Newark Liberty International Airport is gearing up for one of its most ambitious summers yet, with a slate of new European routes set to debut in 2026 that will further entrench the New Jersey hub as a primary U.S. gateway to the continent. Led by United Airlines, the airport’s dominant carrier, the expansion adds four new nonstop destinations in Southern and Western Europe and strengthens the airline’s claim to having the broadest transatlantic footprint of any U.S. carrier.
United’s 2026 Push: Four New European Cities From Newark
For the peak summer season of 2026, United Airlines is introducing nonstop flights from Newark to Split in Croatia, Bari in Italy, Glasgow in Scotland and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The routes, announced in October 2025 and refined in subsequent network updates, are scheduled to roll out between late April and late May, with all services operating on a seasonal basis aligned with Europe’s high travel period.
Service to Split is set to begin on April 30, 2026, with three flights per week from Newark using Boeing 767-300ER aircraft. Bari will follow on May 1 with four weekly departures, also on 767-300ER jets. Glasgow enters the schedule next, with daily flights starting May 8 aboard Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, while Santiago de Compostela joins on May 27 with three weekly frequencies, also operated by 737 Max 8.
In each case, United will be the only U.S. airline offering nonstop service on the route. For Split and Santiago de Compostela, the carrier will provide the sole nonstop connection between the United States and these cities, transforming what were once multi-stop journeys into single-hop itineraries for American travelers.
Strategic Boost to Newark’s Transatlantic Role
The new flights underscore Newark Liberty’s evolving role as a transatlantic super-hub at a time when airlines are racing to capture resilient demand for international leisure travel. United already operates an extensive European network out of Newark, and by summer 2026 the airline expects to serve 46 cities across the Atlantic, offering more nonstop options to Europe than any other U.S. carrier.
Newark’s geography has long given it an advantage for connecting traffic between the United States and Europe, particularly for travelers originating along the Eastern Seaboard or connecting from domestic points in the Midwest and South. The 2026 expansion doubles down on that strength, plugging gaps on the map rather than simply adding capacity to already well-served capitals like London, Paris or Frankfurt.
For the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees Newark Liberty, the new service comes on the heels of significant infrastructure work, including a runway rehabilitation and broader capacity-management measures by federal regulators. With additional long-haul departures in the pipeline, the airport’s ability to handle peak summer traffic efficiently will be closely watched by both airline executives and passengers.
Spotlight on Split and Bari: Tapping Europe’s Sun-Seekers
Two of the most eye-catching additions to Newark’s departure boards in 2026 are Split and Bari, both secondary coastal cities that have been rapidly gaining popularity with American travelers. Their inclusion signals how far U.S. airlines have moved beyond the traditional triangle of London, Paris and Rome toward more targeted, lifestyle-driven destinations.
Split, Croatia’s second-largest city, sits on the Adriatic and serves as a gateway to the Dalmatian Coast and nearby islands. Known for its UNESCO-listed Diocletian’s Palace, historic waterfront and island-hopping opportunities, Split has long been popular with European tourists. United’s three-times-weekly Newark flights will create the first nonstop link from the United States, streamlining itineraries that previously required a connection in European hubs such as Frankfurt, Munich or London.
Bari, located in Italy’s Puglia region, has also seen rising international interest as travelers look beyond the crowded streets of Venice and Florence. The city provides access to whitewashed hill towns, dramatic coastline and increasingly upscale hospitality offerings across Puglia. With four weekly Boeing 767 departures from Newark, United is positioning Bari as a new Mediterranean gateway for Americans keen to explore southern Italy’s food, wine and beaches without the complexity of multiple connections.
Glasgow and Santiago de Compostela: Culture, Heritage and New Markets
The addition of Glasgow and Santiago de Compostela rounds out a European portfolio from Newark that blends established markets with true niche offerings. Daily seasonal service to Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, will provide an alternative to heavily trafficked Edinburgh and London flights while serving both leisure and visiting-friends-and-relatives demand, especially from the large Scottish diaspora in North America.
Glasgow offers access not only to the city’s museums, music venues and industrial-era architecture, but also to the Scottish Highlands and islands beyond. The choice of a 737 Max 8 aircraft for the route reflects confidence in sustained demand while allowing the airline to right-size capacity for a mix of tourists, business travelers and transatlantic connectors.
Santiago de Compostela, by contrast, is one of the most distinctive new entries in Newark’s 2026 schedule. The Galician city is world-renowned as the terminus of the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage routes and a UNESCO World Heritage site. United’s three-times-weekly service from Newark represents the first regularly scheduled nonstop link between the United States and Santiago, turning what has typically been a multi-leg trip via Madrid, Barcelona or Lisbon into a single overnight flight for pilgrims and cultural travelers.
