United Airlines is facing tough competition in Asia and the Pacific against two big airline carriers from the region, Qantas Airlines and Singapore Airlines. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, United is meeting their expectations in spite of Qantas Airlines' newly formed alliance with American Airlines.

Sydney to San Francisco Route Performing Well

"Not everybody is flying to San Francisco. A high percentage of our passengers are connecting on. That is where our true strength is in San Francisco," United Managing Director for Japan and Asia Pacific Sales Alison Espley said.

She added that United continues to perform well despite the entry of Australia's Qantas Airlines in the market after forming a partnership with American Airlines. United seems to have the advantage as they have a large airline hub at the San Francisco International Airport and are in a good-standing relationship with different companies in the Silicon Valley.

New Zealand to Have Flights in July

The Sydney Morning Herald also reports that United announced during their 30th anniversary celebration of continuous flights to Australia last week that an Auckland to San Francisco route will be opened in July. The Chicago-based airline company will compete with the Qantas-American partnership that already declared Auckland to LAX flights starting June.

"We're happy at this point in time, very comfortable. New Zealand has been on our radar for a long time. We wanted to introduce service there but we needed to wait until we had the Boeing 787 Dreamliner," Epley said.

United Airlines recently decided to upgrade the route from Sydney to Los Angeles and San Francisco with a Boeing 787 Dreamliner at the end of March, per the Australian Business Traveller. The Dreamliner is said to have more space for passengers evidenced by its 2-2-2 seating configuration.

Non-Stop San Francisco to Singapore Route

In a report by Seeking Alpha, United will launch a non-stop route from San Francisco to Singapore and vice versa via the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner starting June 1, 2016. Singapore Airlines used to have a non-stop flight from Singapore Changi Airport to Los Angeles and Newark until 2013. 

However, it is mentioned that Singapore Airlines has plans to re-launch a non-stop service to the U.S. in 2018 inside an ultra long-range airplane called the Airbus A350-900 ULR. The good news for United Airlines is that it's still two years away and passenger traffic in the Singapore market is increasing by an average of 4 percent every year.