United Airlines plans to restart several key Asia routes from next month.
Thanks to a modest rise in demand, and a little more optimism for the speed of recovery, United is restarting service to Tokyo-Haneda, Hong Kong, Singapore and Seoul, South Korea.
It comes as both Hong Kong and Singapore – among Asia’s busiest air hubs – started allowing the resumption of transit traffic this week.
United also wants to restart direct flights to mainland China but is understandably staying quiet about its prospects there.
US officials have accused China of blocking United and Delta Air Lines from resuming mainland China flights and high-level discussions are still ongoing.
United is adding transatlantic services next month from Washington, D.C. and San Francisco to cities in Europe.
It is also relaunching more services to Latin America and the Caribbean in July.
However there is still more downsizing to come as up to 13 of its senior executive officers will be laid off.
