United is piloting a new service that lets customers order food, drinks and travel essentials through the United app and collect them at the gate before boarding.
The test runs on select flights departing from or connecting through up to nine gates (C125-C138) in Terminal C at Newark Liberty International Airport, covering both narrowbody and widebody departures.
Customers get a pre-departure push notification or email with a menu of sandwiches, salads, kids' meals, snacks and drinks, plus items such as over-the-counter medicine, travel pillows and charging cords.
Orders are left on a pickup shelf at the gate, ready to eat there or carry onboard.
United is working with airport hospitality group OTG to prepare and deliver the food, which like other mobile food ordering apps such as DoorDash and UberEats sees orders sourced from third-party restaurants (in this case, Newark's airport restaurants like Nonna's Kitchen and Victory Grill).
United plans to expand the pilot to Houston later this year, adding national restaurant brands and more delivery options.
"Newark is a high-volume connecting hub where customers often have time between arriving at the gate and boarding, making it an ideal place to pilot this type of service," said David Kinzelman, United's chief customer officer.
The airline said it will use customer feedback from the trial to decide whether to roll the service out to other airports, and would add ordering through seatback entertainment screens if it expands further.
