Today, Thursday September 7th, United Airlines announced that it will be launching non-stop flights from its hub in Houston, Texas to Sydney, Australia.
The flight will operate daily starting January 18th, 2018 onboard the airlines’ new Boeing 787-9 aircraft. United outfits these aircraft with 48 flat bed Polaris (business class) seats, 88 economy plus seats, and 116 standard economy seats. It is important to note that while United refers to its business class on all aircraft as Polaris, the actual seats on UA’s 787-9s are not the new and improved version like the ones you’ll find on the airline’s newly delivered 777-300ER’s. Instead, UA’s 787’s are equipped in a 2-2-2 layout, leaving passengers by the windows without direct aisle access.
According to United, the flight is blocked at 8,596 miles, making it the second longest route in UA’s network, behind its SFO-Singapore route and soon to commence LAX-Singapore route. Thats a long flight.
The flight will also compliment the airline’s existing services to Sydney from those same west coast hubs in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Heres the schedule:
This is great for travelers located near smaller airports in the Eastern half of the country. United serves many “second tier” airports in the Central and South-East USA region out of their hub in IAH, most of which don’t have direct flights to LAX or SFO with the airline.
For example, if someone wanted to travel from Memphis to Sydney on United before this route announcement, heres what their trip would have looked like:
Compare that to after the announcement…
And the trip looks infinitely more appealing, as you cut out an additional stop on the west coast in either SFO or LAX.
To the Point!
Great news for travelers in the eastern region of the United States. United’s mega hub in Houston will allow travelers to choose from an entirely different connection point on their way to Australia, and give smaller cities a 1 stop connection down under.
Even better for citizens of the lone star state. This will be the Texas’ second non-stop flight to Australia, after Qantas’ Sydney-Dallas (DFW). Lets not forget about Air New Zealand’s either, which operates non-stop flight from Auckland to Houston. But what do they all have in common you might ask? Well, they are long flights, and it may get a little cramped toward the end of the flight…
Some loyalists might argue “Star Alliance or Oneworld?” But hey, at least we can agree that sounds miserable.
*Featured Image Courtesy of Tourism Australia (australia.com)
Route Guide 
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