United plans flights to Greenland, Mongolia and Bilbao

United Airlines is preparing an international expansion by 2025 that will stretch from Senegal to Mongolia and from Greenland to Palau, aiming to woo travelers who have already had their fill of the busy streets of Paris, Rome and Tokyo.

Starting May 21, United will operate three flights per week between its hub in Newark, New Jersey, and Palermo, Sicily; on May 16, it will launch nonstop flights four days a week to Faro, in Portugal’s Algarve region; on June 7, it plans a three-day-a-week service to the Portuguese island of Madeira; and on May 31, it will launch non-stop flights to Bilbao, in northern Spain, destinations that will strengthen existing services to Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Its inaugural flight between Newark and Nuuk, Greenland, will begin June 14, United announced Thursday.

“Savvy travelers have been to Paris, Rome and Madrid so many times that they are looking for something different,” Patrick Quayle, senior vice president of global network planning and alliances at United, told reporters.

The route experimentation makes United a standout among U.S. and global airlines that have largely made do with bread-and-butter additions. The expansion is part of United’s strategy of “skating where the puck goes,” Quayle said, as the company wants to ensure it can appeal to all travelers, offering destinations from U.S. cities like Corpus Christi, Texas to Cape Town. , South Africa.

United plans to launch daily nonstop service to Dakar, Senegal from Washington Dulles International Airport on May 23. Service from Tokyo’s Narita Airport to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, is scheduled to begin on May 1. United has beefed up its service from Tokyo and will offer nonstop flights year-round to Koror, Palau, from there.

Not all destinations work. United had discontinued a nonstop flight to Bergen, Norway, in 2023 due to a lack of demand, but Quayle said the airline had room to continue expanding to far-flung destinations and that A diverse network could help generate entries for lucrative rewards. credit cards.

“The more unique the content, the more we differentiate ourselves from our competitors and the more people will spend with United,” Quayle said.

United had originally planned to start service to Faro, Portugal, this year, but was forced to delay it due to a Federal Aviation Administration safety review, which the agency completed earlier this month without identifying “significant security issues”.

United also plans to expand its flights from the West Coast, but did not release any details Thursday.