United to Increase Flights to Chengdu and Shanghai

United Airlines has said that it will operate additional flights to Shanghai and Chengdu, China, from San Francisco during the peak summer travel season.

The current daily service between San Francisco and Shanghai will increase to two flights daily from 6 May to 24 October 2015, and the three-times-weekly service between San Francisco and Chengdu will increase to daily service from 4 June to 1 September 2015, both routes subject to government approval.

Jake Cefolia, United’s vice president for Atlantic and Pacific sales, said, “These new flights will further strengthen United’s presence in the region and will offer our customers unparalleled choice and convenience when traveling to China this summer.”

Flight 891 will depart from San Francisco International Airport at 14:40 and arrive at Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 19:00 the following day (all times local). On the return, flight 890 will depart from Shanghai at 21:00 and arrive in San Francisco at 17:40 on the same day. Flight times will be approximately 13 hours, 20 minutes westbound and 11 hours, 40 minutes eastbound.

United will operate the flights with Boeing 777-200 aircraft featuring a total of 269 seats – eight flat-bed seats in United Global First, 40 flat-bed seats in United BusinessFirst and 221 seats in United Economy, including 104 Economy Plus extra-legroom seats.

The new summer-season service will operate in addition to United’s current daily year-round flights between San Francisco and Shanghai.

Chengdu

Flight 9 will depart San Francisco daily at 13:20 and will arrive at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 18:40 the following day (all times local). On the return, flight 8 will depart Chengdu daily at 09:50 and arrive in San Francisco at 08:30 the same day. Flying times are approximately 14 hours, 20 minutes westbound and 13 hours, 40 minutes eastbound.

United will operate the San Francisco - Chengdu flights with Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft, featuring a total of 219 seats – 36 in United BusinessFirst and 183 in United Economy, including 70 Economy Plus extra-legroom seats.

Earlier this year, United launched the Chengdu service with three-times-weekly Boeing 787 flights from San Francisco, the first-ever nonstop trans-Pacific service to mainland China beyond Beijing and Shanghai. The Chengdu flights will return to three-times-weekly operations on Sept. 2, 2015.