A United Airlines plane takes off from San Francisco International Airport on Nov. 7, 2025.

In the latest air travel news, United Airlines plans to add “Relax Rows” of rows of three seats converted into lie-flat beds on long-haul flights of its wide-body fleet and to convert one-class, 50-seat regional jets into two classes with 41 seats; a Transportation Security Administration official said officers’ no-show rate is reaching 50% at some airports and hundreds have quit, creating the longest lines in history; the government has deployed hundreds of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to airports to help out, but they aren’t trained to handle TSA equipment, so they’re mostly just standing around; a new report on a potential sale of JetBlue Airways names three possible airline buyers; United’s CEO said the airline will cut capacity by 5% this summer because of rising fuel costs; some Middle Eastern carriers struggle to resume service but most airlines are still avoiding the war-torn region; United starts selling the first seats for its next-generation 787-9s on two domestic routes out of SFO next week; the Star Alliance airlines opened a connection center at LAX; and SFO’s latest runway closure is scheduled to begin March 30.

Air New Zealand introduced a seating option in 2011 called Skycouch, which allowed purchasers to convert a row of three economy-class seats into a lie-flat bed. Since then, a few foreign carriers have offered a similar option, but no U.S. airlines have — until now. United said this week it will start selling what it calls the Relax Row on long-haul flights. The three seats in a Relax Row have adjustable leg rests that fold up at a 90-degree angle “to create ... more room to sleep, stretch out or watch a movie,” United said. The first ones should become available next year, and by 2030 United plans to offer Relax Rows on more than 200 of its 787 and 777 wide-bodies, with up to 12 Relax Rows per plane, in a special section located between economy class and Premium Plus (premium economy). Customers who book the special rows will get extras like a mattress pad, blanket, two additional pillows and a plush kids’ toy, the airline said.

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“The United Relax Row is ideal for families traveling with small children, solo travelers and couples who want the value of United Economy but with a little extra comfort,” the airline said in a news release Tuesday. A photo issued by United suggests that an adult and a child might lie comfortably on the “bed,” but throwing a kid into the space with two adults might be a bit too cozy. United didn’t say which routes would be the first to get the new option, or how much it might cost, but View From the Wing notes that Air New Zealand customers who book a Skycouch pay surcharges (in addition to coach fare) that start at $100 each for three people in the row, $300 each for two and $499 for one.   

United said passengers who book a Relax Row, available on select Boeing 787 and Boeing 777 aircraft starting in 2027, will receive a mattress pad, pillows and a stuffed toy.

That was one of several product announcements from United this week. The company also confirmed reports that appeared in SFGATE and other outlets early last month that it plans to put a “subfleet” of specially configured new single-aisle Airbus A321neos called Coastliners into service exclusively on its San Francisco-Newark and LAX-Newark routes starting later this year, offering a mix of Polaris suites, Premium Plus and regular economy seating. A similar version of the A321neo is to be deployed starting this summer on routes to Europe and South America, replacing 757s.

United said it will also introduce the CRJ450 — “a reimagined and redesigned version of the CRJ200” (an aircraft that View From the Wing’s Gary Leff called “the most hated regional jet in America”). The CRJ450s will be on routes out of Chicago and Denver starting this fall, the airline said, and capacity will be reduced from 50 seats in one class to 41 in two classes. “This will be one of United's most premium regional jets, boasting a spacious United First cabin with a large luggage closet instead of overhead bins, creating an open, luxurious environment unlike any other commercial regional aircraft,” the company said. 

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Passengers stand in the TSA PreCheck line at LaGuardia Airport on Thursday, March 26, 2026, in New York.

At week’s end, a flurry of activity in Washington suggested that TSA officers might soon start getting paid again. First President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would issue an emergency executive order to resume payment of TSA salaries immediately. Then, Friday morning, the U.S. Senate passed a compromise bill to resume TSA funding and sent it to the House for consideration before Congress was scheduled to leave town for a two-week recess. The House rejected the bill at first but leaders hinted that votes were possible. In either case, even if TSA officers do start getting paychecks again, it’s unclear how long it might take to bring staffing at security checkpoints back to full force, so travelers might still encounter long lines for days.

