United Airlines adds Los Angeles-Sydney flights during Australia's Peak Summer Travel Season

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 provides 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® seats, 73 United Business® seats and 260 United Economy® class seats, which includes 88 seats with up to 5 additional inches of legroom in United's Economy Plus® 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.