United Airlines will resume nonstop flights between San Francisco and Melbourne, beginning with three weekly flights in June. The restart of this route complements United’s existing service between Sydney and the airline’s hubs in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
United will now be the only US airline to offer nonstop flights from the United States to Melbourne.
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“The fact that we retained daily passenger service to Australia throughout the lowest points of the pandemic – and were the only airline to do so – shows our commitment to Australia,” said Patrick Quayle, Senior VP of International network and alliances at United. “We are thrilled to resume our San Francisco to Melbourne service and see a bright future ahead for United, for Melbourne and for US-Australia travel.”
United said that since the reopening of Australia’s border to international travel “there has been remarkable growth in travel demand from the US”.
The airline says it has more capacity from the United States to Australia than any other US carrier, and the resumption of its San Francisco-Melbourne service will provide customers with even more access to Australia ahead of the summer travel period. Additionally, UA’s recently announced commercial alliance with Virgin Australia will offer further connectivity to top Australian destinations with convenient one-stop flights.
United launched direct service to Melbourne from Los Angeles in 2014 and began nonstop flights between San Francisco and Melbourne in October of 2019, prior to the onset of the pandemic.