United Airlines announced Tuesday that it will expand its international network next year with a fresh slate of destinations stretching from Ljubljana, Slovenia, to Okinawa, Japan, reinforcing a strategy that has so far paid off as travelers continue to spend on more adventurous overseas trips.
The carrier, which already operates more international flights than any other U.S. airline, is pushing deeper into secondary and less conventional markets beyond staples such as Tokyo and Rome. The move is aimed at capturing evolving travel demand and boosting revenue even as operating costs remain elevated.
“They want to get away from the overcrowded, large European cities,” said Patrick Quayle, United’s senior vice president, who oversees the airline’s global network planning and alliances.
United’s newly announced leisure-focused routes include:
The airline is also adding two routes designed with business travelers in mind:
The Toulouse service is a clear play for aerospace-related corporate travel: Airbus is headquartered in the French city, while its U.S. office is located in Herndon, Virginia. The Luxembourg route also has a business angle, connecting Newark with the country that hosts Amazon‘s European headquarters; the tech giant’s second U.S. headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia.
United said it has added 49 new destinations since 2021 with its push and that it is the only U.S. airline to fly nonstop to 32 of those locations.
“All these new international destinations … have become much longer seasons instead of just flying during the summer,” United CEO Scott Kirby told CNBC’s Phil LeBeau on Tuesday. “These go all the way through October. October has become one of our best months of the year.”
Quayle said United is trying to be a “one-stop shop” for customers at all stages of life “whether you’re backpacking in college, you’re going to and from Paris, whether you’re in your 20s and you’re going to a nightclub in Ibiza … a business trip … or a vacation or honeymoon in Sardinia.”
He said United has noticed customers are taking more so-called open-jaw flights where they fly into one city and out of another — think into Rome and out of Bari on Italy’s Adriatic coast without having to backtrack to a major city — so having multiple destinations in countries like Portugal, Italy, Spain and France could grab consumers’ attention.
Quayle added that the carrier isn’t dropping any of its existing routes to make room for the new ones.
People gather at Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille, France, to watch a partial solar eclipse, Aug. 12, 2026 .
Sener Yilmaz Aslan | Getty Images
United is the second-most profitable U.S. airline after Delta Air Lines, though Delta has fewer international destinations.
Delta’s president, Peter Carter, told CNBC in June that the airline wants to fight United’s dominance, especially for trans-Pacific flights. The airline this summer announced new service to Tokyo-Narita International Airport, as well as Manila in the Philippines, while launching its previously announced Los Angeles-Hong Kong route in June.
Other adds from United include nonstop service from Los Angeles International Airport to foodie paradise Osaka, Japan, which it already serves from its San Francisco hub. The airline is also adding flights from Denver to Paris and will restart service from San Francisco to Tel Aviv, Israel.
It also said earlier this year that it plans to launch flights from San Francisco to Sapporo, Japan, a high-end ski destination, in December.
— CNBC’s Michele Luhn contributed to this report.
