While Jetstar and Sunwing are resuming suspended routes, Porter Airlines has further delayed its planned restart and Norwegian is preparing to ground 15 of the 21 aircraft currently in operation.
International Airlines Group (IAG) has confirmed its new low-cost long-haul business will operate under the LEVEL brand. The airline will launch from Barcelona from June 1, 2017 with flights to Buenos Aires, Punta Cana, Los Angeles and Oakland International using two Airbus A330-200s configured with a premium economy and economy onboard offering.
The airline, founded in 2010, has launched a route from Los Angeles International Airport to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This direct service will tap into a growing market that has been unserved since 2014.
This new non-stop charter service will depart every week between March 24, 2016 and August 25, 2016 operating every Thursday. It will be operated by its partner carrier Swift Air using a 150-seat Boeing 737-400.
US major, American Airlines is to grow its network into Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America later this year, further strengthening its position in these key regions. Alongside the new routes, American will also reinstate its link between New York's John F. Kennedy Airport and Simon Bolívar International Airport in Caracas, Venezuela, a service that was ended as the Venezuelan government withheld funds from airline ticket sales.
An additional ten airports worldwide have been added to the approved list of airports to offer preclearance facilities to passengers travelling to the US.
Lufthansa’s low-cost subsidiary Eurowings has announced its plans to start long-haul services from October 25, 2015, with flights initially departing from Cologne/Bonn Airport.
Thomas Cook Airlines will further expand its UK long-haul programme in summer 2016 building on the airline’s growing long-haul summer programme this year, which sees its first flights to New York and Miami from May 2015. Next year’s programme will see further growth at Manchester and more frequencies from Glasgow, London (both Gatwick and Stansted airports), Belfast and Cardiff.
In 1984 when Punta Cana International Airport (PUJ) became the world’s first privately-owned international airport, nobody would have predicted that today it would among the busiest facilities across the Caribbean and a major economic driver for the Dominican Republic. Over the past 30 years it has been regularly recognised among the fastest growing airport in Latin America in terms of passenger traffic, and is now gearing up to welcome Airbus A380 operations by the end of this year.
Ahead of this year's Routes Americas forum, Routesonline is providing a snapshot on the leading airlines and airports and most used aircraft types across the region. Here we look closely at the airports of the Caribbean and highlight the region's top performers.
This is the first start-up aid scheme that the European Commission has assessed under its new guidelines on state aid to airports and airlines which came into force on April 4, 2014. The guidelines have simplified the rules on public support granted by Member States for the start-up of new air transport routes.
LAN Airlines welcomed its first 787 in August 2012 and has a total of 22 787-8s on order and a further four larger 787-9s. It currently operates a fleet of six examples all configured in a two-class arrangement with 217 seats in Economy and 30 in Premium Business.
AirTran Airways, initially formed as ValuJet in 1993, will operate its last scheduled flight on December 28, 2014 with AirTran Flight 001 (marketed as Southwest ‘WN5001’) operating between Atlanta and Tampa Bay that evening, the same flight number and routing of ValuJet's inaugural flight on October 26, 1993.
