United resumes non-stop flights to Hong Kong after three years

On March 3, United Airlines resumed operations between San Francisco (SFO) and Hong Kong (HKG). The carrier suspended this route on February 9, 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chicago-based airline is the first U.S. carrier to reactivate its nonstop flights to Hong Kong.

Flight UA 877 was operated on Boeing 777 registered to registration N2534U, which took off from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) at 23:31 local time and landed at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG) at 05:52 two days later, after 14 hours and 21 minutes.

United has nearly 40 years of operation in Hong Kong since acquiring Pan Am’s transpacific routes in the 1980s, the scheduling of this service will offer dozens of convenient connections to the United States, Canada and Latin America through its hub in San Francisco (SFO).

According to data obtained by Aviacionline through U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) statistics, 1,015,468 passengers were mobilized in 2019 with an occupancy factor of 77% between San Francisco (SFO) and Hong Kong (HKG), where United occupied 22% of the market share. This segment was the leading U.S. transpacific route in terms of seats per offered seat kilometers (ASK).

Flight schedule

San Francisco – Hong Kong Flight UA 877 SFO 22:50 – HKG 06:00+2 daily flights.
Hong Kong – San Francisco Flight UA 862 HKG 12:20 – SFO 08:45 daily flights.

The route will be operated on Boeing 777-300ER aircraft seating 350 passengers in four classes (60 Polaris Business Class/24 Premium Plus/62 Economy Plus/ 204 Economy) and promotional fares are available from USD 1,139 round trip.

Earlier this year, the Hong Kong government relaxed its sanitary restrictions for passengers by removing quarantines and eliminating the mandatory PCR testing requirement. In addition, as of March 1, facemasks are no longer required to be worn in the city and in public places.

San Francisco (SFO) is United’s main transpacific hub offering more than 200 daily flights to more than 100 destinations, including 26 international cities. The company’s Asia-Pacific network at SFO provides nonstop service to Auckland (AKL), Brisbane (BNE), Tokyo – Haneda (HND), Seoul – Incheon (ICN), Melbourne (MEL), Tokyo – Narita (NRT), Papeete/Tahiti (PPT), Singapore (SIN), Shanghai (PVG), Sydney (SYD), Taipei (TPE) and Hong Kong (HKG).