New airline routes (05 – 12 March)

Aurigny Guernsey to Birmingham

Flying the Guernsey flag at the launch of Aurigny services on 11 March were Tom Screen, Aviation Director, Birmingham Airport; Clive Action, Commercial Manager, Aurigny and Jonathan Ford, Aviation Development Manager, Birmingham Airport.

• Aurigny stepped in to secure continued Guernsey to Birmingham Airport flights on 11 March; a vital trade and leisure link between the Channel Islands and the UK’s second city.  The service will operate five-weekly, replacing flybe on the route. Aurigny intends to move to daily services later in the year. According to OAG Traffic Analyser, the Isle of Man was the top onward connection from the Guernsey-Birmingham route in 2019, followed by Belfast City and Amsterdam Schiphol.

Frontier Airlines Tampa to New York

Tampa International celebrated the launch of Frontier’s Newark route this week with this fantastic New York-themed Cake of the Week entry. The route will operate daily.

• Frontier Airlines on 10 March commenced operations between Tampa International and New York Newark. According to OAG Schedules Analyser, the route will operate daily, with 180-seat A320s. Frontier is the sixth carrier to operate on the Tampa – New York city-pair.

The rest of this week’s new routes (A – Z by airline)

Central Mountain Air has announced two new routes this week, adding to their Alberta and British Columbia network.

• Central Mountain Air has announced two new routes, connecting the provinces of Alberta and Northern British Columbia. These are Calgary – Prince George, and Edmonton – Fort St. John. Both routes are set to launch 3 May, and will operate six-weekly. According to OAG Schedules Analyser, WestJet link operates daily between Calgary and Prince George, whille Edmonton to Fort St. John is unserved.

Eastern will be operating services under its own brand once again, following the collapse of franchise partner flybe. The airline has also announced the launch of three ex-flybe routes, to commence next week.

• Eastern Airways has announced the launch of three ex-flybe routes, and will once again operate its scheduled network under its own brand. The airline has also announced it will honour any flybe-coded tickets until Monday. The following new routes will begin next week: Aberdeen to Birmingham, Southampton and Manchester, and Southampton – Newcastle.

flynas has launched four times weekly services today between Riyadh and Najran.

• flynas on 12 March has begun four-weekly domestic services between Riyadh and Najran. Flights operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, according to the airline. Saudia also operates on the route, on which an estimated 74,000 travelled in 2019, per OAG Traffic Analyser.

Loganair has announced the launch of 16 routes, previously operated by Flybe.

• Loganair has today announced the launch of 16 routes, replacing Flybe on those airport pairs. The routes will operate from the airline’s existing bases at Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Newcastle – adding around 400 weekly flights according to the airline. See Flybe’s top 30 domestic routes here, which could all theoretically sustain at least daily turboprop service.
  

  Route	Start date	Frequency	Equipment
  Aberdeen – Belfast City	16-Mar	Daily	Embraer 135/145
  Aberdeen – Birmingham	16-Mar	Up to 3x daily	Embraer 135/145
  Aberdeen – Jersey	09-May	Weekly	ATR-72
  Aberdeen – Manchester	16-Mar	4x daily	Embraer 135/145 (ATR-72 from 01 September)
  Edinburgh – Cardiff	23-Mar	Daily (10 weekly from 01 September)	Embraer 135/145 (ATR-72 from 01 September)
  Edinburgh – Exeter	23-Mar	6x weekly	Embraer 135/145 (ATR-72 from 06 July)
  Edinburgh – Manchester	23-Mar	Up to 4x daily	Embraer 135/145
  Edinburgh – Newquay	20-Jun	2x weekly	ATR-72
  Edinburgh – Southampton	15-Jun	Up to 4x daily	ATR-72
  Glasgow – Exeter	30-Mar	Daily	Embraer 135/145
  Glasgow – Southampton	30-Mar	3x daily	Embraer 135/145
  Inverness – Belfast City	23-Mar	3x daily (4x daily from 06 July)	Embraer 135/145 (ATR-72 from 06 July)
  Inverness – Birmingham	16-Mar	4x weekly (daily from 23 March)	Embraer 135/145
  Inverness – Jersey	30-May	Weekly	ATR-72
  Newcastle – Exeter	06-Jul	Daily	Embraer 135/145
  Newcastle – Southampton	23-Mar	3x daily	Embraer 135/145
  Source: Loganair

• Pacific Coastal Airlines has announced direct services between Victoria and Tofino, B.C. The weekly Saturday service will commence on 09 May, operating seasonally until 17 October.