Welcome to my 145th weekly routes article! I have analyzed some subjectively exciting services that, unless otherwise stated, began or resumed between October 7 and 14. As usual, multiple other example launches are listed at the bottom. Click here to see the last jam-packed edition!
Vietnam Airlines: 1st Munich flights
What’s better than a brand-new route? Two, of course! On October 7, Vietnam Airlines inaugurated the first-ever link between Ho Chi Minh City and Munich. The Bavarian airport is now the carrier’s fourth European destination, joining Frankfurt, London Heathrow, and Paris CDG. (Flights to Milan Malpensa begin in July 2025.)
The 5,116 nautical mile (9,475 km) airport pair will operate year-round. While it currently runs weekly (yes, weekly) on the 274-seat 787-9, it’ll jump to twice-weekly in early December. In the year to July 2024, the market had 29,000 point-to-point passengers.
Ho Chi Minh City flights began two days after the first Hanoi-Munich service lifted off. This is a bigger local market, with 41,000 passengers. However, it has an even lower base fare—just USD$361 on average each way for all passengers and all classes—than Ho Chi Minh ($422). Vietnam Airlines serves it twice-weekly.
Barcelona gets 1st Honduras flights
Long-haul routes that are only served once a week are always intriguing. Their attraction increases further if they are brand-new, as represented by Iberojet between Barcelona and Palmerola, which serves Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. It is the first time the airport pair has been served—and the first time Barcelona has been linked non-stop with Honduras.
Leisure carrier Iberojet serves the 4,830 nautical mile (8,945 km) route weekly with the 432-seat A350-900. The market had 20,000 indirect passengers in the year to July. Iberojet routes Madrid-Palmerola-Barcelona-Palmerola-Madrid. It has flown from Madrid to Palmerola since December 2022.
Unsurprisingly, Barcelona is Palmerola’s longest route. However, the Honduran airport is ‘only’ Barcelona’s 11th-longest destination in Q4 2024. It comes after Santiago de Chile, Singapore, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Shanghai Pudong, Los Angeles, Seoul Incheon, San Francisco, and Mexico City.
13 days, 43 US routes
You’ll notice that this article emphasizes routes that started between October 7 and 13. Extending this to October 1 shows that the US has welcomed approximately 43 routes. More than three in four were brand-new for the stated carrier. Some 11 airport pairs have never been served before, or at least not in the past 20 years.
The 43 additions were made by Alaska Airlines, American, Avelo, Breeze, Contour, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Philippine Airlines, Porter, Southern Airways Express, Southwest, Spirit, and Sun Country.
Breeze added 13 airport pairs, with four airports (Bangor, Lansing, Lancaster, and Portsmouth) having the carrier for the first time. Six of Breeze’s routes have never been served by any carrier. They include Orlando-Lancaster, which became the Pennsylvania airport’s first scheduled jet flight.
Take off: Keflavik to Cardiff route
The Welsh capital has gained its first scheduled Iceland service courtesy of PLAY, which took off on October 10. As usual, the timing was deliberate. It was because of the Nations League, which saw Wales play Iceland in Iceland the following day.
Reports suggest the first flight to Keflavik had 174 passengers—a 100% LF on A320neo TF-PPA. Then again, given the sporting fixture, it’d be odd if it wasn’t full. The celebratory photos of the route’s launch are outstanding—even more so given the service’s very time-limited nature.
When the 971 nautical mile (1,798 km) link was announced in April, it was to be flown twice weekly between October 10 and November 20. However, PLAY’s website and the carrier’s schedule upload to OAG show that it will now end later in October, having only operated a few roundtrip flights. This is odd and concerning.
Ajet jets to…
Until earlier this year, Ajet was called AnadoluJet and was part of Turkish Airlines. While its latest route might seem to lack the ‘wow’ factor, it is nonetheless notable. It is from its primary airport of Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus, to Tuzla, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It took off on October 7 and operates on Mondays year-round.
It is notable because Tuzla had no scheduled Istanbul flights for 15 years when long-defunct B&A Airlines flew from the city to the now-closed Atatürk in 2009. On August 24, 2024, Pegasus, the Turkish ultra-low-cost carrier, began Sabiha Gökçen-Tuzla, which runs year-round on Saturdays. Not coincidentally, the city pair now has two operators.
Then there’s…
Many other route launches have occurred since October 7. They include Icelandair from Keflavik to Lisbon with a twice-weekly 737 MAX 8 service. While it was initially to be seasonal, strong demand means it will now be year-round.
As it is about the local market rather than connections to/from North America, flights leave Iceland at 16:00/16:10 and get back at around 02:00. It competes directly with PLAY, which began flights in May 2022.
Caribbean Airlines launched Port of Spain-Antigua-Beef Island (Tortola) and more, Greece’s SKY Express now flies from Athens to Tirana, Cologne has welcomed the opening of Maribu’s base, and Indonesia AirAsia has jetted off from Jakarta to Hong Kong. The wider AirAsia Group has added various routes recently, including Kuala Lumpur-Amritsar and Bangkok Don Mueang-Kathmandu. Elsewhere, Azul started São Paulo Viracopos-Araraquara, easyJet Nice-Prague…
Source: Simple Flying