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How bad is the situation? TSA’s acting administrator, Ha Nguyen McNeill, told a congressional hearing this week that the percentage of officers not showing up for work has increased from 4% before the agency’s shutdown to 11% as of this Tuesday, “with multiple airports experiencing greater than 40% and 50% call out rates.” She also said that about 460 TSA officers have quit their jobs, and that all this is happening as the volume of passenger travel is 5% higher than last year. 

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McNeill told Congress that travelers queuing up for TSA screenings are currently facing the longest waiting times in history, and called it “a dire situation,” according to Aviation Week. Some airports have had customers waiting in TSA lines for more than four hours. Although the odds of getting into a really long line or a relatively short one are unpredictable and vary by airport and day of the week, weekends have been especially difficult. And even after new TSA funding is approved, the agency’s shrinking workforce will take a long time to replace, she said, since training takes four to six months. That will be a problem as the FIFA World Cup competition begins June 11, bringing in a “significant influx” of air travelers. “Even if TSA were to hire new officers upon conclusion of the DHS shutdown, those officers would not be able to work on the checkpoint until well after the World Cup has concluded,” she said in the Wednesday testimony. 

The Trump administration has tried to ease the situation for overburdened TSA officers by sending hundreds of ICE officers to more than a dozen major airports (none in California) this week but “The result has not reduced security lines, according to data from affected airports,” the Washington Post reported Thursday. ICE got only about 24 hours’ notice before it deployed its officers, and they have no training in operating the machines and scanners that TSA agents use. Since their deployment, Internet and social media sites have been flooded with photos of ICE agents at airports (armed but unmasked) standing or walking around idly in small groups. That could change, as the New York Times reported this week that ICE agents in some airports have started to check travelers’ IDs under the supervision of TSA staff.

A United Airlines plane takes off as a JetBlue flight lands at SFO in June 2023.

The JetBlue merger rumors are starting up again. A report Wednesday in Semafor, citing “people familiar with the matter,” said the financially struggling airline has retained advisers “to assess the viability of selling itself to a rival airline,” and is looking at three potential buyers: United, Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines. A potential purchase of JetBlue is certainly getting cheaper; Semafor noted that the airline’s share price has fallen by at least 40% since the start of 2025. And there’s a merger-friendly administration in Washington that wasn’t there when JetBlue’s planned acquisition of Spirit Airlines was blocked by the Justice Department on antitrust grounds in 2024. But Semafor got no comment from JetBlue on any of its internal planning, nor any reaction from the three possible merger partners.

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Simple Flying noted that United might be JetBlue’s preferred buyer since the two airlines last year forged a loyalty program partnership called Blue Sky and are starting to sell each other’s flights. “While any deal looks likely off the table in the short term, no airline appears to be writing the possibility off, with even UA CEO Scott Kirby indicating he would be interested in acquiring assets from 'struggling carriers,'” Simple Flying said.

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With jet fuel prices skyrocketing due to the Iran war — up more than 100% since the conflict started — United CEO Scott Kirby said in a message to employees that the airline plans to scale back its overall capacity by about 5% this summer because “there’s no point in burning cash in the near term on flying that just can’t absorb these fuel costs.” He said most capacity cutbacks would come to flights scheduled during off-peak periods (red-eyes and flights on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays) in the second and third quarter. United has also suspended service to Israel and Dubai and expects to trim capacity at its Chicago O’Hare hub by 1%. Kirby said the company’s revised operational plan assumes that the price of oil will go to $175 a barrel and won’t get back below $100 “until the end of 2027,” although “there’s a good chance it won’t be that bad.” He also pledged that United won’t lay off employees, defer new aircraft orders or reduce its long-term capital spending plans. In fact, Kirby said he wants the airline to focus on more “transformational facility investments - think more and better clubs, new infrastructure investment at our hubs, and expansion at EWR (Newark) that can get us up to 100 widebody departures a day.”

FILE -Workers load medical aid onto an Air India plane to be flown to India, at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel, May 4, 2021.

