LOS ANGELES — United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby wants employees and customers to get on a United airplane and say, "Wow, that's cool. I have never seen or even heard of that on any other airline."
Customers will have lots to talk about. Boeing 787 Dreamliners with United's largest business-class pods. A couch in economy class. Airbus A321s with an extraordinary amount of premium seating. Snack bars. A modified regional jet with just 41 seats, seven of them in first class.
Standing on a makeshift stage in a United LAX hangar on March 24, Kirby was flanked by two of those aircraft, the Dreamliner and the modified regional jet, named the Bombardier CRJ-450.
The Dreamliner was the star of the show. It will debut on April 22 on service between San Francisco and Singapore.
Attendees toured the plane, the first to feature the United Polaris Studio, which has 25% more room than standard United business-class pods.
The new Dreamliners are configured with eight Polaris Studio seats. They also have 56 standard Polaris business-class pods and 35 Premium Plus premium economy seats. They have just 89 standard Noteeconomy seats compared to 149 on United's older Dreamliners. United said it expects to be flying 33 of these premium-heavy Dreamliners by the end of next year.
Industry analyst and blogger Jason Rabinowitz said, "I was impressed with the fit and finish of that aircraft, which is very difficult to get right. "We'll see how it holds up in the real world at 32,000 feet, but United seem to be rightfully proud of what they're delivering here."
Meanwhile, United also revealed that it is creating a premium-heavy subfleet of Airbus A321s. One hundred narrowbody planes will be divided evenly among 50 A321neos and 50 A321XLRs, a long-range version of the neo.
The A321XLRs will operate on routes to Europe and South America, offering 20 Polaris business-class seats with privacy doors and 12 premium economy seats among a total of 150 seats.
United will call its premium A321neo the Coastliner and will use the plane on transcontinental routes connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles with the New York area. They, too, will have 20 business-class pods and 12 premium economy seats among 161 total seats. By comparison, United's current A321neo planes have 200 seats. Both aircraft will have snack bars.
The aircraft are scheduled to debut this summer. United said it expects 40 Coastliners to be in the United fleet by April 2028, along with 28 XLRs, replacing aging Boeing 757-200 aircraft.
United's Airbus A321 Coastliners will have 20 lie-flat business-class seats with privacy doors. Photo Credit: United Airlines
The CRJ-450 is a reconfiguration of existing United Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft, which currently have 50 seats and no first class. They'll begin flying later this year, first out of Chicago O'Hare and then out of Denver, offering flyers from United's smallest destinations the chance to fly first class throughout their journey. The airline said it expects to have more than 50 CRJ-450s in the sky by 2028.
And then there's the economy cabin couch, to be introduced on Dreamliners and Boeing 777s in 2027. Called United Relax Row, the couch will comprise three standard economy seats with flaps that hang down at 90 degrees from the seats. To create the couch, flyers will extend the flaps up to seat level. A fitted mattress will then extend across the seats.
The product is built from the patent held by United's Star Alliance partner Air New Zealand, which introduced its Economy Skycouch in 2010. Relax Row will be the first economy couch offered by a U.S. carrier, and plans call for more than 200 planes to be equipped with them by 2030.
Challenging Delta
United is making a push to supplant Delta as the most recognizably premium U.S. airline.
Rabinowitz predicted that Delta won't sit still, especially as it begins taking delivery of Airbus A350-1000 widebodies next year. Delta's plan to introduce Delta One suites on A321neos has been delayed by seat-certification issues.
"I'm not going to say Delta has been resting on its laurels, but they've clearly been leapfrogged a bit by United and American's more recent announcements," he said. "I would expect Delta to counter this with something even more spectacular, as it usually does."
American debuted its Flagship business-class suite on Dreamliner aircraft in June along with larger Flagship Preferred Suites at the front of the aircraft. American then followed in December with its first narrowbody business-class suites on new A321XLRs.
In the meantime, United chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella said United won't be letting up.
"We're going to keep building on innovation. I hope to have another announcement a year from today — and a year from then again," he said at the LAX event. "We're confident we're competing in a new league of elite premium global airlines, and there are very few of us, particularly here in the United States."