United Expands Service to Australia & New Zealand

United Airlines is massively increasing its service to Australia and New Zealand with the launch of three new routes including Brisbane-Los Angeles. The airline will also increase capacity on its existing routes from San Francisco to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

United described this announcement as the “largest South Pacific expansion in aviation history”.

Most of these changes will take effect from the start of the IATA northern winter period in late October 2023. The new routes from Los Angeles to Brisbane and Auckland begin a month later.

United Airlines began an extensive partnership with Virgin Australia last year. Velocity Frequent Flyer members can earn and redeem points, earn status credits and enjoy various status tier benefits on United Airlines.

Virgin Australia’s partnership with United replaced its previous joint venture with Delta Air Lines. Delta currently operates just one route to Australia, from Los Angeles to Sydney. Delta will also launch a Los Angeles-Auckland service later this year.

Here’s a summary of United’s increased services to Australia and New Zealand from late 2023…

New United Airlines routes

Brisbane-Los Angeles

From 29 November 2023, United will fly 3x weekly between Brisbane and Los Angeles using Boeing 787-9s. This will be the schedule:

• UA284 Brisbane 12:45 – Los Angeles 08:00
• UA283 Los Angeles 21:00 – Brisbane 05:15 (+2 days)

This route is currently served by Qantas with daily Airbus A330-200 flights. Qantas’ Brisbane-Los Angeles service departs in the evening.

Before COVID-19, the Brisbane-Los Angeles route was served by larger Qantas 787-9s and Virgin Australia 777s. This new United Airlines service restores some of the capacity that had been lost.

It also brings the return of Premium Economy to the Brisbane-Los Angeles route, which is not offered by Qantas on its A330 aircraft.

Auckland-Los Angeles

From 28 October 2023, United will launch three weekly Boeing 787-9 flights between Auckland and Los Angeles. United already codeshares with its Star Alliance partner Air New Zealand on this route.

Christchurch-San Francisco

For the first time, there will also be a direct service from Christchurch to San Francisco for the first time from December 2023. United will offer three weekly non-stop Boeing 787-8 flights on the Christchurch-San Francisco route as UA731 and UA730.

This will initially be a seasonal route running from December 2023 until March 2024.

In addition to the obvious tourism benefits of this route for New Zealand’s South Island, Christchurch Airport CEO Justin Watson believes the route will be used by scientists heading to Antarctica.

“We are the world’s southernmost gateway to Antarctica, with the United States Antarctic Programme based here. That brings more than 3,000 staff, researchers and supplies from the US every year to Christchurch, and on to Antarctica in our summer,” Watson said.

Increased frequencies on existing United routes to Australia

In addition, United will add capacity on the following existing routes to Australia:

• Brisbane-San Francisco: Service increasing from 3x weekly to daily
• Sydney-San Francisco: Second daily service added
• Melbourne-San Francisco: Upgrade from a Boeing 787-9 to a larger Boeing 777-300ER aircraft

United launched Brisbane-San Francisco flights in October 2022. It also flies from San Francisco to Papeete in the South Pacific (a route that often has great Business Class award availability).

With these changes, United will be flying the following non-stop routes between Australia, New Zealand and the United States by the end of 2023:

A major trans-Pacific capacity increase

In December 2022, only 60% of the pre-COVID capacity between Australia and mainland USA had been restored. By December 2023, the amount of restored seat capacity is currently projected to be 82%.

In December 2023, United Airlines will operate 47% of seats between Australia and the United States, excluding Hawaii. Qantas will operate 36%.

Here’s a breakdown of the capacity offered in this market by carrier. This compares pre-COVID to November 2022, December 2022 (when there was a sizeable capacity increase just in time for Christmas) and December 2023:

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.