United’s San Francisco–Chengdu route performing strongly

United’s newly launched B787 Dreamliner service from San Francisco (SFO) to China’s panda hot spot Chengdu is performing well, the carrier says. "It is meeting our expectations," said the airline’s pacific pricing and revenue management managing director Tim O'Malley. "Bookings for the remainder of the summer and into the fall look strong. And we’ve done this without losing volume on other SFO–China routes”. According to United, the average load factor throughout the inaugural month of June has been upwards of 90 per cent – signifying a strong demand for travel to and from the Chinese second-tier city. The route is in keeping with the US-based carrier’s long-term growth strategy, as it looks to expand and boost services to the Asian markets. United expects to launch a new daily service to Tokyo-Haneda later this October. The B787 Dreamliner United deploys on the SFO–Chengdu service features 36 fully-flat business, 70 economy plus and 113 economy seats. Flight UA008/UA009 serves the route three times a week, leaving SFO at 1335 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturday and arriving at Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport at 1850 the following day. The return leg departs Chengdu at 1000 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, before arriving back at SFO at 0850 the same day. For more information, visit united.com Clement Huang