Routes In Brief: Rolling Daily Updates (W/C June 12, 2023)

Finnair a320
Credit: Tristar Photos/Alamy Stock Photo

June 16

 

Aegean Airlines and Cyprus Airways will begin a codeshare partnership on June 20. The move will see Aegean place its A3 code on flights operated by Cyprus Airways to Paris, Rome, Milan, Beirut, Cairo, Yerevan in Armenia and all Greek destinations. Cyprus Airways will place its CY code on all Aegean’s networks in Greece and the airline’s flights to Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. “This is an important day for us as we are setting the foundation to further enhance cooperation with like-minded airline partners and continue with our journey to expand our network to offer the Cypriot community new travel opportunities to Europe and beyond, while making it easier for travelers from all over the world to visit Cyprus,” Cyprus Airways CEO Paul Sies says.


Eurowings is expanding its operations at Stockholm Arlanda Airport with the introduction of a new direct route to Beirut. Starting from Sept. 6, the low-cost carrier will offer up to two flights per week on Wednesdays and Sundays, until the end of the summer schedule, and up to two times per week on Mondays and Fridays during the winter of 2023-24. Eurowings operates a fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft in Stockholm. “It is evident that there’s a demand from travelers who wish to visit their friends and family in the Middle East, as well as from tourists who wish to discover something new,” says Elizabeth Axtelius, director aviation business at Swedavia.


Avianca has launched a new route linking Ecuador’s capital Quito with Cancun, Mexico. Flights will be 3X-weekly using Airbus A320 aircraft. The route will offer 4,000 seats per month between the destinations.


AirAsia X is resuming flights between Kuala Lumpur and Amritsar, India. Flights will be offered four times a week from Sept. 3. Amritsar becomes the airline’s second destination in India alongside Delhi, and the route is expected to provide about 157,000 additional seats between Kuala Lumpur and India. “The restart of this route is also part of our efforts to strengthen AAX's position in South Asia, complementing our robust network in North Asia,” AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail says.

 

June 15

 

Finnair has updated its traffic plan for the summer 2024 season. In Scandinavia, the airline is adding frequencies to Tromsø and Trondheim in Norway. It is also bringing back the flights it used to operate prior to the pandemic between Helsinki and Bergen, which make a stopover in Stockholm Arlanda. There will also be an additional morning frequency from Helsinki to Arlanda, as well as more frequencies to Billund, Denmark. In Germany, there will be increased frequencies to Düsseldorf and Hamburg. In the UK and Ireland, Finnair is adding flights to Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin. Finnair is also adding more frequencies to both Tokyo Narita and Osaka in Japan. In Poland, Finnair will increase frequencies to Krakow, resume flights to Gdansk and introduce Wroclaw as a new destination from April 2, 2024.


Frontier Airlines has launched nonstop service from Orlando International Airport (MCO) to Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten. With the new service, the ULCC serves a total of 57 nonstop destinations from MCO. Frequencies on the new route will be once a week.


Air Serbia has commenced a new service between Belgrade and Palermo. The airline will operate flights from Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport to the Sicilian city twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays throughout the entire summer season.


 

June 14

 

Latvian airline airBaltic is to open a seasonal base in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, for the upcoming northern winter season. The carrier plans to station two Airbus A220-300 aircraft at Gran Canaria Airport, offering 10 routes. “For winter months, when the overall passenger demand worldwide is traditionally lower, we have identified an opportunity to optimize our capacity to be as efficient as possible,” airBaltic President and CEO Martin Gauss says. In addition to existing flights between Riga and Las Palmas, which were launched last year, the airline will now connect the airport to nine new destinations in northern Europe. From early December, service from Las Palmas begins to Bergen, Oslo-Gardermoen, and Oslo-Sandefjord Torp in Norway; Aalborg, Billund and Copenhagen in Denmark; Vilnius, Lithuania; Tampere, Finland; and Tallinn, Estonia.


