The Most Notable New Airline Routes This Week

I've covered a selection of new routes that took off or relaunched in the last week, written while at Routes Europe in Norway. Why not sign up and receive my newsletter in your email inbox every week?

Bergen welcomes its only long-haul route

After a nearly six-year absence, Norway is again served by United Airlines. Not Oslo, as before, but the coastal city of Bergen from Newark. With 3x weekly flights, the highly summer-seasonal route will operate for just 19 weeks, with the last service to the US on September 27th.

With all flights by 169-seat B757-200s, UA270 leaves Newark at 20:40 and arrives in Norway at 10:05 the next day. Returning, UA271 departs at 11:55 and arrives home at 14:25.

United’s arrival means Bergen again has a long-haul route and is once more connected non-stop to the US. That last occurred nearly four years ago, when Norwegian ceased New York Stewart (July 2017-October 2018). Before that, it had flights to JFK (May 2014-August 2016) and Providence (July 2017-October 2017).

Photo: United Airlines

Bhairahawa goes international

Kuwaiti carrier Jazeera has become the first international operator to serve the Nepali city of Bhairahawa, pretty much on the Nepal-India border. It means Nepal now has two international airports, joining Kathmandu.

Jazeera launched 3x weekly services using A320neos, leaving Kuwait at 18:30 and arriving at 01:45 local time. Returning, it departs at 02:30 and arrives back at 05:15. Jazeera also serves Kathmandu from Kuwait, typically with a 2x daily offering.

Bhairahawa only very recently adapted to handle international flights. Its lifeblood is the 120-mile (193km) link to the capital, Kathmandu, served with up to 18 daily departures this year using ATR-42s/72s, Beech 1900s, and Dash-8-Q400s.

Jazeera now serves two cities in Nepal. Photo: via Ajmal Nepali.

Two airlines start Toronto-Chicago

Canadian carriers Flair and WestJet Encore have inaugurated Toronto Pearson to Chicago O’Hare, with Swoop (yes, another carrier) taking off on May 30th.

Flair’s flights are on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, while WestJet is 1x daily. In a nod to Flair, Swoop will be on Mondays, and Thursdays, and later changing to Thursdays and Sundays. The timings are almost the same, too. Evidently, they’re following each other, which is at least great for customers.

When Swoop begins, there will be six airlines on the 436-mile (702km) airport pair, double the number in 2019. In the first week of June, there are 137 departures and up to 21 a day. At city level, Porter has 23 weekly (and up to 4 daily) departures between Billy Bishop and Chicago Midway.

Air Transat begins more Montréal routes

Montréal is Air Transat’s busiest airport this summer and seats for sale have risen by 2% over summer 2019 to 1.8m, its highest level yet. Part of this is from three new routes: Amsterdam (May 12th), Los Angeles (May 16th), and San Francisco (May 19th). The two to California took off in the past week.

Amsterdam is currently 1x weekly but will rise to 3x weekly from June 23rd; Los Angeles is 3x weekly; and San Francisco is 2x weekly. All use A321neos.

All three have head-to-head competition. To the US, Air Transat is against Air Canada (Los Angeles and San Francisco up to 3x daily); to the Netherlands, KLM (5x weekly).

Air Transat is Montréal's second-largest airline. Photo: via Montréal–Trudeau International Airport.

Back: SLC reconnected to London

Salt Lake City and London Heathrow are finally reconnected after a 26-month absence. At 4,866 miles (7,831km), the route is Delta's longest to the UK. The summer-seasonal offering will operate until October 29th, the last day of the aviation summer season.

Served 1x daily, Salt Lake City uses 223-seat A330-200s, with 34 Delta One suites, 21 seats in Premium Select, 24 in Comfort+, and just 144 in Main Cabin.

Its return means the SkyTeam carrier has seven nonstop destinations from Heathrow, joining Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Minneapolis, New York JFK, and Seattle.

The route operates summer-seasonally. Photo: via Salt Lake City International Airport.

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AnadoluJet introduces Milan Bergamo

Bergamo and Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen now have even more flights, thanks to the introduction of AnadoluJet. The Turkish Airlines subsidiary has a 1x daily, year-round service. It was greeted by a water salute and ribbon cutting.

It complements Pegasus’ long-standing Bergamo service, which took off in July 2010. When AnadoluJet is added, the airport pair now has up to 3x daily flights this year, more than ever before.

AnadoluJet won’t just target point-to-point passengers. According to OAG’s Connection Analyzer, multiple two-way connections are available with up to a five-hour wait. There are large many options across Turkey, including the tourist hotspots of Antalya, Izmir, and Dalaman, as well as international, such as Dubai, Kuwait, Riyadh, Tehran, and Tel Aviv.

Photo: Milan Bergamo Airport.

Volotea begins Bulgaria

Bulgaria, and Central and Eastern Europe generally, isn't Volotea territory. In fact, just 1.7% of the carrier's flights this summer are to/from the region. That makes the inaugural of Lille to Varna even more special, marking the first time Bulgaria has been served. It offers a 1x weekly service until October 4th.

The 1,268-mile (2,041km) airport pair is a readymade market. While Volotea faces no head-to-head competition, it was previously served by TUI between May 2018-August 2019 and Smartwings from May 2019-October 2019.

Volotea has more Lille flights than any other carrier. It has nearly three in every ten, with the airport, near the Belgian border, its ninth-busiest. It has 23 Lille routes, with more flights to the domestic destination of Figari, Corsica, than anywhere else.

Bulgaria is a new country for leisure carrier Volotea. Photo: via Fraport Bulgaria.

Two new Loganair routes

Loganair, known as Scotland’s Airline, doesn’t just have flights involving Scotland, with a small network of routes elsewhere, especially from Newcastle. It has introduced its first Newcastle-Bergen service (2x weekly, the location of Routes Europe 2022) while resuming Stavanger (4x weekly).

Loganair is the latest in a line of operators on Newcastle-Bergen. In the past two decades, it has seen Widerøe, Jet2, Eastern Airways, Flybe, and (from May 2022) Loganair. Stavanger, meanwhile, has seen Widerøe, Eastern Airways, bmi regional, and (from March 2019) Loganair.

It also introduced Derry to Edinburgh, currently served 2x weekly but rising to 4x weekly from June 24th using a mix of ATR-42s and Embraer 145. The airport pair is relatively new. Ryanair served it from October 2018-January 2021, and now it's in the hands of Scotland's Airline. It exits alongside Loganair's Derry-Glasgow (4x weekly).