New routes launched during the last week
(Saturday 13 December – Friday 19 December)

Cake of the week: Turkish Airlines’ Istanbul to Birmingham

The relentless march of Turkish Airlines continues in Birmingham – celebrated by Paul Kehoe CEO Birmingham InternationaL, Rt Hon Joan Ryan MP and Candan Karlitekin, Chairman Turkish Airlines.

• Turkish Airlines launched flights from Istanbul (IST) to Birmingham (BHX) this week. There will be five weekly flights using a 737-800. This marks the first scheduled service between the two cities.

Festive route of the week: Aer Arann’s Dublin to Blackpool

Santa flew with the children from Our Lady’s hospital for sick children in Dublin, for a special day outing to Blackpool airport on Monday. Aer Arann will begin services between Dublin and Blackpool in January.

Saying it with flowers: airBaltic loves Germany – Hannover is its 5th route.

• airBaltic began serving Hannover (HAJ) this week from its home base in Riga (RIX). Flights will operate daily (except Wednesday and Sunday) using one of the airline’s Fokker 50s. Hannover becomes the airline’s fifth destination in Germany after Berlin (19 weekly departures), Dűsseldorf (four weekly flights), Hamburg (daily flights) and Munich (daily flights increasing to eight per week from 27 December). So far in 2008 airBaltic has seen passenger numbers rise by 29%. Even in November traffic was up an impressive 13% with the load factor remaining unchanged at 58%.

• airberlin.com has finally started flying to Ciudad Real (CQM) the new Spanish airport around 100 kilometres south of Madrid. It is serving the airport four times weekly from its base at Palma de Mallorca (PMI). The start of the routes has been delayed twice.

Mammoth Achievement (sorry we couldn’t resist that one) – 1m skiers visit the nearby resort of Mammoth Mountain, so the first scheduled services (from LA, pictured) makes a lot of sense.	Wooly the Mammoth made a special guest appearance.

• Alaska Airlines through its partner Horizon Air has started a new route from Los Angeles (LAX) to Mammoth Yosemite airport (MMH) using a Q400. The new daily service operates until 12 April 2009. The airport serves Mammoth Mountain which currently hosts more than one million skiers per year, making it the third most visited mountain resort in the US. Horizon Air is the first airline to operates scheduled services to the airport which is normally used for general aviation.

• Nigeria’s fastest-growing airline Arik Air has started serving London Heathrow (LHR) from its home at Lagos (LOS) airport. Flights will be operated daily using a recently delivered brand new Airbus A340-500. Competition on the route will be fierce as Bellview Airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic already operate daily flights.

• Asiana began operating thrice-weekly flights from Osaka Kansai (KIX) to Saipan (SPN) this week. Saipan is part of the Northern Mariana Islands, a group of islands forming a commonwealth which is in political union with the US. Asiana will be code-sharing with ANA on the route which is already served daily by Northwest Airlines.

• Bahrain Air has added another destination to its growing network. Khartoum (KRT) in Sudan will now be connected twice-weekly to the airline’s base in Bahrain (BAH). The route is already served by Gulf Air with daily flights.

• British Airways has added another destination to its London City (LCY) network operated under its CityFlyer brand. Geneva (GVA) is now being served four-times weekly using an Avro RJ 100. The other destinations it serves are Amsterdam, Barcelona, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Madrid, Nice, Warsaw and Zurich. CityJet (on behalf of Air France) and Swiss already operate multiple-daily services between London City and Geneva.

• Continental began a seasonal service between Houston International (IAH) and Rio De Janeiro (GIG) this week. The route will operate thrice-weekly until 28 February 2009 using a 767-400. Continental already operates two daily flights to Brazil by serving Sao Paulo daily from both Houston and Newark.#

• Copa Airlines added two new destinations to its network this week when flights began from Panama City (PTY) to both Santa Cruz (VVI) in Bolivia and Aruba (AUA). These are the airline’s 44th and 45th destinations. Santa Cruz will be served four-times weekly with a 737-700 while Aruba will be served four-times weekly with an Embraer 190.

