United Airlines Deploys Dreamliner, Begins Washington D.C to Lagos Flights

Chinedu Eze

United Airlines has announced that new service between Washington, D.C. and Lagos, Nigeria would begin November 29 (subject to government approval).

The airline in a statement released at the weekend, said it would operate three weekly flights connecting the US capital to Nigeria’s largest city, which is also the top Western African destination for US -based travellers.

The airline said tickets would be available for sale on united.com and the United app from last weekend.

“This new flight to Lagos has been highly anticipated by our customers and offers the first ever nonstop service between Washington, D.C. and Nigeria, as well as convenient, one-stop connections to over 80 destinations throughout the Americas including Houston and Chicago,” said United’s vice president of international network and alliances, Patrick Quayle.

“On behalf of all of United we’d like to offer our sincere thanks to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and US Department of Transportation for supporting our plans to provide this service,” Quayle added.

“We are honored to work with our partners at United Airlines to welcome their second nonstop connection from Dulles International to the African continent,” Acting vice president of airline business in charge of development at the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Carl Schultz said.

“Lagos joins nearly 50 other nonstop international destinations currently served by the National Capital Region’s gateway to the world.” he added.

United will operate this route with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner featuring 28 United Polaris business class lie-flat seats, 21 United Premium Plus premium economy seats, 36 Economy Plus seats and 158 standard economy seats.

United said this flight is the only service between the US and Nigeria to offer premium economy product, disclosing that flights would depart Washington, D.C. on Monday, Thursday and Saturday and return from Lagos on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.

“This new flight builds on United’s expansion into Africa and solidifies United’s leadership position to Africa from the D.C. metro area, with more flights to the continent than any other airline.

“Just this year, United launched new service between New York/Newark and Johannesburg, South Africa and between Washington, D.C. and Accra, Ghana. And this December and January, United will increase its service to Accra from three weekly flights to daily as customers travel home for the winter holidays,” the airline also said.

United is also returning its popular service between New York/Newark and Cape Town, South Africa on December 1.
United’s new flights comply with each country’s COVID-19 protocols and customers should check destination requirements before traveling.