The latest airline route news, featuring network changes, schedule alterations, codeshares and interline agreements.
Oct. 16
Air India will launch nonstop service between Delhi and Osaka Kansai on Feb. 2, 2027, becoming the only airline operating the route. Flights will operate 4X-weekly using Boeing 787-8 aircraft configured with 18 business-class and 241 economy-class seats. Osaka will become Air India’s second destination in Japan after Tokyo Haneda, which is served daily from Delhi and 4X-weekly from Mumbai. The expansion comes amid rising travel between India and Japan. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, more than 315,000 Indian travelers visited Japan in 2025, up 35% year over year and almost 80% above pre-pandemic levels.
Ryanair has announced plans to open a two-aircraft base at Rimini, Italy, for summer 2027. The ULCC will offer more than 600,000 seats and 114 weekly flights across 17 routes. Five new destinations will be added: Dublin, Ireland; Memmingen, Germany; Stockholm, Sweden; Tirana, Albania; and Warsaw, Poland. Ryanair attributed the expansion to Emilia-Romagna’s abolition of the municipal aviation tax. The airline says the new base will support more than 500 jobs.
Avelo Airlines will add two Florida destinations from McKinney National Airport in Texas in December, expanding its planned network from the airport to 11 routes. McKinney-Sarasota/Bradenton service will begin Dec. 16, followed by flights to West Palm Beach on Dec. 17. The additions come shortly after Avelo launches operations at McKinney on Nov. 11 with routes to Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando and Tampa. Denver, Atlanta, New Orleans and Nashville will follow in mid-December. Avelo will also increase McKinney-Las Vegas service to 6X-weekly during the peak holiday period, adding Wednesday and Saturday flights to its existing Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday schedule.
Flair Airlines plans to launch nonstop service between Edmonton and Saint John, New Brunswick, on June 15, 2027, becoming the first airline to offer scheduled nonstop flights between the two Canadian cities. The route will operate 2X-weekly. The addition will expand Flair’s domestic network from Edmonton and mark the airline’s entry into Saint John.
EasyJet will open five additional UK routes for summer 2027, including three services from Southampton and new links from London Gatwick and London Luton. Daily Southampton-Edinburgh flights will begin March 28, followed by 2X-weekly Southampton-Malaga, Spain, from May 1 and Southampton-La Rochelle, France, from May 29. The airline will also launch 3X-weekly London Gatwick-Cagliari, Italy, on June 1 and 2X-weekly London Luton-Rennes, France, on July 1. The additions follow 18 new UK routes announced by EasyJet in September.
Royal Air Maroc is launching nonstop service between Casablanca and Essaouira, Morocco, on Nov. 1, expanding its domestic network. The route will operate 2X-weekly on Wednesdays and Sundays under an agreement with the Marrakech-Safi region. Wednesday flights will depart Casablanca at 4 p.m., while Sunday services will leave at 8:20 a.m., with a flight time of about 1 hr. 20 min. The airline says the route is intended to improve domestic connectivity and support tourism and economic development in the Essaouira region.
Condor has commenced daily flights between Berlin Brandenburg Airport and Abu Dhabi, expanding its network from the German capital. The route is operated using a 180-seat Airbus A320neo and is offered as a codeshare with Etihad Airways.
Oct. 15
LOT Polish Airlines and Thai Airways plan to launch a codeshare partnership from the start of the summer 2027 season. The Star Alliance members have signed an agreement covering selected destinations in Europe, Asia and Oceania, with the codeshare subject to regulatory approval. The agreement will build on an existing interline partnership that already allows passengers to combine LOT and Thai Airways flights on a single journey. The agreement coincides with LOT’s resumption of nonstop Warsaw-Bangkok service on Oct. 7. The route operates 3X-weekly initially, increasing to 6X-weekly from Nov. 2 using Boeing 787 aircraft.
Argentina has authorized JetSmart Chile to operate domestic and international passenger and cargo services with traffic rights extending to ninth freedom, allowing the Chilean carrier to operate cabotage flights within Argentina. Under the authorization, JetSmart plans new services linking Santiago with Rio de Janeiro and Florianopolis via Buenos Aires Aeroparque, including the ability to carry passengers on the domestic and fifth-freedom sectors. The airline already operates Aeroparque-Santiago and Mendoza-Santiago, as well as Santiago-Mendoza-Rio de Janeiro. The approval follows an April 2024 agreement between Argentina and Chile that expanded traffic rights.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has granted Qantas and American Airlines authorization to continue their transpacific joint business for a further five years, through Oct. 30, 2031. The alliance allows the Oneworld carriers to coordinate operations between and within Australia and the U.S., New Zealand, Canada and Mexico. Cooperation covers areas including schedules, capacity, pricing, revenue sharing, marketing, frequent-flyer programs and cargo operations. Qantas and American applied for renewed authorization in November 2025. The ACCC granted interim approval in April 2026 and issued a draft determination supporting a five-year extension in September before granting final authorization on Oct. 14.
Oct. 14
Oman Air plans to increase frequencies and capacity across its network for the winter 2026-27 season, with Europe and Russia receiving some of the largest increases. Muscat-Moscow will rise from 4X- to up to 8X-weekly, while Paris, Frankfurt, Munich, Milan and Istanbul will each operate up to 5X-weekly. Zurich capacity will triple compared with the summer season, with widebody aircraft deployed on up to 5X-weekly flights. The carrier will also operate its first full winter season to Singapore at 4X-weekly, Tashkent at 2X-weekly and Sochi weekly. Boeing 787s will be deployed on selected Mumbai and Dhaka services, while Muscat-Salalah will operate up to 5X-daily and Khasab up to 4X-weekly.
