United Airlines is going to start flying from San Francisco to Brisbane, Australia for the first time. This is a brand new city for the airline, adding the state of Queensland to the network.

The US carrier initially started services down under in 1986, when it purchased Pan Am’s Pacific Division. Today it flies from San Francisco to Sydney and Melbourne and Los Angeles to Sydney. Later this year will see the return of Los Angles to Melbourne and Houston to Sydney.

San Francisco to Brisbane

Services will commence on San Francisco (SFO) to Brisbane (BNE) from 28 October 2022 and operate three times per week. UA96 will depart the United States on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 11:20pm, landing in Australia two days later at 6:30am.


Heading the other way will see departures on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, leaving at 10:30am and arriving back stateside at 6:40am the same day. Flights will be operated with the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, offering Polaris business class as well as Economy and Premium Plus.

A Partnership With Virgin Australia

Australia’s second largest domestic airline is Virgin Australia and they have recently ditched their partnership with Delta and instead teamed up with United. Passengers will be able to connect over Brisbane to other points in Australia.


At the other end, people can connect onto United’s extensive US network, so you can get anywhere you need to go. Good news all round for anyone planning a trip.

Overall Thoughts

Excellent to see United Airlines adding Brisbane to their route network. I’m sure the financial incentives from the Queensland state Government also helped swing the pendulum that way.

Brisbane opened a second runway in July 2020, which will alleviate any congestion that was once present at the facility. Almost 2.5 million people live in the Australian city, making it the third largest in the country after Sydney and Melbourne.

Will you be flying United on these new flights? What do you think of the news? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Bill Abbott via Wikimedia Commons.
Polaris seat via One Mile At A Time.
Virgin Australia by Jeff Gilbert on JetPhotos via Wikimedia Commons.