United Airlines Copies Lufthansa With Flight 222 to Toulouse… Say it Fast, You Won’t Be Disappointed

It’s probably fair to say that Germans aren’t renowned for their humor, and flag carrier Lufthansa is known for being particularly staid and uptight. Every so often, Lufthansa lets us know that, yes, Germans really can be funny and see the lighthearted side of life.

Perhaps one of the most obvious examples of that at Lufthansa is the airline’s flight number that it uses for one of its daily flights from Munich to the French city of Toulouse, home of European aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

The flight number is LH2222, so when the gate agent announces the flight, they have to say: “Lufthansa flight LH two, two, two, two, to, Toulouse.” An example can be seen below in this short video clip of a recorded gate announcement.

Two Two Two Two to Tou-lou-se. Jede Wette, dass jemand bei @Lufthansa_DE dem Flug von München nach Toulouse genau diese Flugnummer mit voller Absicht verpasst hat! Grandios! Ton an! pic.twitter.com/dKF3c9M22O

— Tobias Schrödel (@comedyhacker) October 10, 2021

It’s a fun and whimsical way to bring a little humor to an otherwise boring part of air travel, and it always attracts a smile from passengers waiting around the gate for the flight to board.

Well, United Airlines now wants to get in on the same joke, announcing on Tuesday that it will launch a daily non-stop flight between its Washington Dulles hub and Toulouse beginning April 26, 2027. And guess what United has chosen as the flight number of this new service?

As if you had to guess: The flight number will be UA222 to Toulouse.

United Airlines fittingly plans to operate its new long-range Airbus A321XLR narrowbody aircraft to Toulouse, not only to match demand on the route, but also as a nod to the region’s largest employer.

The Dulles to Toulouse wasn’t, however, the only new route that United announced on Tuesday. In fact, the airline just revealed its largest-ever international expansion with 10 new overseas cities being added to United’s route network in 2027.

Defying reports that the great U.S. love for ‘Euro Summer’ has been and gone, most of United’s new routes will be to European cities. Along with Toulouse, United will also serve Luxembourg, Marseille, Ibiza, Valencia, Terceira, Ljubljana, Olbia, and Catania

The Airbus A321XLR makes many of these routes possible for the first time, allowing United to serve secondary cities with lower demand that can’t justify the cost of a widebody long-haul aircraft.

From Newark, United will utilise the A321XLR to serve Luxembourg, Toulouse, Ibiza, Valencia, and Marseille, while Terceira in the Azores will be served by a Boeing 737MAX-8 given the shorter distance for this route.

Meanwhile, Boeing 767s will serve Ljubljana, Olbia, and Catania, and from San Francisco, the Boeing 777-200 will launch a new route to Okinawa, Japan, with x3 weekly service.

United’s new announcement is exactly the kind that we expected when U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, ordered the fuel-efficient Airbus A321XLR. Rather than losing passengers to European carriers who can utilise their home hubs to connect customers onto their short-haul networks across the continent, United can now fly passengers non-stop – a service that is capable of demanding a premium price.

“We aim to have a destination on our route map for every traveler, at every stage of their lives,” commented Patrick Quayle, United’s SVP of Global Network Planning and Alliances.

“Whether it’s a business trip, a dream honeymoon, a bucket-list adventure, or a trip home to see family, we’re making the world feel smaller and connecting cultures at a scale no other airline in the world can match,” Quayle added.

United’s new service to Ibiza will be viewed as a big win for the island’s government and its tourism promotion agency, which had reportedly been in talks with the airline in an attempt to secure non-stop flights from the United States.

The Ibiza government had been looking at just one weekly service, but United is starting its summer seasonal service to the popular Balearic island with four flights per week from its Newark hub.