• Delta has added several new international routes to its winter network. From Atlanta (ATL) it has started five-times weekly flights to Tegucigalpa (TGU) in Honduras with a 737. From New York JFK (JFK) it has launched daily services to Bogota (BOG) in Colombia with a 757, and five-times weekly flights to Buenos Aires (EZE) in Argentina using a 767. It has also started a new transcontinental service from Los Angeles (LAX) to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) which will operate five times weekly. This is a route that Spirit used to serve daily until mid-November.

Dragonair’s entry into the Philippine market was a cause for widespread celebration. Attendees included: Mr Eduardo Kapunan Jr, Deputy Director General for Administration, CAA (Philippines), Ms Maggie Yeung, Dragonair’s general manager (International affairs) and Mr Renato Diaz, Civil Aeronautics Board.

• Cathay Pacific owned Dragonair has commenced flights between Hong Kong (HKG) and Manila (MNL). The route will be operated five times weekly using an A320. Passengers between the two cities already have a choice of four airlines; Cathay Pacific, Cebu Pacific, Hong Kong Express and Philippine Airlines all operate at least daily flights.

• easyJet added a new destination to its network this week. Salzburg (SZG) in Austria became the airline’s newest outpost with the start of thrice-weekly services from London Gatwick (LGW). Salzburg becomes easyJet’s third Austrian destination as it already serves both Vienna (from London Luton) and Innsbruck (from Bristol, Liverpool and London Gatwick).

• It wasn’t just the new route that was celebrated – Emirates used the opportunity to serve the world’s longest green flight, making International headlines.

  Emirates finally began flying to its second Californian destination this week when San Francisco (SFO) became its newest route. The 13,000 kilometre outbound flight from Dubai (DXB) takes 16 and a quarter hours non-stop. Emirates already serves New York, Houston and (since end of October) Los Angeles non-stop. The start date of the San Francisco route had already been pushed back twice due to aircraft availability issues. Initially the route will be served just thrice-weekly with a 777-200LR.

• Italian airline Eurofly has begun weekly flights from Milan Malpensa (MXP) to Tel Aviv (TLV). Flights will operate on a Wednesday only until 23 February when frequency increases to three flights per week with additional flights on Mondays and Thursdays. El Al already operates daily on the route while Alitalia is currently operating four weekly flights.

• Frontier Airlines has used its regional partner Lynx Aviation to start new services between Denver (DEN) and the delightfully-named Steamboat Springs – Hayden (HDN) in Colorado. The seasonal service will operate until 22 April 2009 and flights will be operated by Q400s. There will be three daily flights with a scheduled flight time of around one hour.

Iberia now offers daily flights between Barcelona and Ciudad Real using its regional partner – Air Nostrum, served by CRJ-200/Dash 8-300 aircraft.

• Iberia also began serving the new airport at Ciudad Real (CQM) this week. Daily flights from Barcelona (BCN) will be operated by Air Nostrum’s Q300s. Flights to Gran Canaria will also begin shortly.

Blackpool: It’s really like Paris in many ways.

• Jet2.com has launched weekly (Saturday) flights from Blackpool (BLK) to Geneva (GVA). These will operate through the winter ski season until 18 April 2009. Jet2.com already serves Geneva from its home base of Leeds/Bradford and Manchester.

JetBlue executive director, Louis Miller and Tampa Station Manager Linda Meech with one of this week’s Cake of the Week runners up.

Well jetBlue already serves Washington – this cake and the people waving on the ramp are celebrating the launch of new services from West Palm Beach.

• jetBlue began four new routes involving airports in Florida this week. From Fort Lauderdale (FLL) there is a new daily service to San Juan (SJU) in Puerto Rico while from Tampa (TPA) there are now daily flights to Cancun (CUN) in Mexico. Also new are daily flights from Washington Dulles (IAD) to both Fort Myers (RSW) and West Palm Beach (WPB). These are seasonal routes that will operate until 30 April 2009.

• Korean Air has initiated a new route between Osaka Kansai (KIX) and Guam (GUM). The route will be served thrice weekly with an A330 and will help compensate for the loss of All Nippon Airways services between Osaka and Guam, which are scheduled to end during January 2009.

Gatwick is not a Ryanair base – but it is easyjet’s biggest. The start of the twice daily Alicante route puts it head-to-head with the Big Orange; British Airways and Monarch are also active on the route. There are also new direct services to Barcelona.