Aircraft, Frequencies and the Passenger Experience
United’s choice of aircraft and frequency patterns for the 2026 Newark routes reflects a balance between opening new markets and managing operational risk. The Boeing 767-300ER, deployed on the longer flights to Split and Bari, offers a mix of premium and economy seating well-suited to transatlantic leisure travel, including lie-flat business cabins aimed at higher-yield customers and connecting passengers from beyond the New York region.
On the shorter segments to Glasgow and Santiago de Compostela, the Boeing 737 Max 8 will enable United to run high-frequency seasonal schedules while maintaining cost-efficiency. Although narrower than the widebody 767, the Max 8 allows for flexible deployment and quick rerouting across the network should demand patterns change, and it has become a mainstay of the carrier’s medium-haul international operations.
Flight timings are expected to follow the standard transatlantic pattern, with overnight departures from Newark arriving in Europe in the morning and daytime returns to the United States. This supports tight onward connections on both sides of the Atlantic and maintains the banked hub structure that underpins United’s broader long-haul strategy.
Beyond Europe: Newark’s Growing Long-Haul Web
While the headline announcements for 2026 focus on Europe, Newark’s long-haul network is also set to deepen in other regions. United has outlined plans to launch a new daily, year-round flight from Newark to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport on September 4, 2026, operated by Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. The move gives the East Coast a new nonstop link to one of Asia’s busiest transit hubs and complements existing United service to Seoul from the U.S. West Coast.
In addition, the airline is ramping up its presence on existing long-haul routes from Newark. Service to Tel Aviv is due to be strengthened in March 2026 with an extra four weekly flights, bringing the total to 18 weekly frequencies and cementing the connection between the New York metropolitan area and Israel. Together with the new European services, these moves position Newark as a true intercontinental junction, with one-stop access for U.S. travelers to a wide arc of destinations from the Mediterranean to Northeast Asia.
United is also maintaining or reinstating several specialty routes first trialed earlier in the decade, including seasonal links from Newark to Nuuk in Greenland, Bilbao in Spain and other niche destinations. Taken together, the pattern suggests a strategy built around offering distinctive, non-duplicated routes that differentiate Newark from nearby airports and attract travelers willing to seek out unique itineraries.
Operational Challenges and Capacity Management at Newark
The expansion in long-haul flying comes against the backdrop of ongoing capacity and air traffic management challenges at Newark Liberty. Federal regulators have periodically imposed flight limits at the airport to address air traffic controller shortages and infrastructure constraints, measures that have impacted schedule planning for airlines even as demand for transatlantic travel has surged.
In 2025, the Port Authority completed a major rehabilitation of one of Newark’s key runways in an effort to bolster reliability and reduce delays. That project, combined with the rollout of updated procedures and equipment, was designed to prepare the airport for continued growth in both domestic and international operations. The 2026 long-haul program, including the new European routes, will be an early test of whether those measures are sufficient to absorb higher volumes during peak summer travel periods.
Airlines and regulators will be monitoring on-time performance closely once the new services launch, particularly during summer afternoons and evenings when weather disruptions in the New York area are common. For travelers, the payoff for enduring a sometimes congested hub will be a broader array of nonstop options that eliminate the need to connect in European capitals, reducing total journey times to emerging hotspots on the continent.
What the New Routes Mean for Travelers in 2026
For leisure travelers across the United States, the new 2026 routes from Newark open up more direct access to regions that were once considered off the beaten track, at least from a transatlantic aviation perspective. Instead of flying into a major Western European hub and backtracking on low-cost carriers or rail, passengers will be able to touch down closer to their final destinations, whether that is a Croatian island, a Puglian seaside town, a Scottish Highlands trailhead or a Galician village along the Camino.
The network changes also benefit travelers originating in Europe, particularly those in secondary cities who will gain faster access to the New York metropolitan area and onward connections throughout North and South America. As United continues to bank flights at Newark to align with transatlantic arrival and departure waves, passengers heading to destinations as varied as Denver, Orlando, São Paulo or Mexico City will be able to leverage the new European services as part of efficient long-haul itineraries.
With summer 2026 still months away, schedule details remain subject to regulatory approvals and potential fine-tuning. But the broad outline is clear: Newark Liberty is preparing for a busier, more internationally connected future, and its newest European routes offer a preview of how U.S. airlines are reimagining the transatlantic map for the next wave of travelers.