The US Airline With 40% Extra Lengthy-Haul Flights Than Its Rivals

United Airways just lately launched its fourth-quarter and end-of-year earnings stories for 2025, through which it beat analyst expectations but once more. A spotlight of the report is that the service is planning so as to add one other 20 Boeing 787-9s this yr, taking its present tally of 81 to greater than 100. This may be certain that the world’s largest airline by fleet measurement additionally turns into the biggest operator of the Dreamliner.

United’s fast enlargement of its widebody fleet has meant that it now has extra long-haul flights than every other airline on this planet. Sure, much more than Emirates. However what’s astonishing is how a lot of a lead it has over its US-based rivals.

To look at this extra carefully, let’s check out some knowledge from Cirium. We’ll have a look at simply the primary half of 2026 (1H 2026), as 2H 2026 schedules are nonetheless topic to plenty of change. And for the sake of the evaluation, long-haul is outlined as a flight that travels higher than 3,000 miles in its nice circle distance.

United Eclipses Its Rivals In Lengthy-Haul

United will function almost 54,000 long-haul flights within the first half of this yr, which equates to roughly 300 flights per day on common. It is an astonishing quantity, but it surely’s value noting that it operated almost 52,000 in the identical interval final yr, so it’s properly accustomed to such expansive operations. The Chicago-based service is subsequently exhibiting a 3.5% year-over-year development charge in its long-haul operations.

However what’s most noticeable is that Delta Air Traces will “solely” function about 38,500 long-haul flights over the identical interval, or roughly 214 per day. We are saying “solely” as a result of that’s nonetheless an incredible quantity of long-haul flying, inserting it fourth on the listing of worldwide airways with probably the most long-haul flights, behind United, Emirates and Qatar Airways. However this does imply that United now operates 40% extra long-haul flights than its fiercest rival.

American Airways lies a distant third, missing the identical widebody fleet capability as its rivals to totally compete on long-haul routes. It’ll function 176 long-haul flights a day on common throughout 1H 2026, which means United has an excellent bigger 68% benefit over the Fort Price-based airline. The one solace for American is that it has double-digit development over a yr prior, albeit off a a lot smaller base than its rivals.

New Routes, New Plane Fueling The Development

United’s long-haul lead over Delta has been prolonged because it continues so as to add new routes to its community. Beginning this summer time, it’ll add 4 new seasonal transatlantic routes from Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport to Bari in Italy, Glasgow in Scotland, Santiago de Compostela in Spain, and Cut up in Croatia. Later this yr, it’ll additionally add a brand new year-round, every day nonstop service to Seoul’s Incheon Worldwide Airport utilizing a Boeing 787-9. With 20 extra of these to be delivered in 2026, there’ll little doubt be different long-haul routes added later this yr.

Notably, United plans to fly two of the transatlantic routes utilizing a Boeing 737 MAX 8, exhibiting that it has not one of the considerations that Delta has about utilizing narrowbodies for long-haul flights. That is essential, because the airline additionally has 50 Airbus A321XLRs on order, with deliveries set to start later this yr, and that will probably be one other avenue for it to provoke new long-haul routes to secondary European cities.

It is not nearly new routes. United may also be bringing again all 9 seasonal locations that it added with its historic 2025 enlargement, together with Ulaanbaatar, Nuuk, Palermo, and Madeira. Additionally it is including capability to present routes which are exhibiting excessive demand, akin to a 3rd every day flight on its Newark-Tel Aviv route, which, together with its flights from Chicago and Washington DC, make it the biggest US service to Israel.

The High Hubs For Lengthy Haul Flights

Unsurprisingly, given the place United is including its new routes, Newark stays the airline’s high hub for long-haul routes with over 14,000 flights scheduled for the primary half of the yr. San Francisco Worldwide Airport with its in depth transpacific and European networks, is the second-largest long-haul hub, adopted by Washington Dulles Worldwide Airport and Chicago O’Hare Worldwide Airport.

Newark is definitely so dominant for United that it’s the largest long-haul hub for any US airline. By comparability, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Worldwide Airport is the biggest for Delta, with simply over 11,000 long-haul flights in 1H 2026, whereas Dallas/Fort Price Worldwide Airport is the biggest for American with round 8,000. Nevertheless, the mixture of Delta, American, and over 90 international airways at New York JFK Airport be certain that it nonetheless stays the highest worldwide gateway for long-haul flights to america.