The latest airline route news, featuring network changes, schedule alterations, codeshares and interline agreements.
Sept. 1
Australia’s Rex is launching a nonstop daily service between Adelaide Airport and Brisbane Airport on Oct. 30 using Boeing 737-800NG aircraft. This is the third new route Rex has launched in the last three months and follows the additions of Adelaide-Sydney and Melbourne-Hobart to its domestic network. It means Adelaide is now connected to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, while Brisbane has direct flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. “The Brisbane to Adelaide market has been starved of capacity and is currently sitting at 88% of pre-COVID levels,” Brisbane Airport Corporation CEO Gert-Jan de Graaff says. “Today’s announcement by Rex will instantly restore it to 99% capacity, which is very welcome news for travelers.”
IndiGo is adding a new route between New Delhi and Itanagar, starting from Oct. 2. The airline initiated operations from Donyi Polo Airport, Itanagar, in November 2022 with its inaugural flights connecting the city to Mumbai and Kolkata. This new connection will be operated four times per week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Canadian ULCC Lynx Air has inaugurated service between Montreal Pierre Trudeau International Airport (YUL) and Las Vegas Harry Reid International Airport. Flights will be offered four times per week. “Montreal is one of our fastest growing markets because it has historically been underserved by low-cost carriers,” Lynx Air CEO Merren McArthur says. Lynx will add Florida's Orlando and Tampa to its YUL network on Nov. 2 and Nov. 17, respectively.
Luxair has scheduled the launch of a route connecting Luxembourg and Manchester, England, from the start of the summer 2024 season. Flights will begin on April 1, operating three times per week using De Havilland Dash 8-400 aircraft.
Aug. 31
Georgian Wings has announced plans to launch a route to Azerbaijan, becoming the carrier’s first international service. Flights from Tbilisi International Airport to Baku’s Heydar Aliyev International Airport will begin on Sept. 6, operating three times per week using 72-seat ATR 72-500 aircraft. The airline says it also has permission to fly to Ganja in Azerbaijan and hopes to provide daily service to both Baku and Ganja.
EasyJet has scheduled the launch of a service connecting Naples-Capodichino International Airport, Italy, and Marrakesh Menara Airport, Morocco. Flights will operate once a week on Saturdays from Dec. 16, data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows. Service will be onboard Airbus A319s. EasyJet will provide competition for Ryanair, which serves the route twice a week.
Nepal Airlines will add Dammam, Saudi Arabia, to its network from Sept. 6. Flights from Nepal's capital city airport, Tribhuvan International in Kathmandu, will be available twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays using Airbus 320-family aircraft. Dammam will become the 13th destination in the carrier’s network.
Aug. 30
Czech Airlines will resume flights between Prague and Yerevan, Armenia, from Oct. 2 following a five-year hiatus. Flights to the Armenian capital will be operated twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. “Demand for air travel from Armenia to Europe, including the Czech Republic, is showing an upward trend, which is why we have decided to restore the Prague-Yerevan service,” says Jan Tóth, director for commerce, alliances and marketing at Czech Airlines. “At the same time, the popularity of trans-caucasian destinations has also grown among Czech travelers.”
JetBlue Airways has launched its first flights to Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS). Service from New York John F. Kennedy International Airport will be daily using Airbus A321LR aircraft. Flights to AMS from Boston Logan International Airport will also commence on Sept. 20.
Smartwings is adding a new destination to its network from Nov. 1. Flights from Prague to Egypt’s capital Cairo will be operated twice a week. Cairo becomes the seventh Smartwings destination in Egypt, in addition to Al Alamain, Hurghada, Marsa Alam, Marsa Matrouh, Sharm El Sheikh and Taba. The new route comes after the airline recently announced plans to fly from the German cities of Cologne, Leipzig and Nuremberg to Abu Dhabi this winter on behalf of tour operator Tourism 365, an Etihad Holidays subsidiary.
All Nippon Airways is increasing capacity on routes to Honolulu to the highest level in the airline’s history. From Dec. 6, the Japanese carrier will expand frequencies from Tokyo Narita International Airport from 10X-weekly to double-daily using Airbus A380 aircraft.
Air Vanuatu has further expanded frequencies to and from New Zealand. Service connecting Port Vila and Auckland has risen to 4X-weekly under a partnership with Solomon Airlines. The additional service will bring capacity between Vanuatu and New Zealand to 1,280 seats per week and more than 66,000 seats per year.
Luxembourg-based airline Luxair is increasing flight frequency from Antwerp, Belgium, to London City. The new flight schedule—with a morning and evening flight on Tuesdays and Thursdays—allows business travelers to return the same day. The revamped flight schedule will start on Oct. 30.
Aug. 29
Latvian carrier airBaltic has announced the addition of 11 new routes from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania to its summer 2024 schedule. “When preparing for the next season, we always carefully evaluate the market situation and the passenger demand,” CEO Martin Gauss says. “This time, we have identified an opportunity to widen our network in Central and Southeastern Europe with connections to Baltic and Nordic countries.”
Aeromexico is to launch a 2X-daily domestic flight between Mexico City Juarez International Airport and the new Tulum Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport. Service will commence on Dec. 1 using Embraer E190 aircraft. “As Mexico's global airline, we are very pleased to participate in the inauguration of this airport because, in addition to the fact that it will be a great airport facility, many of our customers have Tulum and the southern Riviera Maya as their final destination, which are international benchmarks for the wealth of tourism that our country offers,” says Jose Zapata, Aeromexico's vice president of sales for Mexico.
Finnair is opening direct flights between Rovaniemi, Finland, and Tromsø, Norway, starting in December. There will be two weekly flights between the destinations, operated by 68-seater ATR aircraft on Thursdays and Saturdays. The connections will be operated as tag flights: Helsinki-Rovaniemi-Tromsø and Tromsø-Rovaniemi-Helsinki. Service starts on Dec. 2 and runs through March 30, 2024. Finnair also flies to Bergen, Bodø, Oslo and Trondheim in Norway.
Fastjet Zimbabwe has announced additional flight frequencies from Bulawayo’s JM Nkomo International Airport, Zimbabwe, to Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport, South Africa. Flights will increase from a daily service to 12X-weekly. “Our additional flight frequency will provide a choice to the people from the city of Bulawayo with the convenience of a day’s return trip to Johannesburg,” says Nunurai Ndawana, spokesperson for Fastjet Zimbabwe.
KLM has scheduled the restoration of an Amsterdam (AMS)-Taipei Taiwan Taoyuan (TPE)-Manila (MNL) service from Oct. 29. The route will operate four times per week using a mix of Boeing 787-9s and 777-200/200ERs, data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser shows. The carrier currently serves TPE via an AMS-Seoul Incheon-TPE routing. It last served AMS-TPE-MNL in April 2020.
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