- On March 12, the Middle Eastern carrier Emirates began a daily service between and Dubai and New York Newark via Athens. Newark becomes U.S. gateway number 12 for Emirates, and is the second serving the greater New York metropolitan area, complementing its existing four-times-daily flights to New York JFK. The new service will initially face no direct competition, on either sector, although United Airlines operates seasonal service between Athens and Newark (resuming 24 May) and Delta Air Lines also flies summer-only between Athens and New York JFK (resuming 14 April). (Source: anna.aero)
- TAME Airlines (Linea Aerea del Ecuador) began flights from Equador’s capital city, Quito, to New York JFK (JFK) on 1 March. The 4,554-kilometre (2,830 miles) link replaces the carrier’s existing service between Guayaquil and JFK, a route that the airline launched March 18, 2016. No other carrier currently links Quito to JFK, which becomes the sixth U.S. airport to be served direct from Quito, with American Airlines offering a 15 times weekly link to Miami and a six time weekly link to Dallas/Fort Worth. JetBlue Airways provides an eight times weekly connection from Fort Lauderdale, while Delta Air Lines links Quito with Atlanta, also with eight weekly flights. United Airlines also offers eight weekly flights between its Houston Intercontinental hub and Quito. With the JFK connection, it means that Quito currently has 52 weekly flights to the US. (Source: anna.aero)
- Volaris has launched three new links between Mexico and the U.S. On March 1st, it began new service from Mexico City to Houston Intercontinental and New York JFK. Both of these routes are already served by Aeromexico, Interjet and one US carrier. Then, on March 2nd, it began service between Guadalajara and Milwaukee. It is also the only one of the airline’s three new US routes which does not face any direct competition. Volaris has grown its share of the Mexico-USA market to 9.2 percent as measured by seat capacity. This ranks the carrier fifth behind American Airlines (20.1 percent), United Airlines (19.3 percent), Delta Air Lines (14.1 percent) and Aeromexico (10.7 percent), but ahead of Southwest Airlines (6.9 percent) and Interjet (5.6 percent). Source: anna.aero)
- In a sign that the Brazil-USA market is recovering, Azul will increase the number of its flights between Recife and Orlando this summer. The service—which complements school vacation season in both the United States and Brazil—will take place on Mondays and Fridays from July 1 to July 31.. “The high demand on this route shows that our strategy was correct and we will continue investing and adjusting our operations in Recife whenever necessary so that we can offer the best experience to the Customers,” said Azul’s planning director, Daniel Tkacz.
