How United set itself up to corner the market on flights from the U.S. to Asia

Chicago-based carrier United Airlines recently announced a huge expansion for flights to Asia. While the airline actively offers nine high-demand destinations, United has seen the potential to now offer twenty. United has aircraft based in the United States Territory of Guam as a mini hub from pre covid. They were successful until post-COVID currency value changes, which left Guam, unfortunately, with a low travel demand. United's network planning mastermind, Patrick Quayle, came up with a beautiful plan to use the Guam-based aircraft without sending them back to the United States. He decided it would make more sense to expand the airline’s offerings to Asia and offer connections from the flights from the U.S. to large destinations like Hong Kong and then use the Guam based aircraft to fly from Hong Kong to a smaller airport like Bangkok, making United able to sell tickets to Bangkok without connections on other airlines Americans might not be familiar with, making United the preferred carrier. This gives United a competitive advantage over other U.S. carriers, which will need to sell a codeshare flight to fly from places like Bangkok, for example. This makes United able to conquer the market in many Asian destinations, in addition to offering the fastest itineraries, as the flights with the previously Guam-based aircraft are perfectly timed for connections on United flights to the United States. If this works well, United will be able to expand and offer the quickest itineraries to dozens of Asian airports and win over passenger demand from the competition. Passengers will always pay to make their flight itinerary quicker, and United will now be able to win passenger demand and charge higher ticket prices for offering the fastest ticket, allowing for more potential revenue. This model has never been done, but it can open the door to changing aviation. United is very well set up for the future of Asian travel to the U.S. and now will have a huge competitive advantage.