United Airlines recently resumed its direct non-stop route from San Francisco to Hong Kong directly connecting Hong Kong travelers to the airline’s largest hub airport on the US’ West Coast, and numerous cities in the US. Canada, Mexico and Latin America.
The resumption of flights was initially planned for early February but was later delayed to March. US has a separate aviation agreement with Hong Kong than China due to its status as an independent territory.
According to figures from the United States Department of Transportation, United flew 221,423 roundtrip passengers between Hong Kong and San Francisco in 2019, just prior to pandemic.
Walter Dias, United’s regional director of sales for Greater China, Korea and Southeast Asia, said, “This year United is celebrating its 40th anniversary in Hong Kong and we’re thrilled to be able to return to this important market. We very much look forward to welcoming Hong Kong customers on our HKG-SFO service again. Customers traveling from Hong Kong to the U.S. will find convenient, easy connections at our San Francisco hub to more than 70 destinations in the mainland U.S., Canada and Latin America. We also look forward to bringing our loyal customers in North America to the vibrant city of Hong Kong!”
United’s San Francisco hub currently offers direct flights to more than 10 Asia-Pacific destinations including Auckland, Brisbane, Haneda/Tokyo, Incheon/Seoul, Melbourne, Narita/Tokyo, Papeete/Tahiti, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, and Taipei.
Meanwhile as soon as China relaxed its restrictions on passengers from US, United Airlines restarted the route, while other airlines like Delta and American Airlines returned later.
“We cannot add any flights until the two governments come to an agreement on our frequency. We're just cautiously optimistic that they will kind of have some additional agreement, but we'll just have to watch and monitor what happens there,” added Dias.
United Airlines is hopeful about a possible agreement between the United States Federal Aviation Authority and the Chinese Civil Aviation Authority about an increase in flights to the country.