Alaska Airlines will significantly expand at Newark Liberty International Airport and introduce new services from Portland, Oregon and San Diego, California from the start of November 2016, with new service to San Jose, California beginning in March 2017.
Delta and Virgin Atlantic’s joint venture is based around offering customers more options and a seamless experience between the US and the UK. The airlines are continuously evaluating their joint Transatlantic network to match the right aircraft to the right destinations and the summer 2017 network growth and route switches are a clear example of this.
JetBlue confirms it will take delivery of ten additional Airbus A321s in 2017 and nine of these will be configured in its MINT arrangement to be introduced on routes to Las Vegas, San Diego and Seattle from New York; to San Diego and Seattle from Boston and to Los Angeles and San Francisco from Fort Lauderdale.
Alaska Airlines, which has been in operation since 1932, has announced a rebranding of its aircraft, livery, website and mobile app. It comes at a time of immense growth for the carrier, which has added 90 markets and begun services to 26 new cities in just the past five years.
Seattle is now on the route maps of ten air carriers from outside the Americas, including major brands like All Nippon Airways, Condor, Emirates, Hainan Airlines, Icelandair, Lufthansa and Korean Air which have added to long-standing routes from Asiana Airlines, British Airways and EVA Air. A lasting legacy for managing director, Mark Reis as he steps down from the helm during February 2016.
The carrier said in formal correspondence with the DOT that it feels it is “not commercially feasible” to continue operate the slots allocated to Delta for Seattle-Haneda service on a consistent daily basis year-round because of variable year-round demand and a lack of partner operator in the Japanese market at the airport, close to downtown Tokyo.
US regional carrier SkyWest Airlines will begin flying the its Embraer E175 jets for Alaska Airlines on July 1, 2015 with the start of new services from Seattle to both Milwaukee and Oklahoma City, and between Portland, Oregon and St Louis.
As per the US-Japan bilateral agreement, US airlines may only operate a total of four daily round-trip flights at Haneda Airport. Currently that service is provided by Delta Air Lines from Los Angeles and Seattle, Hawaiian Airlines from Honolulu, and United Airlines from San Francisco.
The introduction of a daily Emirates link between Dubai and Orlando will bring an estimated $100 million economic impact for Central Florida, according to Frank Kruppenbacher, chairman of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, who described the arrival of the UAE carrier as “the biggest move forward for our airport and this community.”
The Port of Seattle Commission has approved an enhanced program for new commercial air services to small communities in order to stimulate critical links between them and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Major US carrier, Delta Air Lines has announced its plans to add a non-stop service to Kona on the ‘Big Island’ of Hawaii, as well as increasing services from its hub at Seattle-Tacoma.
The filings, citing underutilisation of a scarce resource, have been prompted by the US DOT's decision last month to review the public interest served by Delta Air Lines' Seattle - Tokyo route after the US major reduced its frequency from daily to a basic seasonal schedule.
The US carrier confirms SkyWest has purchased seven E175s from the Brazilian manufacturer to fly on its behalf under a capacity purchase agreement (CPA). The first three aircraft will arrive in the summer of 2015 and will be used to introduce daily flights from Seattle to Milwaukee and Oklahoma City and from Portland to St Louis from July 1, 2015.
From May 4, 2015, SkyWest Airlines will introduce four times daily Delta Connection flights to Boise, Idaho and Sacramento, Calif, while seasonal daily flights to Ketchikan, Alaska and Sitka, Alaska will be added from May 15, 2015. The fifth new route to Denver will come online from June 5, 2015 and will be flown on a five times daily basis by Compass Airlines under the Delta Connection brand.
As Delta Air Lines’ expansion continues unabated and connecting traffic flows begin to shift toward this Pacific Northwest city, it is becoming increasingly clear that the industry is witnessing something that hasn’t been seen in a long time in the airline industry — a US legacy carrier developing a new airport hub from the ground up.
Alaska Airlines introduced service to Mexico in 1988 and operates more non-stop flights between the US West Coast and Mexico than any other carrier, flying an average of 1.5 million passengers a year.
