Is United MASSIVELY Expanding China Flights?

United Airlines has just updated its winter schedule for 2025-2026, and it includes a gargantuan expansion to Mainland China and Hong Kong. Whether or not these flights actually end up operating remains to be seen…

United schedules six new Asia routes for this winter

As of late October 2025, United has just loaded several new routes to Asia into its schedule:

• Daily Chicago (ORD) to Beijing (PEK) flights, operated by Boeing 777-200ERs
• Daily Chicago (ORD) to Shanghai (PVG) flights, operated by Boeing 787-8s
• Daily Newark (EWR) to Beijing (PEK) flights, operated by Boeing 777-200ERs
• Daily Newark (EWR) to Hong Kong (HKG) flights, operated by Boeing 777-300ERs
• Daily Newark (EWR) to Shanghai (PVG) flights, operated by Boeing 777-200ERs
• 3x weekly San Francisco (SFO) to Chengdu (CTU) flights, operated by Boeing 787-9s — note, CTU is listed as the airport code, but TFU is now the airport used for long haul flights

All the flights are already bookable, though currently only the highest fare classes are available. That should change soon, and is a standard practice.

These all represent route resumptions, as these are routes that United has operated in the past. However, they’re all pre-pandemic routes, which haven’t been served in recent years.

Note: This post is being updated with more details…