United Airlines faces caps on the number of passengers it can carry on flights to Australia, though officially only until next week. That sets up a private jet experience onboard, with so much social distancing you may not see any passengers around you. Flights to China also face caps.
United Caps Loads On Australia Flights Through July 16, 2020
Others have reported that United’s Los Angeles – Sydney flight (resuming this September) will face a cap of 50 passengers per flight, not including crewmembers. While that may be the case, that is not the official guidance. In internal communication shared with Live and Let’s Fly, United has only announced that the cap of 50 passengers will last until July 16th.
For Australia, we are restricted to carrying 50 customers westbound until Thursday, July 16. This capacity cap includes the departure from SFO to SYD on July 16. Working crew members are exempt from this count.
With COVID-19 surging in Melbourne again (in part due to scrupulous security guards at quarantine hotels), the border between Victoria and New South Wales is now closed. With traffic and commerce limited and every international arriving passenger in Australia forced to quarantine for 14 days, the limit makes sense.
It may well still be in effect in September, but that remains to be seen and is not the official word right now.
But for passengers traveling from San Francisco to Sydney this week or next, enjoy the private jet experience! The Boeing 787-9 seats 252 passengers in a two-cabin, three-section configuration:
- 48 Polaris business class
- 88 Economy Plus (extra legroom economy)
- 116 economy class
Business Class is 2-2-2 on most aircraft (some have been retrofitted to new Polaris seats), meaning 24 business class passengers could all have a set of seats to themselves. Meanwhile, with 24 total rows in economy class, nearly every passenger could have an entire row (I don’t mean section, I mean 3-3-3 row!).
It’s a safe assumption to conclude that United is running these flights for cargo purposes and any passenger revenue is icing on the cake.
United Limits Passenger Loads On China Flights
United resumes San Francisco to Shanghai service later today. Today’s flight load will be limited to 75% of capacity due to Chinese government restrictions. United is using a 777-300ER on the route, which means a total of 263 passengers will be allowed onboard.
This restriction, unlike the Australia passenger flight load restriction, is open-ended.
CONCLUSION
United must limit passengers on flights to China and Australia. Thus far, the Australia restrictions are officially much more limited than others have reported. But with pandemic uncertainties, especially in Australia, it would not surprise me to see such flight capacity restrictions extended.
The story about the Melbourne security guards has been reported uncritically and repeated over and over despite the fact that there is little or no evidence that its true, and provides the Victoria government with a rationalization as to why their lockdowns — which haven’t worked well anywhere — also aren’t working in Melbourne.
Where did the story come from? It has been picked up throughout the press, not just Daily Mail type tabloids…
The clueless mob running quarantine security couldn’t manage a chook raffle ( using the Australian vernacular). But they’re laughing all the way to the bank.
Australia has had two major scandals involving COVID: first , the Ruby Princess ( 3,000 passengers disembarked from a cruise ship in Sydney without being tested, despite known respiratory illness onboard…and then proceeded to fly all over Australia and around the world); second, this fiasco in Melbourne.
Now we have the looming lunacy of bringing international students into the country via special charter flights, bypassing normal requirements.
The Australian response to COVID looks good on one level…but much of the success is attributable to a combination of luck, plus the relative ease of closing borders.
In respect of United: if the planes are 1/5 full, but ticket prices are 500% of ‘normal’, this doesn’t look too bad for them
Could have sworn economy on the B787-9 on UA is 9 abreast, in a 3-3-3 layout, and NOT 2-3-2 (therefore 7 abreast as the B767-300ER and B767-400ER are) as described.
That was a typo. Yes, 3-3-3.