United plans to continue its push into up-and-coming European markets next summer, using its Newark hub as a launchpad to broaden service offerings in Croatia, Italy and Scotland.
“We’ve really established ourselves as a leader by launching flights to bold new destinations” that are “trendsetting,” said United’s Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances Patrick Quayle during a briefing describing the latest additions to the carrier’s long-haul network.
United also plans to operate the premium heavy 767-300ERs on new flights to Bari, Italy, four times per week beginning May 1.
For new service from Newark to Glasgow, Scotland and, Santiago de Compostela, Spain, beginning on May 8 and May 27, respectively, United plans to operate its 737-8 narrowbodies. United is flying daily on a seasonal basis to Glasgow and three times a week to Santiago de Compostela.
Fielding questions about 737-8 deployment and how United views deliveries of its Airbus A321XLRs scheduled to arrive next year, Quayle explained the 737-8 allowed the carrier to open up routes to Nuuk, Greenland, the Azores and Madeira, Spain.
“I would not fly the XLR to any of those routes we’re flying the MAX 8 on,” Quayle said. He stated the A321XLR will replace United’s 757-200s, “and it’s also going to do some incremental new things.”
United’s 737-8s do not feature lie-flat seats. Although its A321XLRs will be configured with those seats, Quayle concluded that “if you’re going to Greenland or if you’re going to the Azores, there’s not really a market for lie-flat business-class seat.” The 737-8 is a slightly smaller jet, allowing United to serve “some of these … little sportier markets,” where demand does not exist for those types of business-class seats, he stated.
The decision to add smaller European destinations in the summer of 2026 follows United’s push to launch direct service to numerous lower-profile markets. All nine of those destinations—Bilbao, Dakar, Faro, Kaohsiung, Madeira Island, Nuuk, Palermo, Puerto Escondido and Ulaanbaatar—are returning in 2026. Flights to Dakar, Kaohsiung and Puerto Escondido will operate year-round.
Quayle described United’s operations from its hubs to the Frankfurt and Munich hubs of its transatlantic joint venture partner Lufthansa as “incredibly important.”
“We cover it … extensively,” he said. But “what we find” is United’s travelers prefer to take a nonstop flight as opposed to connecting service, Quayle said. “What we’ve been able to do, as we get aircraft coming into the fleet, we’ve been able to [add] more and more unique destinations.”
United is also launching flights next summer from its hub at Washington Dulles to Reykjavik, building on existing service to Iceland’s capital from Newark and Chicago O’Hare. The daily flight on the new route operated by 757-200s starts May 21.
The carrier also plans to introduce a daily flight from Newark to Seoul on Sept. 4, 2026, with 787-9 widebody jets, joining United’s two daily flights to Seoul from San Francisco.
Chicago-based United also plans to add a third flight from Newark to Tel Aviv on March 28 of next year, jumping up to four weekly flights on the route.
