The Most Notable New Airline Routes This Week

Welcome to our 21st routes newsletter. We've covered a selection of new and returning routes that launched in the last week. Why not sign up and receive our newsletter in your email inbox every week?

Toronto-Faro is bookable until October 25th but scheduled into December. Photo: via ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal.

Air Transat reconnects Toronto and Faro

Located in the far south of Portugal, Faro (in the Algarve) is again connected non-stop to Toronto thanks to Air Transat. Operating once-weekly, the thin route uses 199-seat A321LRs. It leaves Canada at 21:05 on Tuesdays and arrives at 09:05 the following day, local time. Returning, it departs on Wednesdays at 10:50 and arrives home at 14:10.

Air Transat has operated Toronto-Faro since January 2011, although only during the winter. The Algarve made an alternative to the Caribbean and Mexico for sun-seeking Canadians, although Portugal isn't really known as a warmer-weather winter destination for Europeans.

This is the first time it'll be served during the summer and is currently expected to end on October 25th, although its schedule submission shows it extends to December. Speaking at the relaunch, Francisco Pita, Chief Commercial Officer at national airport authority ANA, said: "It is an important diversification to summer routes to Faro, and we are very optimistic about the success of this operation."

Toronto is Faro's only long-haul route. Photo: via ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal.

Southwest launches Albuquerque to Burbank

The 672-mile (1,081km) link between Albuquerque and Burbank hasn't had much luck being connected non-stop. Hopefully, this has changed following Southwest's recent inauguration, with the LCC offering a once-daily service, mainly using the B737-700. It follows a very short-lived operation by Advanced Air in 2019 using the King Air, mainly for the film industry. Before that, it was unserved.

The market had 39 passengers daily each way (PDEW) between July and September 2021. However, this doesn't consider passengers leaked to Los Angeles, the largest market from the New Mexico Airport, with a PDEW of 677.

However, Burbank had an average one-way fare of $205 for the ~1.5-hour flight, or 31 cents a mile – reasonably high. Of course, Southwest's non-stop and lower average fares should meaningfully grow demand. And it must.

Southwest's aircraft routes Houston Hobby-Burbank-Albuquerque-Burbank-Oakland and onwards. Photo: Albuquerque International Sunport

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Santiago to Montevideo gets JetSMART

The 851 miles (1,370km) between Santiago and Montevideo is no longer only in the hands of a full-service airline. Now, Chile's JetSMART links the two capitals with four-weekly flights using its A320s. It faces head-to-head competition from LATAM, with a once-daily offering using the same equipment.

Santiago to Montevideo is a sizeable market, peaking at over 400,000 seats for sale in 2019. Then, LATAM was against Chile's Sky Airline, which operated between September 2006 and March 2020. It initially had a once-daily service but gradually reduced to four-weekly. It's no surprise JetSMART took over the readymade market.

JetSMART has effectively replaced Sky Airline to Montevideo. The first flight reportedly had 149 of the 189 seats filled. Photo: via Aeropuerto de Carrasco.

Cancun welcomes Frontier from Columbus

Another route to Cancun has joined Frontier's route network, with Columbus taking off. Operating on Mondays and Fridays, the 1,327- mile (2,136km) sector uses 230-seat A321s and 186-seat A320neos. The ultra-low-cost carrier is one of the three airlines on the airport-pair, joining American and Southwest, both with a Saturday-only service.

Not surprisingly, Columbus-Cancun has more seats for sale in 2022 than any other year, helped by Frontier. That one airline has 1.8 million seats between Cancun and the US this year, up by 188% (!) since 2019. It has 22 routes, with Denver, Miami, Orlando, Chicago O'Hare, and Baltimore its top five.

Frontier is the fourth-largest US airline to Cancun this year. Image: Cancun International Airport.

Jazeera inaugurates Chittagong

January 24th marked the start of Jazeera Airways' second route from Kuwait to Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2,759 miles (4,441km) away. Kuwait's second-largest airline operates on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays using 162-seat A320neos. J9535 leaves Kuwait at 00:35 and arrives at 08:45. Returning, J9536 departs at 10:00 and arrives back at 13:50, a block time of nearly seven hours.

Biman has served the market on a non-stop but infrequent basis for years. According to schedules information, it'll operate a once-weekly service using the B787-8 from April 3rd until October 30th. Kuwait Airways had the last higher-frequency service. It ran from October 2009 and March 2011 using A310-300s and A300-600s.

Cake, water arch, a celebration – exactly how a new route should be publicized. Image: via Jazeera Airways.

Two more routes begin from St Petersburg

The Croatian and Slovenian capitals are connected non-stop to St Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city. Aeroflot began Zagreb on January 21st and operates on Fridays and Sundays until March 25th, while Ljubljana started the next day and operates Saturday-only until March 26th.

Both will end for the summer, once again meaning the two airport-pairs will be unserved. Zagreb-St Petersburg was last operated by Croatia Airlines on a summer-seasonal basis from June 2016 to October 2019, while it's the first time (in the past 18 years at least) that Ljubljana has had a non-stop.

While Ljubljana is exclusively by Rossiya's 87-seat Sukhoi Superjet SSJ100, Zagreb uses both the SSJ (on Sundays) and Aeroflot's A320s (Fridays). The Friday flight is a red-eye. After arriving in Croatia at 22:40, it leaves at 23:40 and arrives home at 04:40 the next day.

In the current week, Aeroflot has a once-daily service from Zagreb to Moscow Sheremetyevo and twice-weekly to St Petersburg. Photo: Boytronic via Airplane Pictures.

That's it for the 21st edition of our routes newsletter. To get something like this in your inbox every week, please sign up for our weekly routes newsletter.