United Airlines is testing gate deliveries at Newark Liberty International Airport, allowing passengers to order meals and drinks through its app.

United Airlines has begun testing a gate food delivery service at Newark Liberty International Airport, designed to help passengers pick up food and other essentials without making a separate trip through the terminal.

The pilot is available for select flights departing from or connecting through up to nine designated gates in Terminal C. Passengers receive a push notification through the United app or an email before departure inviting them to place an order.

The selection includes sandwiches, salads, drinks, kids meals, chips and confectionery. Travellers can also order practical items such as selected over-the-counter medicines, travel pillows and charging cords.

Orders are prepared in advance and placed on a designated pickup shelf near the gate. Passengers can eat their food while waiting to board or take it onto the aircraft.

The gate food delivery trial covers selected flights using gates C125 to C138 in Terminal C. These gates handle domestic and international services operated by both narrowbody and widebody aircraft.

United is working with airport hospitality company OTG on the pilot. OTG is supporting the preparation and delivery of meals from participating airport restaurants including Nonna's Kitchen and Victory Grill.

David Kinzelman, chief customer officer at United, says: "We focus on where the travel experience can be simpler for customers and innovating to remove friction along the way. The time right before boarding is one of those moments when customers want quick, easy access to food without added complexity."

He adds: "Newark is a high-volume connecting hub where customers often have limited time between arriving at the gate and boarding, making it an ideal place to pilot this type of service."

The concept addresses a familiar problem for connecting passengers, who may have little time to find food between flights. By linking ordering to its app and bringing purchases closer to the departure gate, United is testing whether airport retail can become part of the airline's wider digital journey.

The carrier plans to expand the pilot to Houston later in 2026. The next stage will include national restaurant brands and additional options for passengers to either collect food or have it delivered directly to their gate.

United will collect feedback during the trials to measure demand and decide whether the service could be introduced at other airports. If it expands further, the airline also plans to integrate ordering into its seat-back in-flight entertainment screens.

The trial follows a series of digital updates intended to make different stages of the airport and in-flight journey easier to manage. These include a TSA security wait-time tracker in the United app, which gives passengers information about expected queues at airport checkpoints.

United is also rolling out Starlink wifi across its fleet and investing in in-flight entertainment. Together with the gate food delivery pilot, these developments show how the airline is bringing more elements of the passenger journey into its digital platforms.

For airports and airlines, advance ordering could also change how passengers interact with terminal restaurants and shops. Instead of requiring travellers to find a restaurant, queue and wait for an order, the Newark pilot brings purchases to a location they already need to visit before departure.

For now, however, the service remains a limited test rather than an airport-wide offering. Its expansion will depend on feedback from passengers using the designated Terminal C gates at Newark and from the planned Houston pilot later this year.