Houston to Munich, nonstop

Getting to Bavaria just got a little easier:

United Airlines said Tuesday it will offer new daily nonstop flights between Houston and Munich and a second daily service to Tokyo next year.

The new Munich service will launch April 24 using a Boeing 767-400 with 242 seats.
United already runs year-round nonstop flights from its U.S. hubs to five cities in

Germany, including a nonstop service from Houston to Frankfurt. The new Tokyo service will start March 30 using a Boeing 777-200 with 267 seats. United's existing Tokyo service began in 1999.

My first thought: if United is once again adding service from Bush Intercontinental, does that mean that their temper tantrum is finally over?

My second thought: adding the Munich service is a no-brainer, because Munich is Lufthansa's second-busiest hub (behind Frankfurt) and Lufthansa is a United Star Alliance partner. The second daily nonstop to Tokyo is more of a surprise, but I guess it speaks to strong demand between United's hub here in Houston and All Nippon Airways' (again, a Star Alliance member) hub at Tokyo's Narita Airport.

The bottom line is that Houston is getting more international service, and that's always good thing. I'll drink to that the next time I'm at the Hofbrauhaus!