me from this video.
While United has long referred to Newark as Newark/New York, I wonder if the poster above suggests a return to New York Kennedy (JFK)? United has been trying to return to JFK for years and failed. When it did offer service from San Francisco and Los Angeles to JFK during the pandemic, the limited frequencies (two flights per day) provided insufficient and the carrier suspended service once again. Even so, it promised it wanted to get back and maybe United has somehow secured enough slots to give it a meaningful presence there?
Second, 11.131.SW may just be CEO Scott Kriby’s office number, but I wonder it could be another clue?
CONCLUSION
United’s route announcement will drop tomorrow morning. We will see how close (or far off) I was when the new routes drop…
United is not going to fly to Gibraltar (the Rock) but they should.
GIB-FRA-KEF-ORD on a A319 with change of gauge at FRA.
There was also a peeled orange in one of the shots next to rock (I thought it was half a loaf of bread). Valencia? Seville?
Seeing a the comment from Derek above about Gibraltar and the fact the orange and the rock were in the same shot could indicate Seville but that seems a very small destination rather close to their already served Malaga
There is also a big rock formation similar to Gibraltar between Valencia and Alicante called Penon de Ifach
This is a tease, unlike the Hyatt-AA changes that are the real thing.
The dual accrual benefit is gone and the added benefits are basically worthless for most. It’s the game at this point sadly.
Assuming a story upcoming from you.
Its not a horse, looks like a water buffalo. Vietnam?
Ocean in a glass or the paradise bird. Rio de Janeiro?
BKK is coming too.
Ho Chi Minh City from SFO would make a lot more sense than BKK.
The horse could be a welsh pony, meaning wales. Or even possibly an Arabian horse, meaning Arabia somewhere. I hope the birds of paradise is a return of service to Hilo, Hawaii. The rock could also be Gander, Newfoundland. But guess we will have to wait and see tomorrow.
Nairobi …. name originally derives from ice water
What should be interesting is how well the clues will correlate with the destinations. Will the rock mean Iraq? Origami is Japanese so does that mean flights to a Japanese paradise?
I’m hoping they’re better than that.
HNL-SIN?
@Derek
Now you know damn well they are not doing that
SFO SGN
The hexagons are for MAN in the UK, it’s on the roof of the new T2 refit
United or any other US flag carrier can not add any additional routes to South Africa as all frequencies are currently being used and no additional frequencies are available. The US does not have an open skies agreement with South Africa therefore I think your guesses about additional flights to South Africa are not happening.
Also a hypothetical SFO-PER route would cover 7955 nautical miles, the problem with that guess is the maximum range for the 787-9 is 7570 nautical miles a cool 385 NM short of destination. If United were to launch SFO-PER they would have to block at least 110 seats on the aircraft each way to reduce the weight of the aircraft in order to increase the aircrafts range.
The horse is a reference to Denver Broncos.
If you enlarge the calendar on the desk, it says Liberia. But from where?
There was an orange shown on the desk – I would say it should be either Valencia or Sevilla.
The rock refer to Es Vedra in Ibiza.
Also, the sign that says ‘stay tuned’ could refer to the tunes of the dance music in ibiza.
Ok, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch.
Is the horse a Trojan Horse ?
Greece…Turkey ?
UA did fly to IST (old airport) for a while then UA and DL stopped service.
As the new IST Grand Airport is up and fully functioning, more INTL carriers are starting up service again.
Would love to see UA back in Istanbul.
Island Paradise? Fiji? To compete with Fiji Airways from SFO or LAX ?
SFO – GUM makes sense too
Orange is also symbol of The Netherlands. Maybe the SFO – AMS service will be increased or made year round?
Orange can also refer to Nagpur, India or Valencia, Spain.
Hmm…
New routes doesn’t mean new cities so could be new route pairings but no new cities.
Way off but oh well.