United Airlines today began selling tickets for three additional roundtrips
each week between Los Angeles and Sydney from mid-December until the end
of March. United currently provides daily nonstop service between Los
Angeles and Sydney with continuing service to Melbourne, and between San
Francisco and Sydney with connecting service to Melbourne. The new
seasonal service will increase United’s weekly seating capacity between
the United States and Australia by about 20% during Australia’s peak
summer travel season. “United’s new services represent a substantial increase in capacity and
provide extra options for business travelers, leisure travelers and the
tourism industry overall,” said Stephen Pearse, United’s Australia and New
Zealand Country Manager. “The Pacific clearly is a highly competitive
travel market. We at United are committed to growing and developing the
U.S.-Australia travel sector.”

Michael Londregan, Tourism Australia’s Vice President for The Americas,
said, “Tourism Australia very warmly welcomes this announcement as it
represents not just additional capacity on the trans-Pacific route, but
also a real vote of confidence from United in Australia’s appeal to
American vacationers. We’ve been enjoying solid growth out of the U.S. for
the last few months and we’re feeling very confident about the rest of the
year. Tourism Australia is looking forward to continuing our strong
relationship with United—and a bumper travel season.”

United Flight 827 will fly from Los Angeles to Sydney on Mondays,
Thursdays and Saturdays from December 16 to March 24, leaving Los Angeles
at 8.25 p.m. and arriving in Sydney at 6.15 a.m. (two days later). United
Flight 826 will fly from Sydney to Los Angeles on Mondays, Wednesdays and
Saturdays from December 18 to March 26, leaving Sydney at 2.00 p.m. and
arriving in Los Angeles at 8.30 a.m. (same day). United will operate this
new combined passenger and cargo service using a Boeing 747-400 aircraft
configured with 14 United First Suite(R) seats, 73 United Business(R)
seats and 260 United Economy(R) class seats, which includes 88 seats with
up to 5 additional inches of legroom in United’s Economy Plus(R) section.

The extra Los Angeles-Sydney flights are among a series of new
international services offered by United. In June, United Airlines began
daily non-stop service between Chicago and Osaka, San Francisco and
Beijing, and Washington Dulles and Zurich, and added a second daily flight
between Tokyo and Honolulu. In October, United will begin daily nonstop
service between Chicago and both Buenos Aires and Shanghai. On December 9,
the airline will launch daily direct flights between San Francisco and Ho
Chi Minh City, which will be the first service by a U.S. airline from the
U.S. to Vietnam in nearly 30 years.

United has served Australia since 1986 and is the only U.S. airline to
offer daily nonstop service from the U.S. mainland to Australia.
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