United is looking to the future
So United’s performance, this summer, really hasn’t been too bad at all.
EXCEPT, where it’s international codeshare partners are involved as Air Canada is just reeling and Lufthansa is hunkering down (it appears) to fight out a strike into October. That was resolved recently with groundstaff, but it remains to be seen how the flight operations for this huge carrier go. Swiss Air, SN Brussels and Austrian are closely connected to their German partner. Asian Partners Air China and EVA are still anemic and recovering. Asiana and All Nippon appear to be doing well.
United seems to be looking to the far future in the most innovative ways possible (and the least human, directly)
So the first one is extremely cool, meet Boom Supersonic. Their “Overture” Aircraft is bent not only at travel at Mach 1.7 but also, doing it at a Zero Carbon cost. That mach 1.7 is a cruising speed!. The sweet and new 787-900s cruise at 560mph. The Overture won’t be 3 times as fast, but it will be at least twice as fast. People fundamentally understand that time in transit is lost time. This aircraft will have a small capacity and be very expensive no doubt, but it certainly is cool and will game change the routes UA uses it for.
The second option is cool in a much more meaningful way: Meet Dimensional Energy . To be fair, United has looked deeply into Hydrogen and Electrical aircraft a great deal, any cheaper way to propel an aircraft and they are into that. However, that company is looking to capture carbon directly from the atmosphere and turn it into fuel. Apparently, United feels strongly enough about this it’s also looking heavily at how to use the carbon credits that would flow heavily from such technology to help out its business partners. United has always been the airline focused the most on the business traveler.
UA’s focuses all seem pretty long range. I’d be nervous about them in the near future as their partners are in a furor right now. However, if their long range investments pay off, they may dominate the future. The prospect of an airline that can limit or even negate its own carbon footprint with carbon capturing its own fuel will be a game changer if it’s realistic. I sure hope it does.
