United Airlines will open a new route between Houston and Sydney from 18 January 2018. This new route will be operated by the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner offering the latest in comfort on board.

This is the second route between Australia and the state of Texas in the USA. Qantas currently operate non-stop services between Sydney and Dallas Fort Worth which by all accounts are quite successful.

United Flight Schedule

United flight 101 will depart Houston at 8pm, arriving in Sydney at 6:30am two days later thanks to crossing the International Date Line. This works in reverse on the way back, of course.

Flight 100 will depart from Sydney at 11:50am, arriving in Houston at 10:35am the same day. It is a little bit like time travel when you cross the Pacific Ocean sometimes!

Flying United

This new route is the second longest flight operated by United after Los Angeles to Singapore. Scheduled flight time is 15 hours and 45 minutes from Houston and 17 hours and 30 minutes from Sydney. The new flight will be one of the longest in the world.


Happily the aircraft is fitted with a premium heavy configuration. There are 48 seats in Polaris Business Class, 63 Economy Plus seats and just 141 in Economy Class.

For United passengers and Star Alliance frequent flyers, Houston will mean less connections for people who live in smaller cities. This is always a good thing as nothing is worse than having to connect multiple times on a trip.

Overall Thoughts

Australia is working very well for United. The new flights between Houston and Sydney add to the existing services between Sydney and Melbourne and San Francisco. It also adds some competition on flights to Texas and provides a more central hub for connecting passengers in the USA.

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All images via United Airlines. Flight times and heads up via Traveller.