United Airlines Holdings (UAL Quick QuoteUAL - Free Report) is expanding its footprint in Africa with a new service between Washington, D.C. and Lagos, Nigeria, set to be launched on Nov 29, subject to government approval.

The airline will operate three weekly flights between the U.S. capital and the popular African destination. This is the company’s first ever nonstop service between Washington, D.C. and Nigeria.

United Airlines will fly this route using a Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, featuring 28 United Polaris business class lie-flat seats, 21 United Premium Plus premium economy seats, 36 Economy Plus seats and 158 standard economy seats.

United Airlines Holdings Inc Price

United Airlines Holdings Inc price | United Airlines Holdings Inc Quote

Earlier this year, United Airlines launched new services connecting New York/Newark with Johannesburg, South Africa, as well as Washington, D.C. and Accra, Ghana. Subject to government approval, for December 2021 and January 2022, the carrier plans to expand its Accra service to daily from the existing three weekly flights, to cater to the winter travel demand. Effective Dec 1, the airline also expects to resume service between New York/Newark and Cape Town, South Africa. United Airlines’ expansion initiatives to cater to the improvement in air-travel demand are expected to attract traffic.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

United Airlines carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the airline space are Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviacion, S.A.B. de C.V. (VLRS Quick QuoteVLRS - Free Report) , Copa Holdings, S.A. (CPA Quick QuoteCPA - Free Report) and SkyWest (SKYW Quick QuoteSKYW - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Shares of Controladora Vuela, Copa Holdings and SkyWest have rallied more than 200%, 36% and 47% in a year’s time, respectively.