United Airlines Is Reinforcing SFO Fortress Hub
United Airlines is investing in San Francisco (SFO) with 20% more flying in 2025 than in 2024 and a terminal refresh program that will further reinforce United’s dominance at its West Coast fortress hub.
United Airlines Is Building Up Fortress Hub At SFO
United flies to 111 cities around the world from San Francisco and will offer approximately 300 daily flights this summer – the most since 2019.
Earlier this week, United announced its latest SFO longhaul flight to Adelaide, Australia, meaning United will service more Australian destinations nonstop from the USA than Australian flag carrier Qantas. United will also resume direct flights (via Hong Kong) to Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City (a single 787-9 based in HKG will fly to both BKK and SGN each day).
By using aircraft with more seats, United is now larger in SFO than it was pre-pandemic, with capacity up 6% since 2019, and 20% versus last year (based on the number of seats available).
At an event in a United maintenance hangar in SFO yesterday, members of the C-Suite were on hand to talk about it, including:
- Scott Kirby, CEO
- Patrick Quayle, SVP Global Network Planning and Alliances
- Toby Enqvist, COO
Mike Nakornkhe, United’s SFO Airport Director, also spoke.
The event included tours of a Boeing 787-9, an Airbus A321neo, and an Archer Midnight eVTOL.
Here are some highlights:
- Per Quayle, SFO is United’s fastest-growing hub to Latin America, with new routes to Belize and Monterrey, Mexico added in 2024, and new flights to San Jose, Costa Rica and Panama City starting in May
- By summer, United will serve nine destinations in Latin America nonstop from SFO, the most of any carrier
- United is the only U.S. airline to serve Europe from SFO, with a peak schedule of 11 daily flights to eight destinations
- This summer, United’s SFO hub will have 4.5x more seats on flights to the Pacific than any other airline from any other hub in the US (United serves 17 different destinations in the Asia-Pacific region)
- Kirby said, “Our growth in SFO is a direct result of United’s ambitious network strategy, which has set us apart from the competition and cemented our status as the world’s largest airline” (as measured by Available Seat Miles and fleet size)
- Quayle added, “We continue to challenge ourselves every season when we announce new service to hidden gem cities around the world” and hinted at many more new routes to come
- The $2.6 billion Terminal 3 West Modernization Project will add more gates and new United Clubs
- United hired 1,600 employees at SFO in 2024 and plans to hire 1,200 more in 2025
(I have some personal observations as well about these types of gatherings, which I will share about tomorrow)
The point of all of this is that United sees more potential in the Bay Area both in terms of local traffic and as a connecting hub. Even in the face of tariffs (which Kirby appeared to embrace) and economic uncertainty, United is moving full-speed ahead with new destinations and new aircraft deliveries.
It’s striking to me that this investment is not concentrated in Los Angeles (where Delta Air Lines recently treated from Tahiti and American Airlines has greatly reduced longhaul flying), but making a fortress hub even larger. That’s the “secret sauce” (to use one of Kirby’s favorite phrases) to profitability…Delta leads the industry in profit because it has built such a fortress in Atlanta (and also enjoys low operational costs there, an advantage it has over United). Operational concentrations foster profit centers and United wants to make its Bay Area hub even more profitable.
CONCLUSION
Recognizing the halo effect of a larger operation filtering into every aspect of customer perception of the carrier and its product, United’s decision to make its offering even more compelling in SFO strikes me as a wise use of resources.
And from a customer perspective, I’ve flown regularly out of SFO for two decades on United…we’re talking hundreds of flights. The terminal improvements cannot be understated: I may miss the bouncy walkways, but every time I fly into SFO it seems like the airport is getting better.
My concern is all of this could come crashing down in light of all the economic and political uncertainty of this period, but United has built something special at SFO and as a MileagePlus elite for two decades, I’ve seen it all happen…I’ve seen all the route additions, lounge additions, and technological innovations that are making customers “sticky” when it comes to flying United.