Apple in Talks With United Airlines Over Terminal Upgrades at San Francisco International Airport - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Apple in Talks With United Airlines Over Terminal Upgrades at San Francisco International Airport

Apple has been meeting with United Airlines over upgrades for United's terminal at the San Francisco International airport, according to a Bloomberg article and multiple tweets from attendees at United's meeting with the media in Chicago.

United has been talking with Apple about potential design ideas for its customer waiting areas at the San Francisco airport, where Apple is known to be one of United's biggest customers thanks to all of the Apple employees that regularly fly out of SFO.

unitedplane
The plan is for Apple to help United reconfigure areas in the airport, though what that specifically means is unclear. Linda Jojo, executive vice president of United Airlines Holdings, mentioned spots Apple employees specifically visited as a hint to what might see a redesign.

"The Apple team in San Francisco has been in our baggage hold areas, customer service and the lobbies," she said. "I'm being deliberately vague," she added.

Earlier this year, United Airlines accidentally revealed that Apple is its biggest customer in San Francisco, spending $150 million on airline tickets each year and purchasing an average of 50 business class seats on flights to Shanghai on a daily basis.

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...

Top Rated Comments

84 months ago
Gosh Apple picked the absolute worst of airlines.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
@meinertzhagen Avatar
84 months ago
Oh no! They are going to take away the headphone jacks!
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
84 months ago

Gosh Apple picked the absolute worst of airlines.
No, not at all. The absolute worst airline is the one you think is great. Fact.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cateye Avatar
84 months ago

It would be cheaper for Apple to buy a private jet and just fly that daily. I'm surprised Cook hasn't run the numbers on that.
Not even remotely true that it would be cheaper, particularly for trans-oceanic flights. The class of airplane needed along with operational and "parked" costs might surprise you. A commercial airline is going to have access to airports, gates, and takeoff/landing time slots that no privately-owned airplane would, either.

The one argument in favor of private or leased airplanes (a la NetJet) is scheduling and a lack of security theater hassles, but if you're traveling as an elite, as these Apple employees most certainly are, there's plenty of options and airlines will do a lot to reduce friction for that class of traveler.

I earned elite status during a brief part of my career when I was flying 2-3 times a month and, let me tell you, the amenities and services airlines offer to elites creates an entirely different travel experience from the general rabble. With the money Apple is spending, they likely even have sway over departure schedules.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mtneer Avatar
84 months ago

Gosh Apple picked the absolute worst of airlines.
I don’t think they have a choice. San Francisco is United’s hub and I don’t think any other carrier has the capacity out of that airport to fly 50 business class passengers to Shanghai on a daily basis nonstop.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
84 months ago
50 tickets to & from China every day of the year.
This company definitely isn't running on 100% renewable energy
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Related Apple News: World News | Business | Technology | Health | Local News