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- United Airlines is adding a new route between Boston and London later this year.
- The start date is still unknown as travel between countries is limited due to the pandemic.
- JetBlue Airways, which has just expanded its partnership with American Airlines, will also serve London this year from Boston.
- Visit Insider’s Business section for more stories.
United Airlines is increasing its transatlantic presence later this year with a recently announced route between Boston and London, UK.
A single daily flight will serve the route with an overnight departure from Boston Logan International Airport at 10 p.m. arriving at London Heathrow Airport the next morning at 9.35 a.m. The return flight then departs London at 5 p.m. for a 7:30 am arrival in Boston.
“We are delighted to offer travelers a convenient, non-stop option between Boston and London with this addition to our global network,” said Patrick Quayle, vice president of international network and alliances at United.
The flight will be piloted by United’s Boeing 767-300ER, a widebody aircraft, with an ultra-premium three-class interior. Passengers will be able to choose between Polaris Business Class, Premium Plus Economy Class and the airline’s Economy Class.
The route is intended for business travelers with 46 business class seats available in a cabin that takes up most of the aircraft. All business class seats are fully reclined and feature United’s Saks Fifth Avenue bedding for maximum sleep during the crossing.
The premium-configuration Boeing 767 is the same aircraft United planned to use to revive its transcontinental flights between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and the west coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. This same-quality service, however, has already been pushed back twice until at least March.
Fly in a friendly sky?
A new Boston-London route is a strange addition for United, who rarely stray from their hub-and-spoke intercontinental route network with these type of point-to-point routes. All of the airline’s intercontinental flights from the continental United States in 2019, for example, only took off from United hubs in Newark; San Francisco; Chicago; Washington DC; Los Angeles; Houston, Texas; and Denver, shows data from Cirium.
United has made changes by offering additional flights to Florida and Latin America from non-hubs, but this is a first for the addition of an intercontinental route during the pandemic.
And while United’s old slogan might be “come fly in a friendly sky,” the skies over the North Atlantic Ocean are about to get a lot more hostile for an airline. The new route comes as competitor JetBlue Airways plans to launch its first non-stop flights to Europe, from Boston and New York.
JetBlue has been forced to delay the launch of the route due to the pandemic, but still plans to launch flights to London in 2021, just two years after the announcement. The airline’s goal is to disrupt fares on the route by introducing a low-cost, no-frills option, with a new Mint business class seat and service offering.
United’s announcement also comes just days after JetBlue and American Airlines announced an expanded partnership that sees, among other things, the world’s largest airline before the pandemic and New York’s ‘local airline’ on new routes, schedules and loyalty programs. JetBlue does not join the American transatlantic partnership with European airlines.
And while United answered the call to fly from Boston to London, did London really call?
Americans arriving in the UK are subject to a mandatory quarantine, which prevents travel between the two countries. Likewise, most Britons cannot enter the United States due to travel restrictions dating from March 2021, when former President Donald Trump closed US borders to Europe, then to Ireland and the United States. United Kingdom to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
United, for its part, lobbied for a travel bubble between the United States and London and even tested COVID-19 free flights between Newark and London using pre-departure tests. But with the restrictions not expected to be lifted anytime soon, it remains to be seen when this flight will actually be launched.
“We will continue to monitor the recovery in demand and travel restrictions as we finalize a start date for this service later in 2021,” Quayle said.
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