# United looks for route opportunities beyond standard demand data Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/united-looks-for-route-opportunities-beyond-standard-demand/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy. - Speaker: [Scott Kirby](https://realalpha.app/people/scott-kirby/) · Scott Kirby is CEO of United Airlines. · Helped transform United’s culture and execute its growth plan, leading operations, marketing, sales and network planning. - Host: [John Collison](https://realalpha.app/people/john-collison/) · Co-founder & president, Stripe · Sold his first startup, Auctomatic, at 17, then co-founded Stripe in 2010. - Show: Cheeky Pint - Episode: [The airline CEO putting Starlink on every plane](https://realalpha.app/v/3Lc0xfW4r9Q/), Oct 27, 2026 - Moment: 44:10 to 46:48 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/united-looks-for-route-opportunities-beyond-standard-demand/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/3Lc0xfW4r9Q/?t=2650 ## Quote > “all these **broken itineraries** that somebody flew us into one of the cities and they flew another airline out of the other cities.” > — [Scott Kirby](https://realalpha.app/people/scott-kirby/) at [46:15](https://realalpha.app/v/3Lc0xfW4r9Q/?t=2775) · Cheeky Pint ## Takeaways 1. The route team looks for opportunities beyond familiar markets. 2. Broken itineraries revealed demand for pilgrimage routes. 3. United can test routes and stop the ones that fail. ## About this segment United's route team finds opportunities outside conventional demand data, including pilgrimage traffic and Nuuk. The examples show how travel patterns can reveal new markets to test. From “The airline CEO putting Starlink on every plane”, Oct 27, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/3Lc0xfW4r9Q/) ## Transcript Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there. [44:13](https://realalpha.app/v/3Lc0xfW4r9Q/?t=2653) of we used to add to it last week all these like new cities yeah 10 new international this is very cool how do you make the decisions like uh when you launch nuke in greenland like is that you have a vibe that it could work is this like actually very dear is it card counting or poker uh it's uh that one it's different it's hiring a great it's hiring great people because i would have never picked nuke um or no nuke uh we got a guy patrick quayle and a great team that are really creative and they go look for things that are different and outside the norm not in the data we talked about data earlier um that aren't in the dick because no one's ever done it so there's no data to support it and nuke has been really really good um as an example yeah people love it. It's a great place to go. We've added, so across the Atlantic, by next summer, [45:03](https://realalpha.app/v/3Lc0xfW4r9Q/?t=2703) we'll have 53, we had 23 destinations 10 years ago when I got to United. We'll have 53 next summer. We've only had two that didn't work. But we're also disciplined about it. When they don't work, we stop. That's the great, our assets are fungible. Bergen, Norway didn't work. I think Norway's awesome. I think it should have worked, but it didn't. So we tried it, and it lost a little bit of money. It's not that much. And we just stopped. That's the great thing. We can try stuff and stop. But so the fellow Patrick Quaid? Patrick Quayle. Yeah, Patrick Quayle. How does he make the decision that nuke is a go? He has all kinds. They're staying really connected to what's happening in the world. Another example, I forget the names of these cities, but we added a couple of cities in Spain and Portugal that are, that I've never even heard of, and I don't [45:52](https://realalpha.app/v/3Lc0xfW4r9Q/?t=2752) remember them now uh the names that are part of pilgrimage trips so people catholic they're passing probably they fly to one and they walk you know to the pilgrimage to the other a couple hundred miles apart and then they fly out of the other city oh you have to add both of them at the same time and so we knew we've added you know and anyway he went like read it somehow read about pilgrimages went and got some data how many people do it then he went and found data that said oh i I can see all these broken itineraries that somebody flew us into one of the cities and they flew another airline out of the other cities. [46:24](https://realalpha.app/v/3Lc0xfW4r9Q/?t=2784) And we added them and they went gangbusters. He, this year, took a trip to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Like, we can't fly there today because we can't fly over Russia. All right. But he's there like, you know. This could work. This could work down the road. So he's doing stuff, you know, he's doing stuff like that. And his team is great. But. He'd be more interested in me for one of your podcasts in the future than me. [46:46](https://realalpha.app/v/3Lc0xfW4r9Q/?t=2806) Yeah, yeah, yeah.