Where United Airlines is Flying the 777-200

With news this week that United Airlines has sent its original flagship Boeing 777 aircraft, N777UA, to desert storage (possibly never to fly again), we thought we’d take a look at where you can still fly the airline’s smaller 777s.

A History of United Airlines and the 777

The flagship N777UA wearing the early Battleship Grey livery.

United Airlines was one of the launch customers for the Boeing 777 back in the mid-1990s.

Their first aircraft, N777UA, entered service in May 1995 and became the first 777 to enter commercial service anywhere in the world.

I was lucky enough to fly on this aircraft between Newark and London Heathrow back in 1997 and remember how new this type of aircraft seemed.

Since then, United has gone on to operate 82 Boeing 777-200 and -200ER models, with deliveries taking place up until 2002.

Then, following United’s merger with Continental Airlines in 2010, the latter’s own fleet of 777-200s joined the fleet.

The Boeing 777 became the staple of United Airlines’ long-haul operations, as well as one key domestic trunk routes, alongside earlier Boeing 747s, and the 767-300s which are gradually retiring today.

In 2017 United Airlines also began adding larger Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, of which 22 are currently in service.

With the advent of these, as well as a large fleet of more modern Boeing 787-8, -9 and -10 aircraft, the 777-200s’ days are numbered and will see retirement of the older models over coming years; with some now approaching 30 years old.

Where United Flies its 777-200s

Photo (c) Nabil Molinari

The Boeing 777-200 and -200ER fleet operated by United Airlines fly on a range of international and domestic services.

Key domestic routes include:

• Chicago – Denver
• Chicago – Los Angeles
• Denver – Washington Dulles
• Houston – Denver
• Houston – San Francisco
• Newark – San Francisco

As well as on links to Hawaii from many of the United Airlines mainland hubs.

International services operated by the 777-200ER include transatlantic services from Washington Dulles, Houston Intercontinental, Newark and Chicago O’Hare to:

• Amsterdam Schiphol
• Dublin
• Frankfurt
• London Heathrow
• Munich
• Paris CDG
• Rome Fiumicino

Also from the US West Coast cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco (as well as Newark) to Asian and Australasian destinations like:

• Auckland
• Beijing Capital
• Brisbane
• Osaka Kansai
• Tokyo Haneda

Additionally, some Central and South American services are flown by the 777 to destinations including:

• Cancun
• Sao Paulo Guarulhos

At the time of writing there are still 65 Boeing 777-200/200ER aircraft in service with United. This, incidentally, is the largest fleet of the type in the world. However, retirements will come in the near future.

Have you ever flown on a United Airlines 777? Where do you fly to? Leave a comment below!

Title image: Bill Abbott, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons