The Most Notable New Airline Routes This Week

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

PLAY time: US flights take off

Icelandic carrier PLAY began its first US route on April 20th, with Keflavik to Baltimore taking off. Operating 1x daily, the 2,762-mile (4,445km) airport pair falls slightly short of the 3,000 miles (4,828km) considered long-haul. I was on the first flight.

The inaugural service used the A321neo, although the A320neo will also be regularly used. Indeed, the smaller model has operated every flight since day two. OG101 leaves Iceland at 15:05 and arrives in Baltimore at 17:50. Returning, OG102 departs at 19:00 and arrives back at 05:00. It'll compete head-to-head with 3x weekly Icelandair flights from May 13th.

Transatlantic flights are the next stage of PLAY’s development, and they’re fully timed for connections over Keflavik. As with WOW Air, hub-and-spoke will be a core part of PLAY’s future.

Baltimore will be joined by three other US routes this year. Boston will begin on May 11th, New York Stewart on June 9th, and Orlando International on September 30th.

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United begins two new Europe routes

Two new long-haul routes have joined United’s network. Operating to Europe on April 23rd, both Chicago to Zurich and Denver to Munich launched, each a Star Alliance hub. The routes contribute to United’s European summer offering totaling 8.1 million seats, 15% more than in the summer of 2019.

Operating 1x daily year-round, UA3 departs Chicago at 15:40 and arrives in Zurich at 07:35. Returning, UA12 leaves Switzerland at 09:50 and arrives back at 12:35. It uses 167-seat B767-300ERs and supplements fellow Star SWISS’s 1x daily service, by the A340-300 for most of the summer.

United also has a 1x daily Denver-Munich service, its sixth route to Germany’s second-busiest airport. Using B787-9s, UA760 departs Colorado at 20:20 and arrives at 14:05. UA761 leaves Germany at 16:05 and returns at 18:35. It exists alongside Lufthansa’s 1x daily A350-900 service.

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Ryanair opens Newcastle base

ULCC Ryanair has opened its Newcastle base, with two stationed B737-800s. It comes very soon after opening a new base at Funchal (Madeira) and reopening a closed base at Nürnberg.

Ryanair is Newcastle’s second-largest airline this year. It has almost 1.1 million seats for sale, up by 50% over 2019. Significantly, it is the first time it has exceeded the one million seat milestone.

Newcastle is now Ryanair’s 11th busiest UK airport, up two places over its pre-base position. It has 19 routes from the Northeast England airport, with a big emphasis on summer sun and visiting friends and destinations markets. However, long-served Dublin has more seats for sale than any other.

Photo: via Newcastle International Airport.

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Memphis gets Spirit

Various new routes have been inaugurated by Spirit, including Manchester to Myrtle Beach. But the most notable is Memphis joining the ULCC's network. On April 20th, Spirit began 1x daily to both Orlando International and Las Vegas. Come August 10th, they’ll be joined by a 1x daily to Los Angeles.

As is often the case with Spirit, all three routes have head-to-head competition. Looking ahead to mid-August, when they’ll all be operating, there's an increasingly competitive scene.

Las Vegas will also have Allegiant (8x weekly) and Frontier (2x). To Orlando, Spirit will be against Frontier (4x weekly) and Southwest (2x), along with Allegiant to Sanford (2x). To Los Angeles, it’ll face Allegiant (8x) and Delta (6x).

This summer, Spirit is Memphis' sixth-largest passenger airline by both seats for sale and flights. Photo: via Memphis International Airport.

Air Serbia introduces Valencia

It’s great when smaller operators add new services, and that’s what Air Serbia did on April 21st. The route: Belgrade to Valencia. The distance: 1,126 miles (1,812km). The aircraft: initially the A320, although the A319 will be used too.

Looking ahead to June, it’ll operate on Thursdays and Sundays. On Thursdays, JU594 will leave Belgrade at 06:20 and arrive in Spain at 09:10. Returning, JU595 will depart at 09:55 and return at 12:35.

It’s different on Sundays. It'll leave at 17:05 and return home at 23:20. The reason for the different schedule is to offer more connection opportunities over its Belgrade hub, mainly across Central and Eastern Europe but also to Istanbul, Greece, and so on, often with less than an hour on the ground.