The Most Notable New Airline Routes This Week

I've covered a selection of new routes and route launches that took off in the last week. Why not sign up and receive my newsletter in your email inbox every week?

Singapore Airlines to Surabaya

The Indonesian city of Surabaya again has non-stop flights from Singapore thanks to Singapore Airlines. The flag carrier currently runs 3x weekly, but it'll rise to 1x daily from April 15th to benefit from higher demand during Lebaran, an Islamic holiday. Subsidiary Scoot will operate 4x weekly from March 27th.

It is Singapore Airlines' first scheduled flight to Surabaya for a long time, and it follows the airport's reopening to international traffic. It comes as Indonesia lifts all quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated passengers.

In 2019, Singapore Airlines transported over 210,000 passengers from Surabaya over Singapore, with Thailand, Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia, the US, and India the largest country markets.

The return to Surabaya follows the recent resumption of Denpasar (Bali). Photo: via Daniel (ig: danielou_shots).

Guernsey to Dublin: back after 14 years

Located in the English Channel between England and France, Guernsey is the second-largest of the Channel Islands. It is now connected non-stop to Dublin, with flights taking off on March 16th. The first service began a couple of weeks earlier than previously planned to benefit from St Patrick's Day demand (March 17th).

Services are operated by Aurigny, Guernsey's airline. While the Embraer 195 was used on the first two rotations, ATR-72 is set to be deployed for the rest of the year. There are 2x weekly flights in March, rising to 3x between April and the end of October.

It is the first time since October 2008 that Guernsey and Dublin, 318 miles (512km) apart, have been connected. Defunct Flybe operated it using 78-seat Dash-8-Q400s between June and October, after previously serving it in 2004.

Aurigny has one Embraer 195 (122 seats), but the ATR-72 (with 72 seats) will take over. Photo: via Aurigny.

Medellín-Punta Cana gets a third airline

Residents of Medellín, Colombia, have more choices for their vacations. Viva has inaugurated the Dominican Republic tourist destination of Punta Cana, with flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

It is the third airline on the 977-mile (1,572km) airport-pair, joining Avianca (up to 1x daily) and Wingo (4x weekly).

Despite over 30,000 round-trip passengers in 2019, the market was unserved until 2021. And now, in full-year 2022, it has over 228,000 seats for sale.

Viva expects to carry 50,000 passengers on the route in the first year, helped by its average fare being 30% lower than the market. Photo: via Viva.

TUS Airways inaugurates Düsseldorf

The German city of Düsseldorf is reconnected to Tel Aviv thanks to TUS Airways. The route, which took off on March 17th, operates on Mondays and Thursdays using 180-seat A320s, of which it has three.

As TUS is a Cypriot airline, the operating aircraft routes Larnaca-Tel Aviv-Dusseldorf-Tel Aviv-Larnaca. It departs Cyprus at 06:55 and arrives home at 21:35.

The 1,950-mile (3,138km) market has seen many operators in the past two decades, including airberlin, Correndon, Germania, Hapag-Lloyd, Lufthansa, and Sun d'Or. El Al hasn't served it, at least not since 2004. Düsseldorf to Tel Aviv comes soon after Tel Aviv Air commenced Hamburg using an Enter Air B737-800.

The arrival of TUS means Tel Aviv and Düsseldorf are reconnected. Photo: via Düsseldorf International Airport.

FastJet connects iconic national parks

Kruger National Park (South Africa) is now linked non-stop to Victoria Falls National Park (Zimbabwe) by FastJet. For Kruger, one of the world's best-known and largest national parks, it uses Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport. It is also the airport for the city of Nelspruit.

It is the first time the 605-mile (973km) airport pair has been served. FastJet has 3x weekly flights utilizing its 50-seat Embraer 145s, the sole aircraft in its fleet. It competes indirectly with Airlink's 1x daily Kruger-Livingston (Zambia) operation, with Livingstone across the Zambezi River from Victoria Falls.

FastJet and Airlink both provide opportunities to visit Victoria Falls. Photo: via FastJet.

Emerald begins Dublin to the Isle of Man

After a two-year absence, the 82 miles (131km) between Ireland and the Isle of Man is again connected by air. It is now served by Emerald Airlines, which won the Aer Lingus Regional franchise contract following the demise of Stobart Air. According to the UK CAA, Dublin-Isle of Man had 42,116 passengers in 2019.

Emerald's service follows the inauguration of its first commercial flight from Donegal to Dublin. And it comes a few days before its first services from Belfast City to the UK mainland begin.

Emerald serves the short Dublin-Isle of Man route 1x daily except Saturdays, with a block time in both directions of 50 minutes. The schedule varies, but it typically leaves the Irish capital at 15:30 and arrives back at 17:35.

Celebrating the new route (for Emerald) is Ciarán Smith, Head of Commercial at Emerald Airlines (right) and Jon Woolf, Aviation SVP Business Development at Dublin Airport. Photo: via Aer Lingus.