United to fly direct between Adelaide and San Francisco in a major win for South Australians

South Australians will have a direct flight to the United States by Christmas, with United Airlines announcing it will begin flying from Adelaide to San Francisco.

It’s a big win for people in Adelaide, who have long been starved of proper international connections.

Even the national carrier Qantas doesn’t consider the South Australian market big enough to maintain international flights.

United’s ADL-SFO flights will be the first direct service between Adelaide and the United States and they will run three times per week, starting December 11.

The service will run seasonally — through to March — but the airline hasn’t ruled out expanding the service.

Flights will depart Adelaide at 2.55pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, arriving in San Francisco 11.15am.

The return flight leaves San Francisco at 11.05pm, landing at the very agreeable time of 9.30am.

Adelaide Airport’s Managing Director Brenton Cox said the new service would be a win for business, investment and tourism industries.

“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,” he said.

It’s a 14 hour, 50 minute trip from Adelaide to San Francisco.

The return flight time of 15 hours, 55 minutes is 10 per cent longer than the Sydney-San Francisco service, and 3 per cent longer than the Melbourne-San Francisco flight, but because it’s non-stop it means travellers from Adelaide will save up to two hours on a transit through Sydney or Melbourne.

United said it is the third-longest trip in its enormous network, behind Houston-Sydney and San Francisco-Singapore.

The airline is also claiming it as a win for travellers from Perth heading to the US, who may be enticed with a shorter domestic flight to Adelaide and a longer flight on a bigger, wide-body aircraft.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said every South Australian headed to the US should take advantage of the new route.

“Today is a historic occasion for South Australians who have long wanted to fly direct to the United States,” he said.

South Australia welcomed 44,000 American visitors last year, and the state government said they’re worth about $77 million to the local economy.

Some of United’s flights to Australia have weight restrictions due to the distance, meaning there are limits on the amount of cargo on board.

This is the case with several long-haul flights including (occasionally) Qantas flights to/from Dallas and London, and Air New Zealand’s ultra long-haul Auckland-New York flight.

A Boeing 787-9 will be United’s choice of aircraft for the non-stop Adelaide service, which has 48 business class seats (called United Polaris), 21 premium economy seats and 188 seats in economy.

Tickets for the new flights are now on sale.