Welcome to my ninetieth weekly routes newsletter! I’ve covered a few subjectively exciting routes that took off recently. Why not enroll and receive my newsletter in your email inbox every week?
flydubai begins Olbia, Corfu
As well as to varied seasonal routes which have recently resumed for the summer, flydubai has inaugurated two latest offerings. On June twenty second, it began Dubai to Olbia, Sardinia, followed two days later by Corfu.
Olbia has three weekly flights and Corfu two, each using Boeing 737 MAX 8s. Obviously, each are summer-only and can revolve around connecting passengers over Dubai, supplemented by the low existing point-to-point traffic.
Photo: via flydubai.
Corfu is one among three flydubai destinations in Greece, alongside Mykonos and Santorini. As you’ll expect, Emirates serves Athens. Of destinations now not served, there’s just one: Thessaloniki. It was briefly served by flydubai in summer 2018.
The launch of Olbia means flydubai serves five destinations in Italy, joining Catania, Milan Bergamo, Naples, and Pisa. It rises to nine when partner Emirates is included, with Bologna, Milan Malpensa, Rome Fiumicino, and Venice Marco Polo added.
PLAY’s 1st Canadian destination
Iceland’s PLAY inaugurated Keflavik to Hamilton, ~52 miles (83 km) from Toronto but closer to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and a few sizable Ontario cities. Launched on June twenty second, Hamilton is served as an alternative of Toronto Pearson. It offers much lower charges, is way less congested, and undoubtedly has great incentives. It’s going to help to offset the lower yields.
Using the A320neo, it operates each day and is PLAY’s first destination in Canada. The carrier’s arrival signifies that Hamilton again has Europe flights after Norwegian ended Dublin in 2019.
Photo: via PLAY.
PLAY now serves five North American airports: Boston, Stewart, Baltimore, Dulles, and Hamilton. All are timed to maximise two-way connectivity across wider Europe. The carrier has not yet announced additional destinations, but expect that to vary in the approaching months.
San Salvador-Madrid gets 2nd airline
For the primary time, the El Salvadorian capital now has not one but two airlines to Spain’s capital. It’s because of Avianca, San Salvador’s largest carrier, which commenced a three-weekly, summer-seasonal service on June twentieth. The last flight back is on September twenty first.
Using a wet-leased A330-200 from Wamos Air, AV300 departs Central America at 23:10 and arrives at 18:10 (+1) local. Returning, AV301 leaves at 01:40 and arrives home at 05:00.
Photo: via Avianca.
It competes directly with Iberia’s six-weekly Madrid-Guatemala City-San Salvador-Madrid triangular service, which also uses the A330-200. It rises to each day in August.
All go for the Maldives
They are saying things are available threes. The Maldives’ capital, Malé, welcomed flynas on June twentieth, the second carrier operating from Riyadh. Running three weekly, it uses 174-seat A320neos. Its first flight had just 96 passengers, a low 55% seat load factor.
Three days later, Batik Air Malaysia inaugurated its first non-stop Kuala Lumpur-Maldives flight, replacing its one-stop via Colombo that began in May 2023. Operating six weekly, 162-seat 737 MAX 8s are deployed.
Photo: via Maldives Airports Company.
The subsequent day, Oman’s flag carrier relaunched Muscat to Malé, lower than two months after fellow Omani carrier SalamAir ended it. Last served in April 2020, it uses the 737 MAX 8 on its 4 weekly services.
Take off: Norse from Rome to JFK
On June nineteenth, Norse Atlantic took off from Rome Fiumicino to Recent York JFK. Some 4,277 miles (6,884 km) apart, it’s the fourth carrier on the airport pair and the fifth when Newark is included. When combined, there are actually 11 peak summer flights – a record.
Running each day, Norse’s summer-seasonal route leaves Rome at 18:55 and arrives at JFK at 22:30. Returning, it departs at 00:30 and returns at 15:15. It uses the Boeing 787-9.
Photo: via Aeroporti di Roma.
Norse replaces Norwegian on the route. Norwegian flew Rome-Newark between November 2017 and October 2019 before switching to JFK, which led to March 2020. It carried 378,856 passengers but did poorly for loads aspects in winter – hence Norse’s summer focus.
That is it for the ninetieth edition of my routes newsletter. Join to get something like this in your inbox each week.