Welcome to my 107th weekly routes newsletter! I’ve covered a few subjectively exciting examples that took off recently. They include Ethiopian Airlines’ London Gatwick resumption; I’m on the inaugural service back to Addis Ababa on the day of writing this text. Why not enroll and receive my newsletter in your email inbox every week?
That makes 13 US destinations
Turkish Airlines has inaugurated service between Istanbul and Detroit. The three-weekly service, which rises to 4 in December and five weekly next summer, is operated by the Boeing 787-9.
TK205 departs Turkey at 15:45 and arrives in Michigan at 18:50 local. Returning, TK206 leaves at 21:35 and gets back at 15:35+1.
Detroit, the carrier’s thirteenth US destination, is an obvious selection. While it isn’t a Star Alliance hub, the metro population has a major Levant population, which competitor Royal Jordanian has served for years.
Turkish Airlines is well-placed geographically to capitalize on this traffic, particularly to Lebanon, Jordan, Israel (no less than normally), and Iraq. Elsewhere, the broader Middle East will probably be a very important goal, likewise Albania, North Africa, Bangladesh, and India.
Ethiopian in Gatwick after 17 years
It is difficult to assume that Ethiopian Airlines last served Gatwick in 2006 when it operated on a one-stop basis using the Boeing 757-200ER. Things couldn’t be different now, with three weekly non-stop Airbus A350-900 flights that began on November twenty first, with some photos below. I interviewed the airline’s Chief Business Officer, Lemma Yadecha Gudeta; more on that soon.
The launch got here per week after the Star Alliance carrier resumed Bangui, Central African Republic, after 11 years. It became its 76th African destination from its Addis Ababa hub.
While Ethiopian’s other European destinations typically see aircraft remain on the bottom all day to reach in Addis early the following day (06:00-07:00+), Gatwick is different. Flights return at 20:40, offering far fewer transit opportunities than the height time.
But this somewhat misses the purpose. Entebbe, Harare, Johannesburg, Kigali, Lilongwe, Lusaka, Nairobi, and Seychelles – all significant markets from London – can be found, supplementing the point-to-point market. Gatwick’s 10:10 departure provides passengers two decisions of London departure times, alongside the everyday 20:15 from Heathrow.
A launch
Australia’s only independent LCC, Bonza, has opened its third base on the ever-popular Gold Coast, joining existing bases at Sunshine Coast and Melbourne. Its first Gold Coast route – to Townsville – took off on November fifteenth and is five weekly. It used VH-UIK, a 4.6-year-old Boeing 737 MAX 8, of which it now has five.
That first service was joined by Mackay and Melbourne on the sixteenth, Albury and Rockhampton on the twentieth, and Launceston – its first airport in Tasmania – on the twenty first.
An extra eight routes will begin in the approaching weeks for a complete of 14, including overnight services from the Northern Territory – one other latest state – back to the Gold Coast. In all, only three destinations could have direct competition; such is the character of Bonza’s network plan.
That is the
What is best than a brand new route celebration? Three celebrations! Especially in the event that they are all on the identical day, from the identical airport, and with one airline, as within the case of Spirit from Tampa.
It has commenced service to Charleston (SC), Norfolk, and Richmond, all served 4 weekly. They’re relatively small markets by the ULCC’s standards. It comes as Tampa recently welcomed Porter and Lynx began two routes from the Florida airport, and as Tampa gained one other Frontier route (to Baltimore).
Spirit competes directly with Breeze on all three airport pairs. Charleston is used to having two operators, with Breeze against ATR-operating Silver Airways until earlier in 2023; Spirit will probably be somewhat more difficult. Richmond had three operators in 2021 and 2022: Southwest, Breeze, and JetBlue. Only Norfolk has never had a couple of carrier before – until now.
different?
In a highly different launch, all-business-class brand-new airline Beond – no y – has launched operations. Its first business service left Male, Maldives, for Munich on November fifteenth, taking about 11.5 hours to succeed in Bavaria with a refueling stop in Dubai.
Its second route – Male to Zurich via Dubai – began two days later, while number three – to Riyadh – starts on November twenty third. All are served twice-weekly. Milan is as a result of begin next yr, even though it isn’t on sale. Interestingly, its lowest-priced fare family, called Delight Experience, doesn’t even include lounge access.
For now, Beyond has one aircraft: a 44-seat A319. Registered 8Q-FBA, it began life flying for easyJet as G-EZEA and was the airline’s first Airbus aircraft delivered. It’s an amusing about-face: from LCC to ultra-premium.
Avelo jets off to Puerto Rico
Marking the carrier’s next chapter, Avelo has inaugurated service to San Juan from Connecticut’s Tweed Recent Haven and Delaware’s Wilmington. Each are served twice-weekly using the 189-seat Boeing 737-800.
When Avelo’s entire network is taken into account, Tweed Recent Haven is the airline’s most-served airport by seats on the market this winter, while Wilmington ranks third. Not surprisingly, it’s the primary time each airports have had Puerto Rico flights. They’re based on a major Puerto Rican diaspora.
San Juan has non-stop flights to 31 mainland US airports with nine airlines this winter. Despite low frequencies and a limited network, Avelo isn’t the smallest operator. Sun Country is, with its typical weekly to 3 weekly service from Minneapolis, rising to day by day during Christmastime.
World’s latest 4th longest MAX 8 route
The world has a brand new fourth-longest Boeing 737 MAX 8 route, although it will be very much second if the variety of flights were considered. Operated by the Dominican Republic’s Arajet, it’s between Santo Domingo and Buenos Aires.
Launched on November 14th, it covers a substantial 3,734 miles (6,009 km) – longer than London Heathrow to Washington Dulles. It comes shortly after it began flying to Toronto, Montreal, and Santiago de Chile.
Served 3 times weekly, DM333 leaves Santo Domingo at 17:55 and arrives in Argentina at 03:05+1 local. Returning, DM334 departs at 04:25 and gets back at 11:40. It’s timed for two-way connectivity. Flightradar24 shows that the primary outbound flight took 7h 54m and 7h 46m back. Fancy that?
Take off: flynas to Bahrain
The purpose-to-point market between the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and Bahrain is a fairly large one. Between January and September 2023, greater than 155,000 passengers flew (roundtrip). Traffic will grow much more following the launch of flynas, which may also provide many onward connection opportunities across Saudi Arabia and more.
It’s a relaunch: flynas served the 261-mile (420 km) market between 2015 and 2017. Further back, Cathay Pacific flew Hong Kong-Bahrain-Riyadh between 2008 and 2013 using the A330, A340, and 777.
Examining December data shows that flynas’ day by day A320neo service will compete directly with Bahrain’s Gulf Air (35 weekly; A320, A321, and 787-9) and Saudia (five weekly; A320/A321). Coming soon is flynas’ Jeddah-Bahrain service.
That is all for now, folks. Join to get something like this in your inbox each week.