After a nearly two-year absence, United Airlines will resume one of its most iconic ultra-long-haul routes: San Francisco (SFO) – Singapore (SIN), beginning January 5. It will be operated with four weekly flights on Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft on the following itinerary:
- San Francisco – Singapore UA001 SFO 22:30 – SIN 07:40+1 – Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
- Singapore – San Francisco UA002 SIN 10:10 – SFO 08:50 – Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.
The flights will be operated with Boeing 787-9s with new cabins configured with 48 United Polaris seats, 21 United Premium Plus seats, 39 economy plus seats, and 149 economy seats.
United’s restart on this route comes as a result of the implementation of the Vaccinated Travel Line (VTL) program by Singapore authorities to allow fully vaccinated U.S. travelers to travel quarantine-free.
Singapore Airlines currently offers connections between Singapore (SIN) and San Francisco (SFO) with 7 weekly non-stop flights operated on 253-seat Airbus A350-900s and 3 weekly flights via Hong Kong (HKG) with 264-seat Boeing 777-300ERs.
The past decade had marked the beginning of a new era of ultra-long-range flights, thanks to the addition of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which allowed the company to expand its non-stop operations to the Asia-Pacific region.
Singapore (SIN) was United’s first non-stop flight between the United States and Southeast Asia. The carrier began non-stop operations in 2016 by eliminating the historic stopover at Tokyo Narita (NRT) and was later joined by its Star Alliance partner Singapore Airlines which began its era of ultra-range flights with twin-engine aircraft by incorporating Airbus A350s.
Singapore (SIN) is one of San Francisco’s (SFO) main international destinations. Data obtained by Aviacionline through the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) indicates that 506,967 passengers were flown between the two cities in 2019.
Prior to the pandemic United had an offering of two daily flights operated on 252-seat Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and Singapore Airlines offered 10 weekly nonstop flights on 253- and 161-seat Airbus A350-900/-900ULRs respectively, plus a daily flight via Hong Kong (HKG) on 264-seat Boeing 777-300ERs.
