United Airlines Teases New 2025 Routes: My Predictions

United Airlines will announce several new 2025 routes tomorrow and has released a pair of teaser videos that offer clues about the new routes. Here are my predictions.

My Predictions For United Airlines New 2025 Routes

United has released this video which purportedly offers clues concerning the new routes that will be officially unveiled tomorrow morning:

Clues include:

A horse?

I cannot think of an international destination named after a horse, but maybe a place known for riding horses?

A rock?

This makes me think of the 12 Apostles or Ayers Rocks (Uluru) in Australia…but United already serves Melbourne and won’t start flying to Ayers Rock Airport (AYQ). Maybe a new Perth route?

Ocean in a glass? Another beach destination perhaps?

The birds of paradise?

More Hawaii flying? Actually, strelitzia is native to South Africa and United’s routes to Johannesburg and Cape Town have been very popular. Maybe a new route from Chicago?

This flower is a mystery to me…it looks like the tile in my bathroom and I’m not drawing any clues about the shape or color. Much of the world’s tile is made in China and India, but I don’t expect new routes to those places (at least not until the Russian airspace ban is lifted).

On the other hand, agapanthus is a very popular purple flower in South Africa.

How about the strawberries?

China is the world’s largest producer of strawberries, followed by the United States, Mexico, Egypt, and Turkey…wouldn’t it be great to see service to Cairo or to Istanbul?

Finally, this gift exchange:

The only thing I can think of is that the light blue, dark blue, and white colors are the colors of the flags of Botswana or Estonia. But I’m not expecting new 757-200 service to Talin or Dreamliner service to Gaborone…maybe UA will finally launch the Airbus A321XLR in 2025?

The board in the background lists GUM next to SFO. While that is ostensibly just a list of United hubs, could it also suggest a launch of San Francisco – Guam service?

Then there is still the rumor of Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City…

Patrick Quayle, United’s SVP of Global Network Planning and Alliances, also has a video of his own (that Instagram is not allowing me to embed below).

Two things struck me from this video.

While United has long referred to Newark as Newark/New York, I wonder if the poster above suggests a return to New York Kennedy (JFK)? United has been trying to return to JFK for years and failed. When it did offer service from San Francisco and Los Angeles to JFK during the pandemic, the limited frequencies (two flights per day) provided insufficient and the carrier suspended service once again. Even so, it promised it wanted to get back and maybe United has somehow secured enough slots to give it a meaningful presence there?

Second, 11.131.SW may just be CEO Scott Kriby’s office number, but I wonder it could be another clue?

CONCLUSION

United’s route announcement will drop tomorrow morning. We will see how close (or far off) I was when the new routes drop…