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Qantas starts Rome non-stop

Australia and mainland Europe are again connected on a commercial basis after a nine-year absence. Even more historically, it's the second route, after London Heathrow, to see a non-stop service on a regular, scheduled basis.

It's thanks to Qantas, which has introduced brand-new Perth to Rome Fiumicino, beginning and ending in Sydney. Rome is the largest, closest European market to Sydney, and the route is driven by those of Italian birth/ancestry in Australia (a considerable number) and tourism. Hence, it only operates during the Northern Hemisphere summer season.

Operating 3x weekly, Sydney-Perth-Rome utilizes B787-9s, with the route ending in early October. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, QF5 leaves Sydney at 17:55 and arrives in Perth at 20:50 local time. Continuing, it departs at 22:20 and arrives in Italy at 08:45 the next day, a block time of 16h 25.

On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, QF6 leaves Rome at 10:50, arrives in Perth at 08:35 the following day, leaves at 10:05, and arrives back in Sydney at 16:05, nearly 72 hours after taking off.

Qantas Rome1
In Europe, Heathrow and Rome have non-stop flights to Australia. Photo: via Aeroporti di Roma.

Dubai-Tel Aviv welcomes Emirates

In less than two years, Dubai to Tel Aviv has gone from zero airlines – when flights weren't permitted – to five. The fifth airline to begin, after much delay, was Emirates. The Gulf giant serves the airport pair 1x daily using the B777-300ER.

EK931 leaves the UAE at 15:50 and arrives at 18:00 local time. Returning, EK932 departs at 19:55 and arrives back at 23:59, enabling connections across its Asia-Pacific.

Across the remainder of the aviation summer season, it joins partner flydubai (4x daily), El Al (up to 2x daily), Israir (up to 4x weekly), and Arika (up to 4x weekly). Dubai has been vital in growing Tel Aviv-Middle East flights up to 14x daily.

Emirates Tel Aviv
Emirates and partner flydubai have 5x daily flights to Tel Aviv. Photo: via Emirates.

Viva begins two new routes

First to take off for the Colombian carrier was Cartagena to Mexico City. Aside from defunct Interjet operating it between November 2019 and March 2020, no other carrier has linked the pair non-stop. Now it's Viva's turn. It has a 2x weekly service, leaving Cartagena at 19:17 and arriving in Mexico at 23:30. After a 60-min turn, it arrives back at 04:29.

This northbound route was followed by Viva's third-longest route this year: Medellín to São Paulo Guarulhos. In 2019, over 34,000 flew it indirectly, a significant number. It has a 3x weekly service, leaving at 19:53 and arriving in Brazil at 04:25 local time the next morning, a block time of 6h 32m. The return leaves at 05:25 and gets back at 09:41.

Viva Medellin to Sao Paulo
Medellín to São Paulo was the second-largest unserved market between Colombia and Brazil. Now it's served. Photo: via Viva.

Frontier adds to its Tampa network

Two more routes have joined Frontier's Tampa network: San Juan and Montego Bay. There's a 1x daily San Juan service, last served by the carrier in early 2020. This summer, it competes head-to-head with Southwest (up to 8x weekly), JetBlue (1x daily), and Spirit (1x daily). They have up to 5x daily flights.

Tampa to Montego Bay is different. It is the first time the airport pair has been served in 21 years when Northwest operated it regularly. Motivated by over 20,000 indirect passengers in 2019, it's back. Frontier has a Monday and Friday service running summer-seasonally until September 5th.

Frontier has also started Tampa to Chicago Midway (in April) and Cancún (May). There's a common feature: Tampa really celebrates them with cakes, ribbon cuttings, live music, and more.

Tampa-to-San-Juan-1
What an outstanding cake! Photo: via Tampa International Airport.

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Cairo-Stockholm is back

Egypt's Nile Air has introduced Cairo to Stockholm Arlanda. It is the only carrier on the airport pair, which has been unserved for eight years. Nile Air has 2x weekly flights using A320s, with the route ending on October 29th.

As well as targeting point-to-point demand (~26,000 passengers in 2019), passengers can connect to multiple tourist-driven destinations in Egypt and, for visiting friends and relatives demand, internationally to Baghdad, Khartoum, and more.

