Palermo International will see the resumption of transatlantic services in 2020 as a part of United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) expansion to Europe.
The carrier said in a press release that services to the Sicilian city will operate daily from Chicago O'Hare using B767-300(ER) aircraft. The seasonal route will launch on May 20, 2020.
According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Palermo's intercontinental network is currently limited to Tunisair Express (UG, Tunis) offering 5x weekly services to Tunis. Meridiana fly (Olbia) used to connect Palermo and the United States seasonally in the past before the rebranding to Air Italy (Milan Malpensa).
United has also announced that it will launch daily seasonal services from Chicago to Nice from May 2 and daily year-round flights to Zurich from March 28. Both routes will also be operated with B767-300(ER)s.
United already serves Zurich from Washington Dulles, New York Newark, and San Francisco (daily each), while its joint venture partner Swiss (LX, Zurich) flies 12x weekly from the Swiss gateway to Chicago, as well as to six other destinations in the United States.
For its part, Nice is not currently served by United. The French airport is served seasonally from the United States by Delta Air Lines (daily from New York JFK) and La Compagnie (4x weekly from Newark).
United will also double the frequencies of its daily flights from Newark to Amsterdam Schiphol and Frankfurt International as of March 28, 2020, and convert its thus far seasonal daily Denver International-London Heathrow route to year-round.
