United Airlines Dreamliner Fleet Complete with Polaris Seats

Originally published on Airways

United Airlines (UA) has just flown its latest Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner to Xiamen, China, to be reconfigured with new Polaris cabins. 

With this cabin revamp, as of now, all UA Boeing 787s will have the new Polaris cabins. According to the United Fleet Website on Twitter, UA Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner N27958 is scheduled to depart Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) for Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport (XMN) later today. 

N27958 is the last aircraft in the UA Dreamliner fleet without the new Polaris seats. 

United unveiled its new business-class cabin called Polaris in 2016; however, rolling out the product consistently and widely has taken time. United currently flies 64 787s, with a further seven on order. The sixty-four-plane fleet consists of fourteen 787-10s with an additional seven on order, twelve 787-8s, and thirty-eight 787-9s.

All of UA’s Boeing 787-10s were delivered with the new Polaris seats, as United only started receiving the aircraft in 2018. The Chicago-based airline began configuring its Dreamliners in early 2020 for the Boeing 787-8s and 787-9s that were not delivered with the new Polaris seats. 

Although United hoped to have all of their 787s reconfigured by the first quarter of 2021, the pandemic delayed that plan.

N13014 United Airlines Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner. Photo: Nick Sheeder/Airways

United Airline Fleet

It has almost been six years since UA unveiled its new Polaris business class concept. Now, the only aircraft in the carrier’s long-haul fleet that still need to be reconfigured with the new Polaris cabins are the Boeing 767-400s. 

United has a 16-strong fleet of Boeing 767-400s, and the airline plans to reconfigure them by next summer. 

However, UA still has a fleet of Boeing 777-200s with the old United business class product with lie-flat beds in a 2-4-2 layout. These 777-200s are not used for long-haul international flights and are instead used on many hub-to-hub routes and high-capacity flights in the United States. 

United has said that it has no plans to reconfigure these 777-200s.