Tag Archives for new routes.
Delta Air Lines will be announcing new service from Atlanta to Marrakech, Morocco. It’s not clear what aircraft they will use for the flight, or what frequency they’ll offer.
Here are the 100 busiest airline routes without non-stop service today, and what passengers are paying to connect for each one.
United Airlines has real claim to being the U.S. global carrier. They’re already the only U.S. airline flying to the Philippines – having launched Manila service – and now will fly to Cebu there as well (via Tokyo). They’ll add service to Morocco – direct to Marrakesh – and to Medellin, Colombia. Fifth freedom flying from Japan and love for their Houston hub make these adds even more interesting.
I think this is the best guess we’ve seen that puts it all together. Philadelphia to Copenhagen, Nice, and Naples; Chicago to Venice; and Dallas to Barcelona. It’s good to see American viewing itself as more than just the airline that connects Tulsa and Indianapolis, but they’re not doing anything nearly as ‘exciting’ as United launching routes like Manila (American will likely pride themselves on this, to be fair).
The airport was named for the creator of James Bond – Ian Fleming – and the first Bond film Dr. No was filmed in part in Ocho Rios. The exterior of the Blue Mountain cottage, home of Bond villain Miss Taro, was the Sans Souci hotel. (The film’s crew stayed at this hotel.) In addition Ocho Rios featured in Live and Let Die as well.
Nearby James Bond Beach has featured concerts with Rihanna, Lauryn Hill and Ziggy Marley, and offers the Moonraker bar.
The American Airlines-JetBlue codeshares cover New York and Boston. American’s new New York – Tel Aviv and Athens routes are both served by Delta. Now Delta is retaliating against that new service by adding the same destinations from Boston.
Is Delta doing anything here other than proving that the American Airlines-JetBlue partnership spurs competition in the Northeast?
My hometown airport, Austin-Bergstrom, is offering subsidies to airlines willing to start non-stop service to Hawaii, Amsterdam, Beijing, Dublin, Paris, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo.
Not all of these routes are likely (or even plausible) but most are — for the right amount of cash.
It’s great to see the airline deploying their new premium-heavy 46 business class seat 767s aggressively, and not just out of Newark or even on pure business routes.
The new Polaris business class seat is a competitive advantage not because it’s better than what Delta, American, or Air France offer – or what British Airways or Virgin Atlantic will offer – it isn’t. It generally lags all of those. However they’re able to offer fully flat direct aisle access business class seats, attractively designed, using less cabin space. That allows them to fit more seats into the same footprint, or add seats without taking out as many from a lesser cabin.
We’ll see a return to Tel Aviv, as well as new service to Casablanca, Krakow, Prague, and Budapest.
There’s still announcements that we’ll see related to the Qantas joint venture, perhaps service changes to Tokyo Narita (since two new slots at Tokyo Haneda may not mean to net new flights and no other shifts), and routes the airline could give up on like Bologna, Italy.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