• Ryanair launched just five new routes this week with a heavy emphasis on the struggling Spanish market. It has begun domestic flights between Palma de Mallorca (PMI) and both Barcelona Girona (GRO) and Reus (REU). Also new are direct services from London Gatwick (LGW) to Alicante (ALC) and Barcelona Girona (GRO). The Alicante route from Gatwick (which Ryanair is serving twice-daily) marks the first time Ryanair has gone head-to-head with easyJet at what is now easyJet’s biggest base. British Airways and Monarch are also active on the route. The Girona route will provide indirect competition with easyJet’s triple daily flights to Barcelona. Finally, Ryanair is now connecting Edinburgh (EDI) with Krakow (KRK) three-times weekly. This is the airline’s ninth route to Krakow with the tenth (from Stockholm Skavsta) starting next week. Ryanair already serves two other Polish destinations (Lodz and Wroclaw) from its newest base in Edinburgh.

• SAS has started serving Kittila (KTT) in northern Finland from its Stockholm Arlanda (ARN) base. Flights will operate twice-weekly with a 737.

• Singapore Airlines added Riyadh (RUH) to its list of destinations served this week. Flights operate three times weekly from Singapore (SIN) via Dubai (DXB). The airline already serves Jeddah thrice weekly, also via Dubai.

• TACA, which recently unveiled a revised corporate identity, has started a new route connecting Lima (LIM) in Peru with Asuncion (ASU) in Paraguay. The service will operate thrice weekly with an Airbus A319. Based in El Salvador, but with smaller bases also in Costa Rica and Peru, TACA has a fleet of around 40 aircraft, most of which are Airbus.

Left – Transavia crew exchange gifts at Hamburg, ahead of the scheduled flight to Innsbruck (Source: Mr Penner). Right – Cutting the ribbon at the Brussels-Innsbruck launch: Adrian van der Werff, business development manager (Transavia) and Jos Stroobants, aviation development director (Brussels Airport).

• Amsterdam-based Transavia.com has started five new “winter ski” routes this week, but none of them are from its home country. It has launched three/four times weekly services from Innsbruck (INN) in Austria to Berlin Tegel (TXL) and Hamburg (HAM) in Germany, to Brussels (BRU) in Belgium and Copenhagen (CPH) in Denmark. It has also started weekly flights from Copenhagen (CPH) to Salzburg (SZG).

• Virgin Blue has started a new seasonal service between Brisbane (BNE) and Launceston (LST) in Tasmania. This is of course a summer seasonal service as far as Australians are concerned and will be served daily with one of the airline’s Embraer jets. At present the route is only on sale until 4 April 2009. Competition will come from Jetstar who already operate on the route. Virgin Blue already offers direct services to Launceston from both Melbourne and Sydney.

• Vueling, despite major network cutbacks that saw passenger numbers down almost 30% in November, has found the resources to start a new route between Seville (SVQ) and Tenerife Norte (TFN). Competition on the route is provided by future ‘partner’ clickair and Air Europa.

Officials mark the launch in true-country style: Peter Milobar (Mayor of Kamloops), Nancy Greene Raine, (Director Of Skiing Sun Peaks Resort), John O’Fee (President, Kamloops Airport Authority), Lee Morris Kamloops (City Councillor) and Gail Scott (CEO, Venture Kamloops).

• Two new routes have been inaugurated by WestJet this week. From Toronto (YYZ) there are now weekly seasonal flights to La Romana (LRM) in the Dominican Republic while from Calgary (YYC) the airline has started a new daily service to Kamloops (YKA) in British Columbia, a route already served by Air Canada Jazz. Kamloops handled around 200,000 passengers in 2007.

• Wizz Air has done some more ‘joining-the-dots’ on its route network this week with the start of five new routes. In Poland, there are two new routes from Poznan (POZ) to Cork (ORK) and Rome Fiumicino (FCO) while in Romania there are new routes from Timisoara (TSR) to Dortmund (DTM), and from Cluj Napoca (CLJ) to Paris Beauvais (BVA). Finally there is a first international route from the airline’s new Ukraine base in Kiev (KBP) to London Luton (LTN).

To see the latest information we have on routes that have recently been dropped or soon will be, check out our unique downloadable Route Recycle Bin spreadsheet. We currently have over 670 routes in our database which may be of interest to carriers.