Travel between Australia, New Zealand and United States continues to be as popular as ever, with more routes than ever before and competition on a record pace. Amongst it all, United Airlines continues to be a leader on many fronts and the carrier is expecting a solid Southern Summer flying season, the carrier’s Regional Manager – Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti, Tim Wallis, tells James Wilkinson in an exclusive interview.

Tim, the northern winter is just around the corner and tell us the plans for United in Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti with frequencies and routes.

We’re looking forward to another big northern winter/southern summer schedule and all up, we will operate up to 45 flights per week from Australia to the USA through March 2025.

Melbourne to Los Angeles increases to daily, so along with Melbourne to San Francisco, we will have two flights per day from Victoria, both operated with the 787-9 Dreamliner.

Sydney sees the return of our second Sydney to San Francisco flight, so increasing that flight to 10 per week, both with the Boeing777-300ER.

Sydney-Houston has also returned three times per week and that becomes daily from December 18.

Both leisure and corporate customers and trade partners are always excited for the return of Sydney-Houston – not only is it one of the fastest routes through to New York and the eastern United States, but the connectivity into the Caribbean, and Central and South America is unparalleled.

Not forgetting our daily Sydney to Los Angeles flight and that means Sydney will see up to four daily departures through March.

Further north, Brisbane to San Francisco returns to a daily service from December 1 on the Boeing 777-300ER.

I must make mention too of our partnership with Virgin Australia which goes from strength to strength.

We now codeshare on almost 40 domestic Australian routes, and over 60 US routes, and growing. And of course, Velocity frequent flyers are able to take advantage of the usual ‘earn and burn’ and status benefits with United Airlines.

In New Zealand, we very excited to welcome back our direct Christchurch-San Francisco flight for its second season, operating the 787 Dreamliner three times per week, with the first flight from Christchurch departing on December 6.

Of course, Auckland to San Francisco increases to daily over the peak season and in partnership with our Star Alliance and join venture partner Air New Zealand, we’re providing customers with so many options from NZ to the USA and really are the airline of choice across the Pacific from New Zealand.

Finally, our Tahiti service continues four times a week with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and remains a very popular destination, particularly for our North American customers of course.

We have seen a couple of changes around capacity and routes, particularly around Auckland, Brisbane and Melbourne. Could we see a resumption in 2025 should demand lift?

Absolutely we could. Over the last few years, United has become very nimble and dynamic regarding flight and aircraft scheduling.

We are very flexible and quick to react, whether that is to meet changes in demand, respond to capacity changes in a given market, take advantage of opportunity, or take a gamble on a new route. We are always prepared to adjust to the needs and opportunities of a market.

From an Australia and New Zealand to the US standpoint, which North American destinations are proving the most popular at present?

The usual suspects continue to feature – San Francisco, California generally and the national parks.

Of course, through the northern winter our ski destinations are incredibly popular, whether accessing from our Los Angeles or San Francisco hubs, or our Denver hub slightly further afield.

Of course, our other hubs such as New York (Newark), Chicago and Washington DC are very popular for the wonderful experiences – music, culture, museums, food – they provide.

A couple of destinations specifically that spring to mind – Virginia is just magic – stunningly beautiful, historically significant, and quality golf courses and vineyards galore. And Memphis for the music lovers can’t be missed and continues to grow in popularity.

We’re also looking forward to flying many NRL fans from Australia and New Zealand to the matches in Las Vegas and sales are strong for that period.

Your Polaris product, including the onboard product and lounges in the USA, is exceptional. What are your favourite elements of the product in the air and on the ground, like higher quality meals, beverages, lounges and airport experiences?

Honestly, I love that our customers can pre-order their onboard meal now. It’s a small thing, but there are so many of these customer friendly enhancements we’ve made, and enabled via online or our award-winning mobile app.

We have also refreshed our soft-product in the Polaris cabin, and our bedding and new Therabody amenity kits are world class.

The Polaris Lounges are exclusive to our Polaris Business Class, long haul international customers, so offer a luxurious and relaxed pre-flight or transit experience. Shower facilities, sleep pods, and a la carte cuisine specific to the region really have been a huge step up in the United business class experience.

We introduced Premium Economy into our fleet a few short years ago and that has been popular beyond expectations.

The global luxury travel market continues to excel. How is United keeping up with that demand, particularly with the new aircraft on the way?

We’re keeping up by way of the largest aircraft orders in history (which also means best in class cabin experiences); and ensuring we have the most premium seats over the Pacific and the Atlantic.

We’re also continuing to expand the network, continually announcing new routes to the places our customers want to fly.

We have recently announced new routes including Ulanbataar (Mongolia), Palau, Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Nuuk (Greenland), Palermo (Italy), Bilbao, (Spain), Madeira Island (Portugal), Faro (Portugal) and Dakar (Senegal).

These recent announcements join other new exotic locations such as Marrakesh, Tenerife, Cebu and Accra.

We also continue to make significant investments in the airport experience and our mobile app technology – our Connection Saver technology saved 120,000 connections in the last quarter alone. These developments are truly meaningful for our customers.

Not just on the luxury end, United has been investing significantly in the onboard product for main cabin travellers too. What are some of the key upgrades we can expect onboard when flying in the United States?

With our aircraft orders, new planes mean great onboard experiences – larger overhead bins and dedicated bin space per seat; seat back entertainment on every seat; power points for devices on every seats; and next-gen WiFI – we’re very excited about our recent Starlink announcement which will also mean free WiFi for customers.

Tim, any general expectations for 2025 as the largest carrier flying between Australia and North America?

We’re very positive about the future for United over the Pacific. The USA remains an incredibly popular destination, whether for business or leisure, and provides such an amazing variety of experiences.

There really is something for everyone and that certainly plays out in the demand we’re seeing over the Australian/New Zealand summer.

From the Asia-Pacific regiona generally, we have more than double the capacity of our nearest competitor, and enjoy partnerships with wonderful carriers such as Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand and All Nippon (ANA), so that bodes well for the future.