MIAT Mongolian plans to fly Boeing 787 to San Francisco

Back in 2019, Mongolia’s national airline, MIAT Mongolian, began the process of filing with the Department of Transportation (DOT) for launching flights to the United States. Those plans were suspended for some amount of time during the pandemic, but in recent weeks the airline has continued trying to get the regulatory approval needed to start this service.

While plans for this were announced a few years ago, the reason this has taken so long is that MIAT Mongolian had ordered two Boeing 787-9s, partly to be able to expand into long-haul markets. The airline is expected to take delivery of these two planes in the second quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. The first 787 to join MIAT Mongolian’s fleet has been performing test flights in Charleston and has the registration code JU-1789.

As noted by @IshrionA, MIAT Mongolian has just revealed where in the United States it intends to fly to. Specifically, the airline hopes to fly between Ulaanbaatar (ULN) and San Francisco (SFO), which is a 5,818-mile journey. It remains to be seen what kind of frequencies the airline will offer, though I’d imagine they’ll be less than daily.

MIAT Mongolian wants to fly to San Francisco

The other challenge is that Mongolia needs to achieve Category 1 status with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is required for an airline to be able to fly nonstop to the United States. This is something that needs to be done on a government level, and it will require some effort on Mongolia’s part.

It’s anyone’s guess if this route ends up coming to fruition. This might surprise some, and this is in the “likely happening” category, given that the airline has in fact ordered 787s, and one of the planes is close to being delivered.

For context on MIAT Mongolian, the airline currently operates a fleet of five planes, including four Boeing 737s and one Boeing 767.

source:

https://onemileatatime.com/news/miat-mongolian-usa-flights/