United Airlines inaugurated its Tokyo/Narita-Cebu service on October 27th, utilizing Boeing 737-800 aircraft to operate one round trip daily.
The UA32 flight departs from Tokyo/Narita at 5:30 PM, arriving at 10:05 PM. The return flight, UA33, leaves Cebu at 9:30 AM and lands at 5:15 PM. The flight duration from Tokyo/Narita is 5 hours and 35 minutes, and from Cebu, it’s 4 hours and 45 minutes. The inaugural flight from Cebu is scheduled for the 28th of tomorrow. Furthermore, this route is also operated by Cebu Pacific and Philippine Airlines, each with one daily flight, making it a total of three flights per day among the three carriers going forward.
This new route, utilizing the fifth freedom rights from Japan, shares the same flight numbers as the Tokyo/Narita-Los Angeles service, UA32/33. It targets tourism and visiting friends and relatives (VFR) demand from North America, with a conveniently scheduled connection to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, New York/Newark, and Houston flights from Tokyo/Narita.
Originally scheduled to launch on July 31st, the start was delayed by about three months. According to reports by The Points Guy and Reuters, the postponement was due to an audit by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
In addition, United Airlines has announced the opening of three new routes from Tokyo/Narita to Koror, Kaohsiung, and Ulaanbaatar as part of its 2025 summer schedule.
