United Polaris business class to enter commercial service Feb 16

United Airlines will be launching its new “Polaris” business class cabins on Boeing 777-300ER aircrafts for commercial service effective from February 16, 2017. Earlier, the new cabin was unveiled by the airline in June last year. The airline has placed orders for 14 Boeing 777-300ER aircrafts and expects all of them to be delivered by the end of this year. The first such aircraft was received at the end of December 2016.

Media reports said that the new Boeing 777-300ER with its updated Polaris business class cabin interior would initially be flown on San Francisco-Newark Liberty route after launch on February 16. The hub-to-hub route would be providing connectivity to the airline’s two of its biggest cases – New York’s Newark Liberty International Airport and San Francisco International Airport.

United Airlines has also released the winter schedule providing details about the new Newark Liberty-San Francisco route. The airline will be offering one roundtrip flight six times per week through May 4 this year. It may be noted that the Boeing 777-300ER flight would be among the airline’s 12 roundtrip flights being offered between the two cities.

According to the reports, United Airlines is planning to expand its Boeing 777-300ER service to other international destinations as well after more such aircrafts would be entering its fleet. The airline has also announced it will be launching new Polaris business class seats between Hong Kong and San Francisco starting from March 25 this year. The route is being currently served with Boeing 747-400 aircrafts, which would be replaced by new Boeing 777-300ER aircrafts.

The new Polaris business class cabins would be offering a total of 60 “suite-like pods”. The convertible seats would recline into full-flat beds and configured in a 1-2-1 layout. Each seat would be offering direct-aisle access. The airline has currently been offering six- and eight-abreast layouts in business class, which would be a significant upgrade with the launch of new Polaris cabins.