- On July 1, Air Canada launched flights between Toronto Pearson and Mumbai, and will be operating the service over the long route (7.760 miles) four times weekly on its fleet of 787-9s. The carrier already connects Toronto, as well as Vancouver, to Delhi. No other carrier currently links Mumbai to Canada. †
- Hong Kong Airlineslaunched its first route to North America on June 30th with daily service to Vancouver from Hong Kong. The route is already served flown 17 times weekly by Cathay Pacific Airways and daily by Air Canada. †
- LOT Polish Airlinesadded its only long-haul route from Krakowon July 3rd, by launching weekly service on Mondays year-round to Chicago O’Hare. It was a route that was last served in October 2010. T With this launch, it means that LOT Polish Airlines now offers six routes across the Atlantic on 38 weekly flights according to OAG schedules, with it also serving O’Hare, Los Angeles, New York’s JFK and Newark, plus Toronto Pearson from Warsaw. †
- On June 27, Xiamen Airlineslaunched its third USA service connecting its home base of Xiamen with Los Angeles (LAX). The carrier will operate the three times weekly, and it faces no direct competition. The carrier already links Shenzhen with Seattle-Tacoma and Fuzhou with New York JFK. All of these US routes are currently operated with three weekly flights. †
- Condorexpanded its long-haul network on June 21st with the addition of twice-weekly (Wednesdays and Saturdays) flights from Munich to Seattle-Tacoma. Two days later the airline launched another transatlantic route connecting Frankfurtand Pittsburgh. This marks the first time Pittsburgh and Germany have been connected with non-stop service since 2004. Service will be two-times-a-week service for both destinations. Condor faces no competition on either route. †
- Air Canadalaunched a new long-haul connection from Montreal to Tel Aviv on June 22nd. On the new route, Air Canada will go head-to-head with Air Transat, which started serving the sector on June 18th. †
- Next year, low-cost carrier Norwegian will be offering new low-fare transatlantic services to Austin and Chicago from London Gatwick. Austin, Texas will be served with three flights a week and Chicago by four a week from next spring. Single fares start at £239 ($309) to Austin and £179 ($232) to Chicago. The Chicago service starts on March 25, 2018 and Austin two days later.
A note: Air China (20.2 percent) and United Airlines (20.0 percent) have the greatest share of seats in the China-USA market. Chinese airlines currently account for just over 60% of seat capacity between the two countries. †
† Source: anna.aero
