United debuts premium 767 on London flight

United will introduce its first Boeing 767-300ER with an expanded business class cabin on flights to London Heathrow today. The first reconfigured aircraft (MSN 29238) is scheduled to operate UA110 departing Newark Liberty for London at 19:10 on 14 March, the Chicago-based carrier's website shows. United plans to reconfigure 21 767s in the premium-heavy layout with 46 seats in Polaris business class – 16 more than its standard 767-300ER configuration – 22 in premium economy, 47 in extra-legroom economy and 52 in economy for a total of 167 passengers. The layout is dubbed the "76L". The new configuration is part of a larger premium push by the carrier, that also includes adding more first-class seats to its Airbus A320 family fleet and plans to introduce the new dual-class Bombardier CRJ550 with 50 seats this summer. "In an era where many airlines are adding seats to their aircraft to crowd more passengers onto the plane, we're reconfiguring more than 100 of our aircraft and doing exactly the opposite," said Andrew Nocella, CCO of United, in February. <br/>