United Plans New Services to Hong Kong and Rio

United Airlines will use 347-seat 747-400s to operate its new Los Angeles-Hong Kong service, which begins in October. Credit: AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

193-seat Boeing 767-300ERs will operate the Washington, D.C.-Rio de Janeiro service that United Airlines is launching in the fall. Credit: AP Photo/Ric Francis

United Airlines is launching two new long-haul services this fall.

One of the new nonstops will link Los Angeles with Hong Kong. The other will connect Washington Dulles Airport with Rio de Janeiro, but will not operate year-round.

United will launch both new services in October and initially will operate once-a-day round trips on each of the two routes.

The airline has allocated the flight number UA867 for its Los Angeles-Hong Kong westbound flight and UA856 for the eastbound Hong Kong-Los Angeles service. It will operate the route with Boeing 747-400s configured to seat 14 in first class, 73 in business class and 260 in economy class. The economy-class seating will include 88 of United's Economy Plus seats.

The westbound UA867 flight will depart Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) at midday and will arrive at Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok International Airport at 6:15 p.m. local time on the following day.

The actual flight time for the westbound flight is 14 hours 15 minutes. Bear in mind that Hong Kong time is 16 hours ahead of Los Angeles time in fall and winter, though in the spring and summer the time difference decreases to 15 hours as a result of the United States' move to daylight time.

Eastbound, UA856 will leave Hong Kong at 12:20 p.m. local time and arrive at LAX at 9:35 a.m. the same day, with a total flight time of 13 hours 15 minutes.

Eastbound flights are usually quicker than westbound flights because the jetstream winds generally flow east. These strong winds--which can gust to more than 200 m.p.h.--are caused by the earth's rotation and are found in the troposphere at the 30,000-foot-plus altitudes at which commercial jets usually cruise, particularly on long-haul flights.

United will operate Boeing 7667-300ERs on its Washington-Rio de Janeiro route. Each will seat 10 in first class, 32 in business class and 151 in economy class. Economy-class seating will include 71 of United's Economy Plus seats.

The southbound flight, UA873, will leave Washington Dulles Airport at 9:32 p.m. and will arrive at Rio's Galeao International Airport at 9:20 a.m. local time the next morning. This means the flight time will be a little under 10 hours, since in fall and winter Rio is two hours ahead of Washington DC.

Northbound, flight UA874 will depart Rio at 10:05 p.m. and will arrive at Dulles at 6:23 a.m., with a flight time of just over 10 hours.

United's new Hong Kong flight will provide Los Angeles passengers with direct onward service to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and an opportunity to connect to Singapore. Hong Kong will be the airline's ninth international destination from Los Angeles.

Rio de Janeiro will be United's 22^nd international destination from Washington Dulles. The carrier launched Washington-Beijing service in March--the first-ever nonstop service linking the capital of the United States and China--and also recently began service from Dulles to Tokyo's Narita Airport and to Rome.