United Airlines
is comfortably the US’s largest long-haul operator. As such, it is unsurprising that it has more widebody aircraft than any of the nation’s other passenger carriers. It has 220 such aircraft, but not all are active. They involve three subfleets:
With 71 787s
, United is the world’s second-largest Dreamliner operator, after All Nippon. The pair join British Airways in flying all three variants in a regular commercial configuration. In contrast, ch-aviation shows that Korean Air’s sole 787-8 is in a VIP layout, so it does not count, although it welcomed its first 787-10 in July 2024.
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United has 12 787-8s: a summary
According to ch-aviation, the Star Alliance member’s first 787-8
was delivered more than 12 years ago, in September 2012. Registered N20904 (shown below in the old livery), it was the 53rd example from the production line.
It was not only United’s first Dreamliner but also the US’s first example. N20904 was delivered to United slightly earlier than three aircraft that rolled off sooner (line numbers 45, 50, and 52).
The first revenue flight was 12 years ago
United’s first passenger-carrying 787 service was on November 4, 2012. On that first day, the type operated eight sectors with two aircraft on a hub welcome tour:
- The first aircraft: Houston Intercontinental-Chicago O’Hare-Houston-Los Angeles-Houston
- The second aircraft: Houston-Newark-Houston-San Francisco-Houston
United’s first international 787 flight was on January 3, 2013, from Los Angeles to Tokyo Narita.
(Old livery.) Photo: Kevin Hackert | Shutterstock
Seats have risen by 11%
All 12 787-8s were delivered by December 2014, shortly after United’s first two 787-9s had arrived.
While all 12 aircraft originally had 219 seats, they were retrofitted amid the pandemic and were completed in 2021. Capacity rose to 243 seats, with Polaris/business seats falling from 17.3% to 11.5%, reducing seat-mile costs and increasing competitiveness. They have:
- 28 Polaris lie-flat seats (they replaced the 38 older lie-flat business seats)
- 21 Premium Plus seats (United’s first premium economy on the 787-8)
- 36 extra legroom economy seats
- 158 bog-standard economy seats
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10 787-8 routes in November
The variant’s network is shown below. All 10 routes are from its Chicago O’Hare, San Francisco, and Washington Dulles hubs. Seven routes are international, accounting for 77% of flights.
Image: Great Circle Mapper
- Chicago O’Hare-Kahului: weekly to twice-weekly in November
- Chicago O’Hare-Milan Malpensa: six times weekly (the route began in 2022)
- Chicago O’Hare-Paris CDG: daily
- Chicago O’Hare-San Francisco: sub-daily (23 one-way flights; 08:55 to California and 13:15 back)
- San Francisco-Paris CDG: daily
- San Francisco-Papeete: four times weekly
- San Francisco-Washington Dulles: sub-daily (22 one-way flights; 08:30 to California and 13:10 back)
- Washington Dulles-Accra: daily (the route returned in 2021, having last been flown on the 767 in 2012)
- Washington Dulles-Lagos: three times weekly (the route began in 2021)
- Washington Dulles-Paris CDG: daily