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Editorial Disclosure
United Airlines just announced its biggest international expansion ever, and almost all the coverage has focused on the exciting new routes.
Rightfully so. There are 10 brand-new destinations, eight of which aren’t served by another U.S. airline.
But while this is undoubtedly one of United’s biggest announcements ever, it’s not entirely good news. Especially for anyone waiting on the Boeing 757 to hit the boneyard.
Here’s everything United didn’t announce today, including one big piece of bad news.
The A321neo Coastliner is delayed
United plans to debut a new premium transcontinental aircraft, the Coastliner A321neo, on the nation’s most competitive domestic routes.
The 161-seat Coastliner will feature a three-cabin layout: 20 new Polaris pods with sliding doors, 12 Premium Plus recliners, 36 Economy Plus extra-legroom seats, and 93 standard economy seats.
United was supposed to inaugurate the plane this summer. Unfortunately, that’s not happening.
Patrick Quayle, United’s network chief, confirmed that deliveries are delayed on Airbus’s end. Sources say there’s an issue with the paint on some of the Coastliners, and Airbus is working on a fix.
I asked Quayle whether United would simply deploy XLRs on premium transcon routes while it waits. Quayle explained that they might do some rotations, but that’s not what the airplane was bought for.
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Which brings me to the bad news. The 757s flying between the coasts have some of the worst operational reliability of any jet in the United fleet, and until the Coastliners show up, they’re not going anywhere.
No Scandinavia routes
Many industry observers expected United to announce new nonstops across Scandinavia using the Airbus A321XLR, especially with SAS gone from Star Alliance.
That didn’t pan out.
Quayle explained that United’s previous service to Bergen and Stockholm didn’t work, and there’s no point trying again right now, even with the A321XLR.
His explanation? Flying to cities north of Lufthansa’s hubs has consistently been a challenge for United. He didn’t rule it out forever — just not while there are better-performing geographies to expand into.
No South America A321XLR debut
If you look at United’s route map, you’ll notice the biggest gap is in South America. United has lots of opportunity down there — even CEO Scott Kirby admitted it himself in a recent CNBC interview.
I would’ve expected United to debut A321XLR service to South America, especially during the winter months when demand to secondary European markets essentially disappears.
United has 50 A321XLRs on order, and my bet is that the next batch of A321XLR routes will be pointed south.
That’ll probably come in winter 2027-2028, once all these seasonal transatlantic routes wrap up.
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