BA Euroflyer plans to launch a 2X-weekly London Gatwick-Fuerteventura service from Nov. 2. Fuerteventura will join Tenerife, Lanzarote and Gran Canaria as the fourth Canary Island served by the short-haul airline. Flights will operate on Thursdays and Sundays during the winter season using a mix of Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft. A third flight will be introduced on Wednesdays from Feb. 28, 2024. Fuerteventura is the seventh new service to be added to BA Euroflyer’s route network this year. The airline recently announced new summer flights to Montpellier, France; Corfu and Mykonos, Greece; and Salzburg, Germany. BA Euroflyer has also announced new winter services to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, and Innsbruck, Austria.


Colombia’s Avianca is opening a domestic route linking Medellín and San Andrés. Frequencies will be 6X-weekly from July 6 using Airbus A320s. “With this route, the airline seeks to continue strengthening its point-to-point network and contribute to the economic and tourist reactivation of both regions,” the carrier says in a statement.


Emirates Airline is to offer premium economy seating on daily Dubai-Bangalore and Dubai-Mumbai flights, starting on Oct. 29. The services will be operated using newly retrofitted Airbus A380 aircraft. Premium economy already features on flights to nine destinations globally, including New York John F. Kennedy, San Francisco and Houston. The premium economy cabins will also make their debut to Los Angeles in July, bringing the number of routes offering the product to 12 by the end of 2023.


Icelandic carrier Play has begun flights to Dusseldorf, Germany. The route from Reykjavik Keflavik to Dusseldorf International will be served 3X-weekly on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays aboard Airbus A320neo aircraft. Play CEO Birgir Jónsson said the route would open up new one-stop connections to North America for travelers from the Dusseldorf region.


 

June 13

 

Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) is to resume flights from Tokyo Narita to Perth, Australia during the northern winter 2023-24 season. From Oct. 29, flights will be 3X-weekly. The route returns after an absence of about three and a half years after being suspended at the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. ANA has also announced plans to increase the Tokyo Narita-Dalian, China, frequency from 4X-weekly to daily, commencing July 3. The airline also intends to add one daily Tokyo Narita-Singapore frequency, effective July 28 through Aug. 31.


Air Montenegro has launched scheduled flights between Tivat, Montenegro, and Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The route will be served twice a week on Mondays and Fridays until Sept. 8. The airline previously offered charter flights between the destinations.


UK leisure carrier Jet2.com says it has added an additional 75,000 seats to sunshine destinations in Turkey (Antalya, Izmir and Bodrum), Croatia (Dubrovnik), mainland Spain (Girona, Alicante and Reus), the Balearics (Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca), Montenegro (Tivat), Portugal (Faro), Cyprus (Larnaca), Italy (Naples), Greece (Rhodes) and the Canaries (Tenerife and Gran Canaria) for the summer 2024 season. The extra capacity has been added from 10 of the airline’s UK bases.


U.S. carrier Avelo Airlines has commenced flights from Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, in South Carolina, to Orlando, Florida. The route will be served twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays before switching to Mondays and Fridays on June 23. The LCC will also begin a 2X-weekly service to two additional destinations on June 22: Connecticut’s Tweed-New Haven Airport and Delaware's Wilmington Airport.


Canadian ULCC Lynx Air has begun its inaugural flights from Fredericton International Airport to Toronto Pearson International Airport and Calgary International Airport. The airline will operate three services a week from Fredericton to Toronto and Calgary. The Fredericton-Calgary flights will operate as “through flights,” with a short stop in Toronto.


Wizz Air is ramping up service from Tirana, Albania, ahead of Ryanair’s planned expansion in the market. Flights to Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Bucharest, Sofia, Prague and Krakow will start in the upcoming winter season. Service to Malta, Palermo and Chania, Greece, will start from March 2024.

“We are now further expanding our network in Albania with 10 new flights and almost 100 extra flights per week,” Wizz Air Network Officer Evelin Jeckel said. “This strategic decision reflects our commitment to meeting the growing demand of our passengers.”

David Casey

David Casey is Editor in Chief of Routes, the global route development community's trusted source for news and information.