New Air Service—Near Future

• Hainan Airlines will launch a nonstop service between Chongqing, China and New York (JFK) on October 20, 2017, marking the first non-stop service between a city in the western part of China and New York. Beginning October 20, round-trip flights will be available twice each week. The new route departs Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport on Wednesdays and Fridays at 10:00 pm (Beijing time) and arrives John F. Kennedy International Airport at 12:50 am (U.S. East Coast time) the following day. Return flights depart John F. Kennedy International Airport on Thursdays and Saturdays at 2:50 am (U.S. East Coast time) and arrive Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport at 6:35 am the following day (Beijing time). The new service between Chongqing and New York is Hainan Airlines’ 13th direct service offering to North America.
• Beginning December 14, 2017, Thomas Cook Airlines is extending its Manchester-New York flight to a year-round service. Three additional flights to John F Kennedy airport will launch, making it the airline’s first full service to the U.S. from Manchester. Current U.S. routes from Manchester include Miami, Orlando, New York, Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
• In the summer of 2018, Condor will have a new U.S. destination in its flight plan: Phoenix, Arizona will be accessible beginning May 18 from Frankfurt nonstop on Mondays and Fridays at 5:35 pm. In return, Condor is no longer offering flights to San Diego in 2018. The reason: Lufthansa has announced a new route on this route. Starting next summer, Lufthansa has said it will fly between San Diego and Frankfurt, Germany, five days a week.

• WOW air is scheduled to add yet another route between its Reykjavik/Keflavik based in Iceland and North America beginning July 13 when it plans to launch service to Chicago O’Hare four times a week (Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays). Connections to a number of European cities are available from Reykjavik/Keflavik.

 

New Air Service: Just Started

• Air Canadalaunched its latest long-haul service from Vancouveron June 8, a week after it started service from Vancouver to Frankfurt. The carrier now offers a daily service between Vancouver and Taipei Taoyuan. Air Canada becomes the first North American-based carrier to serve this route, with China Airlines and EVA Airways already connecting the two cities. †

• TAP Portugal has expanded its operations to include Toronto Pearson Apart from Lisbon. †

• Norwegianhas begun three new transatlantic routes from Edinburgh and the New York City metropolitan area: to Stewart Airport 65 miles north of Manhattan in New Windsor, N.Y. on June 15; to Providence, R.I. on June 16; and to Hartford, Conn. on June 17. †

• On June 14, Air Europa added a three-times-a-week flight from its Madrid hub to Boston—its third U.S. destination. The airline already flies daily to New York JFK and Miami from Madrid. †

• Beginning June 18, Air Transatlaunched its longest flight—a connection between Montreal and Tel Aviv. Air Transat will link the Canadian and Israeli cities twice-weekly (Wednesdays and Sundays). Also, on June 22, Air Canada began serving the same route twice-weekly (Thursdays and Sundays). †

• On June 16, WOW airadded Pittsburghto its network of routes in North America. The new service offers five weekly flights from Reykjavik/Keflavik. No other carrier offers service between the two destinations. Also, Condor began flights between Pittsburgh and Frankfurt began on June 23. †

† Source: anna.aero

 

• airberlinbegan a new long-haul service on May 16 from Berlin toLos Angeles (LAX). The airline now offers three connections per week between the two cities. And on May 29, airberlin launched service from Berlin to San Francisco. †

• Delta Air Lineshas begun several new European connections. Two of the new European routes are, in reality, resumptions, with the Atlanta-based carrier operating flights from New York JFK to Lisbon for the first time since the winter months of 1995, while a New York JFK to Berlin flight was last operate in the summer period of 2011. A new Portland-to-London Heathrowroute makes Portland Delta’s eighth city to be connected to Heathrow. †

• United Airlineshas launched seasonal daily flights between San Franciscoand Munich. (Its Star Alliance partner, Lufthansa, already operates a daily service between the two cities). This new seasonal service will operate until September 4th. United also serves Frankfurt in Germany with double-daily flights this summer. †

• LEVEL, the new low-cost long-haul entity set-up by IAG (it includes British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vuelo), launched operations June 1st with service between its Barcelona hub and Los Angeles (LAX) over a route that will initially operate twice-weekly. Then, on June 2nd, it began service from Barcelona to Oakland, California. The latter will operate three times a week (Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays). As a result, there will be a battle between LEVEL and rival low-cost, long-haul carrier Norwegian, which launched Barcelona–Los Angeles and Barcelona–Oakland service on June 5 and June 7, respectively. †