Ethiopian Airlines was the last to serve the market, albeit so very temporarily that you might prefer not to count it. It ran between August and November 2012, obviously beginning and ending in Addis Ababa. Before that, EgyptAir linked it until April 2004, utilizing its long-retired A300s.

Nile Air Cairo Stockholm
Cairo is reconnected to Stockholm. Photo: via Daniel Asplund, Swedavia.

Jazeera starts two Europe routes

Kuwait's Jazeera Airways has inaugurated Prague and Vienna. It has 2x weekly flights to the Czech capital, with the airport pair reconnected after a 13-year absence when CSA last served it. Prague now has non-stop flights to six Middle East cities across nine airlines, including eight from the region.

Meanwhile, Jazeera competes head-to-head with Kuwait's flag carrier to Vienna, both 2x weekly with A320s. Kuwait Airways launched Vienna in July 2015, four years after defunct Kuwaiti Wataniya Airways ceased it.

Jazeera Airways Kuwait to Prague launch
Those celebrating the launch included Jitka Hemmerova, center, Prague Airport's Airline Marketing Manager. Photo: Prague Airport.

The Turkish city and resort area of Izmir is now connected to the Hungarian capital. It's the first time in at least two decades, and perhaps forever that they've had non-stop service. In 2019, it had around 15,000 roundtrip passengers: a good base to build on.

There's a 1x weekly flight by SunExpress, the very fast-growing Turkish operator, for a total of 16 services this summer season. It'll end on October 1st. Izmir joins Antalya, which SunExpress inaugurated in May 2019.

This summer, Izmir is one of four Turkish airports with non-stop flights from Budapest. It joins Istanbul Airport (Turkish Airlines, 3x daily); Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen (AnadoluJet and Pegasus; up to 3x daily); and Antalya (SunExpress and Smartwings; up to 3x daily).

Budapest SunExpress Izmir
Four Turkish airports are now served non-stop from Budapest. Photo: via Budapest Airport.

Düsseldorf welcomes FLYONE

As the saying goes, wait ages for a bus, and two turn up at once. The same sometimes applies to airlines too. Moldavian carrier FLYONE has introduced Chișinău to Düsseldorf, coming less than two months after the country's flag carrier, Air Moldova, launched it. Until this year, the airport pair was unserved.

FLYONE operates Düsseldorf on Wednesdays and Saturdays, with a supplementary Monday service during the peak summer season. It competes head-to-head with Air Moldova's 2x weekly offering. Chișinău is one of 25 destinations in Central and Eastern Europe served non-stop from the German airport this summer.

Fly One Dusseldorf
Benjamin Kadach, Senior Executive of Airline Relations, Düsseldorf Airport, left, with FLYONE representatives. Photo: via Düsseldorf Airport.

A 3rd airline on Bogotá-Costa Rica

Costa Rica isn't an enormous country from Bogotá. Coming in 11th place across the rest of this summer, there are up to 4x daily flights, obviously all to San José. The airport pair, 780 miles (1,256km) apart, has welcomed a third operator: Volaris Costa Rica.

With 3x weekly services by the A319, Volaris Costa Rica supplements a 2x daily A320 operation by Avianca and 4x weekly B737-800 flights by Wingo, the lower-cost subsidiary owned by Copa Holdings.

As you'd expect, Bogotá has three-quarters of all Colombia-Costa Rica flights. Others are available from Cartagena (Avianca, 4x weekly) and Medellín (Avianca, 3x weekly).

Volaris Costa Rica Bogota
Volaris Costa Rica joins Avianca and Wingo between Bogotá and San José. Photo: via El Dorado International Airport (Bogotá).

Guten Tag, Aegean!

This summer, Münster/Osnabrück's top international market is Spain, followed by Turkey and Greece. Helping the latter is the newly introduced Heraklion by Greece's flag carrier, Aegean. Operating on Tuesdays and Fridays, the charter flights exist because of various tour operators, including TUI.

Heraklion is normally Münster/Osnabrück's top destination in Greece, and this summer is no exception. Supplementing Aegean is a 3x weekly service by Corendon Europe, with the Crete tourist destination seeing 5x weekly flights from the German airport this summer.

Aegean Munster-Heraklion
Those celebrating the launch included Mathias Richter, Manager, Aviation Marketing, shown on the right. Photo: via Münster/Osnabrück International Airport, 

That's it for the 43rd edition of my routes newsletter. Please sign up to get something like this in your inbox each week.