Some Middle Eastern airlines have started to resume service that was shut down or sharply curtailed when the Iran war started on Feb. 28, but their schedules are still well below prewar levels, and subject to change from day to day depending on future missile and drone attacks on their home airports. According to a report Tuesday from UK-based aviation data firm OAG, “Saudi-based airlines appear to be operating near normal schedules, given the domestic market in the country - which is not replicated across any other Middle East market. Meanwhile, the principal hub carriers have all made significant capacity cuts this week ... compared to pre-conflict levels.” OAG said the current systemwide capacity of Dubai-based Emirates is down 40%, while capacity is down 62% at Qatar Airways and 50% at Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways. In addition, “Forty-four airlines that had planned to operate from the Middle East in the last week of February have removed all capacity through to the end of April, collectively accounting for some 245,000 seats a week,” OAG said.  

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As for Israel, that country’s Haaretz news service reported Monday: “The number of daily departing passengers from (Tel Aviv’s) Ben-Gurion Airport has dropped by 85 percent since Israel’s airspace partially reopened on March 5. Restrictions allow Israeli airlines to operate only one or two flights per hour, with a maximum of 100 passengers per flight, creating a severe bottleneck.” Delta Air Lines said Wednesday that its suspension of New York JFK-Tel Aviv service and the postponement of its planned resumption of Atlanta-Tel Aviv service have been extended until Sept. 5. American Airlines’ JFK-Tel Aviv flights have been paused at least through April 23, according to View From the Wing earlier this month, and its Philadelphia-Doha, Qatar, service is currently suspended through May 7. United’s Tel Aviv service is suspended at least through mid-June and so is its Newark-Dubai schedule.

United Premium Plus, the airline’s premium economy product, has wireless charging, Bluetooth connectivity and a new color palette.

Want to be among the first to try out United’s next-generation 787-9 wide-bodies with a premium-heavy cabin layout? We mentioned last week that the airline plans to put the first ones into international service April 22 between SFO and Singapore, and April 30 from SFO to London. But AeroRoutes revealed a temporary schedule of domestic flights for the new wide-bodies, including daily service from SFO to Houston Bush Intercontinental from March 29 through April 29, and from SFO to Washington Dulles March 29-April 21.

The aircraft are equipped with 99 total premium seats, including eight new Polaris Studio suites that are 25% larger than standard Polaris seats; 56 Polaris seats with access to a snack bar; 35 Premium Plus (premium economy) seats; and 123 economy seats (including 39 extra-legroom Economy Plus seats). In other domestic route news, United is due to introduce new daily service on March 29 from Los Angeles International to Columbus, Ohio, and to Pittsburgh. And March 30 is the launch date for twice-daily United Express/SkyWest flights between SFO and Carlsbad. Delta announced it will expand Florida service from LAX in November, launching new nonstops to Palm Beach on Nov. 20, boosting its LAX-Tampa schedule to three flights a day year-round starting Nov. 9 and increasing LAX-Orlando to five daily round trips as of Nov. 20.

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A Hawaiian Airlines airplane takes off from SFO on Runway 28L as viewed from the Sky Terrace outside security at Terminal 2 at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco on Oct. 2, 2025.

In airport news, the Star Alliance — which includes United, the Lufthansa Group, Air Canada, Singapore Airlines and a dozen others — has opened a Star Connection Centre (SCC) at Los Angeles International. Its purpose is to coordinate action among member airlines to assist passengers who are facing tight connecting times at LAX. “SCC proactively identifies customers at risk of missing their onward journey due to their delayed incoming flight and expedites them to their next flight,” the alliance said in a news release this week. “... Dedicated agents monitor transfer windows using specialised software and step in to coordinate support — meeting passengers at the arrival gate and guiding them swiftly to their next flight.” The alliance noted that more than 350,000 passengers make connections every year between its member carriers at LAX. 

A few months ago, SFGATE reported on a planned six-month runway closure at San Francisco International in 2026, and now its time has come. The closure of SFO’s Runway 1 Right for repaving and other work is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 30. For the next six months, all SFO arrivals and departures are to use Runways 28 Left and 28 Right, and the project is expected to create some delays in flight operations. SFO said last month it expects “less than 15% of flights to be delayed” by the project, “with delays averaging less than 30 minutes” and occurring mostly from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

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