Aeroitalia will operate special flights from Genoa to Alghero and Olbia, Italy, over the Christmas and New Year period, restoring two Sardinian links served during the summer season. Genoa-Olbia flights will operate on Dec. 24 and 30 and Jan. 2 and 6, while Genoa-Alghero services are scheduled for Dec. 23, 26 and 29 and Jan. 4. Each route will therefore operate on four dates during the holiday period. The additions expand Aeroitalia’s presence at Genoa, where the airline opened an operating base in February 2026.
Volaris Costa Rica is launching seasonal nonstop service between Guatemala City and Orlando on Dec. 18, expanding its Central America-U.S. network. The route will operate 3X-weekly using Airbus A320neo aircraft through April 2, 2027. The ULCC will compete with Frontier Airlines, which also connects the Guatemala City and Orlando city pairs, according to OAG Schedules Analyser data.
Oct. 13
Vietnam Airlines will launch 4X-weekly nonstop service between Hanoi and Ahmedabad, India, on Nov. 3. Flights will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays using Airbus A321 aircraft, taking Vietnam Airlines’ India schedule to 25 round trips per week across seven routes. Ahmedabad will become the carrier’s fifth destination in the country, alongside Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, with services offered from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam Airlines says India is Vietnam’s eighth-largest international visitor market, with more than 670,000 Indian arrivals during the first nine months of 2026, up 33% year over year.
Brommaflyg is commencing a nonstop service in Sweden between Visby and Malmo on March 25, 2027. The route will operate 2X-weekly on Fridays and Sundays between Visby Airport and Malmo Airport. Malmo will become Brommaflyg’s third destination from Visby. The Gotland-based carrier launched flights to Stockholm Bromma in October 2025, restoring the link between Gotland and Stockholm’s city airport, before adding service to Gothenburg Landvetter in April 2026.
Ryanair plans to withdraw from Bremen Airport, Germany, from April 2027, ending all five routes currently operated from the airport as it again criticized the cost of operating in the country. OAG Schedules Analyser data shows Ryanair’s summer 2026 Bremen network comprises flights to Alicante, London Stansted, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Zadar. Palma is the largest route, with about 59,300 departing seats during the season, closely followed by London Stansted with 59,100. The ULCC says the withdrawal would remove about 500,000 seats annually from Bremen. The airline attributed the decision to airport charges, air traffic control and security fees, as well as Germany’s air passenger tax, and said the capacity would be redeployed to other European markets.
Luxair has begun deploying its Embraer 195-E2 on selected flights between Luxembourg and London City Airport, with the aircraft making its first visit on Oct. 12. The airline operates up to 31 flights per week on the Luxembourg-London City route and will use the type on selected services, increasing capacity between the two financial centers.
Oct. 12
VietJet has launched flights linking Hanoi and Prague via Almaty, Kazakhstan, marking the Vietnamese LCC’s entry into the European Union. The inaugural services operated on Oct. 10, three months later than originally planned. The route operates 2X-weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays using Airbus A330 aircraft, with Vietjet exercising fifth-freedom rights on the Almaty-Prague sector. The launch establishes the first scheduled nonstop links between Vietnam and the Czech Republic, and between Almaty and Prague. Sabre Market Intelligence data shows that approximately 89,300 two-way O&D passengers traveled between Vietnam and the Czech Republic in 2025, with Hanoi-Prague accounting for about 72% of the market.
Ryanair has put 29 new routes on sale as the first additions to its summer 2027 schedule, which is expected to comprise more than 2,500 routes across 230 destinations. The additions include eleven UK routes: Birmingham-Wroclaw, Bournemouth-Porto, East Midlands-Gdansk, Exeter-Porto, Newcastle-Reus, Newcastle-Rhodes and Norwich-Malaga, alongside Leeds Bradford-Bari, Budapest, Corfu and Tirana. Elsewhere, new services include Alicante-Naples and Tangier, Athens-Turin, Dubrovnik-Warsaw Modlin, Krakow-Tangier, Palermo-Marrakech and Tirana, and Tangier-Turin. Ryanair says further summer 2027 routes will be announced later.
The U.S. Transportation Department has selected SkyWest Airlines to provide Essential Air Service at Bradford, Pennsylvania, under a four-year contract beginning Feb. 1, 2027. SkyWest will operate 12X-weekly round trips between Bradford Regional Airport and Washington Dulles using 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft. The contract runs through Jan. 31, 2031, with annual subsidies rising from $5.85 million in the first year to $6.39 million in the fourth. Southern Airways Express will continue operating Bradford services to Pittsburgh and Washington Dulles until Jan. 31, 2027, or until SkyWest begins service.
Air Arabia will launch 4X-weekly nonstop service between Sharjah and Amman City Airport on Nov. 15, expanding its network between the UAE and Jordan. The new route will give Air Arabia two destinations in the Jordanian capital from Sharjah, complementing its existing flights to Queen Alia International Airport.
Indian LCC IndiGo will launch daily nonstop flights to Udaipur from both Noida International Airport and Navi Mumbai International Airport, expanding its domestic network in India. Noida-Udaipur service will begin Oct. 25, followed by Navi Mumbai-Udaipur on Nov. 15. The additions will take IndiGo’s Udaipur network to seven destinations, alongside Bengaluru, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Mumbai.
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