By Brittany Anas / NewsBreak Denver
(Denver, Colo.) After a three-year hiatus amid COVID-19, United Airlines is flying non-stop from Denver International Airport to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport again.
Japan, which had some of the tightest travel restrictions during the pandemic, reopened to tourists in October 2022.
Flights between Denver and Tokyo will operate three days per week through March 25. Beginning March 26, service will operate daily onboard a 257-seat Boeing 787-9 aircraft, representing a 17 percent increase in capacity as compared to the summer of 2019.
United debuted the non-stop flight from Denver a decade ago, and the airline has carried more than 900,000 passengers on more than 4,800 flights between the Mile High City and Tokyo. The flight time from Denver to Tokyo is just over 12 hours.
According to Matt Miller, United's Vice President of Airport Operations in Denver, the airline was the first to connect Denver to Asia with a non-stop flight.
“We’re proud to resume this vital connection between our city and Japan, and we continue to be the only airline in Denver who offers a nonstop flight between Denver and Tokyo,” Miller said in a press release. “United is ready to welcome Coloradans back to Japan.”
The return of the Denver-Tokyo flights is expected to appeal to business travelers and tourists alike. Japan ranked as Colorado’s seventh-largest export market in 2022. Tokyo is also a popular tourist destination and United’s resumption of service to Japan syncs up nicely with the spring cherry blossom season.
The bustling city mixes ancient temples and modern skyscrapers with palaces, public gardens, robot restaurants, and the world’s busiest intersection at Shibuya Crossing.
DIA, which is the world’s third-busiest airport, has been expanding its non-stop international flight offerings. Last month, Frontier added a non-stop flight between Denver and Montego Bay, Jamaica.
With a stage length of 2,170 miles (i.e. the distance a plane flies from takeoff to landing in a single leg), Montego Bay is Frontier’s longest flight from Denver. The flight time is about 5 hours and 20 minutes.
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