With the start of the summer travel season a few weeks away, airlines are preparing to launch new routes to destinations that are growing in popularity for the U.S. market.
In October 2026, United Airlines announced the launch of four new European flights from Newark Liberty (EWR): Split in Croatia, Glasgow in Scotland, Bari in Italy and Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain.
The flights are now set to run for the first time — twice a week starting on Apr. 30 for Split, four times a week from May 1 for Bari and daily from May 8 for Glasgow. The flight between Newark and Santiago de Compostela will launch on May 27 while United is also starting a flight to Iceland’s Reykjavik from Dulles International (IAD) in DC on May 21. All five flights are seasonal and will also be retired on a staggered schedule by October.
United flights to Glasgow, Split and Santiago de Compostela launch in May
All five routes are both also new destinations for United and the first time that a U.S.-based airline flies to it directly (some, like Reykjavik, are served by the local airline flying to the U.S.)
“United becomes the only U.S. carrier to serve southern Italy’s Puglia region nonstop,” the carrier said of the Bari route when it was first announced last October. “The route opens direct access to Bari’s historic Old Town, the Trulli dwellings in Alberobello, and ferry connections to Albania, Croatia, and Greece.”
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All of these routes were chosen due to shifting travel patterns and U.S. travelers’ interest in off-the-beaten path destinations in Europe. Located in the northwestern Spanish province of Galicia, Santiago de Compostela is the home of the Saint James The Great shrine and endpoint of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail that in recent years has been seeing higher and higher numbers of not just pilgrims but travelers.
According to statistics from the Spanish government, the number of tourists embarking on the 820-kilometer route at different starting points was at a record 530,000 in 2025. That number averaged at only 100,000 per year in prior decades.
Image source: Unsplash.
United to also bring back past seasonal flights to Greenland, Madeira and Mongolia
With United continuing its efforts to build out its network out of Newark Liberty, it is also bringing back several of the seasonal routes to flashy international destinations launched last summer.
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The route to Nuuk International in Greenland will once again run twice a week starting from June 1 while a route to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia will also run three times a week through a fifth-freedom connection in Tokyo’s Narita Airport from April 30.
Amid Portugal’s continued surge in popularity as a travel destination, two routes to Faro and Madeira Island are also being brought back on May 15.
As seen by past numbers, popularity for many of these destinations outside major cities tends to dip dramatically once the summer season is over. All, along with the Greenland route that also becomes impossible in the winter due to the region’s cold, will be retired throughout the coming fall.
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