• On May, 30, Icelandair began service from its Reykjavik/Keflavik hub to Philadelphia—a 2,672-mile route that will operate four times a week and have no direct competition from other carriers. †

• Air Canada Rouge has added two new long-haul routes to its route structure. On June 1, it launched service between Vancouver and Nagoya, a 4,846-mile connection that will operate three times a week. And on June 3, it began service from Toronto Pearson four times a week to Berlin. The latter, a 4,024-mile flight, will operate four times weekly. On June 8, Air Canada Rouge began service from London Gatwick to Vancouver, and on June 21, it will launch a route from Vancouver to Reykjavik/Keflavik. †

• Air Canadahas begun twice-daily flights to Denver from Vancouver. Air Canada already serves Denver from Montreal and Toronto Pearson. Air Canada now links Vancouver to 15 U.S. airports in the US on 220 weekly flights. †

† Source: anna-aero

Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air has confirmed that its new transatlantic flights from Ireland to the USA’s East Coast will include use of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP’s) pre-clearance facilities at Dublin and Shannon airports. The services, which start in July, will fly to Stewart International Airport in Newburgh/Windsor, Orange County, New York—about 60 miles north of New York City; and Thomas Cook will fly to Providence Airport, which is 60 miles south of Boston’s Logan International Airport. Cork Airport in Ireland will also get its first ever transatlantic flights with a service to Providence.

U.S. pre-clearance allows passengers to undertake all U.S. inspections prior to departure, so they can skip immigration queues on arrival in the US. Today, CBP has more than 600 law enforcement officers and agriculture specialists stationed at 15 air preclearance locations in 6 countries: Dublin and Shannon in Ireland; Aruba; Freeport and Nassau in The Bahamas; Bermuda; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; and Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Winnipeg in Canada. In Fiscal Year 2016, CBP personnel stationed abroad precleared 18 million travelers, representing over 15 percent of all commercial air travelers to the United States.

In order to make the flight to suburban New York a more seamless connection to New York City, Norwegian has also confirmed details of a new direct shuttle service from Stewart International Airport into central New York City. The new service, operated by Coach USA, has been timed to meet Norwegian’s flight arrivals, allowing passengers to take a direct journey into central Manhattan for $20.

Said Norwegian’s chief commercial officer Thomas Ramdahl: “The countdown is now on … and we look forward to welcoming many Irish passengers on-board our affordable flights to the US this summer.”

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On May 14th, Thomas Cook Airlines launched its inaugural flight to San Francisco (SFO) from Manchester Airport. (Manchester is 190 miles north of London Heathrow.) Thomas Cook is the largest carrier serving the U.S. from the UK airport. “We are absolutely delighted to see Thomas Cook Airlines’ inaugural flight to San Francisco leave from Manchester, the UK’s global gateway to and from the North,” said Stephen Turner, commercial director at Manchester Airport. “Manchester is the only UK airport outside of London to offer direct services to San Francisco and gives our 26.5 million annual passengers easy access to the West Coast of the U.S.” Twice-weekly flights (Sundays and Thursdays) to San Francisco are operated by Thomas Cook’s A330-200s, and face competition from Virgin Atlantic Airways’ three times weekly service from London Heathrow.

On May 3rd, Condor began service to two U.S. cities: to New Orleans from its Frankfurt base; and to Las Vegas from Munich. This summer Condor will be operating to 10 US cities from Frankfurt and two from Munich with a total of 38 weekly departures, and pushing its share of the Germany-USA market up to six percent.

• American Airlines has begun new flights from two U.S. hubs to three European cities. Chicago O’Hare is now linked to Barcelona, Spain; Dallas Fort Worth is connected to Rome Fiumicino and Amsterdam. Daily service to and from all three cities began May 5. With these three launches, American now offers 52 routes between the U.S. and Europe on over 450 weekly flights this summer, with the busiest routes being from New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare to London and O’Hare to London; both are flown four times daily).†
• WestJet began another Canada-USA connection on May 4, with a 1,705-mile flight between Calgary and Nashville. Service will be twice-weekly (Thursdays and Sundays). No other airline currently offers flights between the two cities. With this launch, WestJet now offers 39 routes between Canada and the U.S. on 334 weekly flights. Calgary becomes the second destination in Canada to be served from Nashville, with WestJet already operating a daily service between Toronto Pearson and the capital city of Tennessee.†

 

† Source: anna.aero