The Adelaide-San Francisco route will have three return services a week between December 11 2025, and March 2026, departing Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from both cities.
The 15-hour flight will be operated on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner which has 257 seats, including 48 business class seats and 21 in premium economy.
The direct route will make incentives to South Australia by US groups more attractive, especially over the Australian summer and may boost attendance out of the US to international conferences being held in Adelaide between December and March. Any potential outbound incentives from South Australia to the US winter could also benefit.
Adelaide has never had a direct air connection with the US before now.
“This is a significant moment for Adelaide Airport, our community and our state,” said Adelaide Airport’s managing director, Brenton Cox.
“Adelaide will now be connected directly to an entirely new continent – this is a core connection in our aviation network vision that has been decades in the making.
“This service will directly benefit business, investment and our broader tourism economy.
“We will now have even greater business connectivity and export and supply chain opportunities with North America – improving links with what is already our state’s second biggest export market.
“We intend to make this service a great success and build this towards a year-round service in years to come,” said Cox.
Those travelling on the new United route can also leverage the US airline’s partnership with Virgin Australia for domestic Australian flights and United’s extensive domestic route map across the USA.
“We know that direct flights are a big factor in people deciding where to travel,” said Sam Shinohara, United Airlines’ managing director for APAC airport operations.
“This game-changing new flight will add almost 25,000 more seats between the US and Australia each year and makes United the only airline to offer nonstop service between the US and four major cities in Australia.”
