Welcome to my 62nd routes newsletter! I've covered a selection of new routes that took off or returned in the past week. Why not sign up and receive my newsletter in your email inbox every week?
Virgin Atlantic takes off to Tampa
Tampa has welcomed its first London Heathrow flight. According to booking data, Heathrow was firmly its largest unserved European market in 2019. Some 44,000 people traveled via a hub.
It attracted Virgin Atlantic, which is currently sub-daily but will increase to 1x daily. It is betting on nicely growing the market. It deploys its brand-new 262-seat A330neo, which only arrived in Heathrow from Toulouse on October 15th before entering service to Boston on October 27th. Heathrow-Tampa switches to its well-established, 264-seat A330-300s next summer.
Tampa is no stranger to London flights. It has long had service from Gatwick, which has been in the hands of British Airways since 1995. It was also served briefly by Norwegian between 2018 and 2020.
Click here for Tampa-Heathrow flights!
Finnair begins Doha
The Finnish flag carrier now serves Doha. It is because of its new strategic agreement with fellow oneworld carrier Qatar Airways, perhaps helped by the ban on flying over Russia and the pandemic with freed-up aircraft. The two carriers share capacity and codeshare on three Scandinavian routes.
On November 1st, Finnair launched Stockholm to Doha (1x daily) and Copenhagen to Doha (1x daily). It is the first time Finnair has flown long-haul from Denmark's capital. They'll be joined on December 15th by Helsinki-Doha (also 1x daily). All use 276-seat A330-300s with Finnair's new business and premium economy.
The pair's partnership means that Qatar Airways will end Helsinki on December 15th, replaced by Finnair. And it'll significantly reduce its own presence in Copenhagen and Stockholm, obviously offset by Finnair's entry.
Click here for Copenhagen-Doha flights!
Welcome, Fly Jinnah!
Pakistan has a new airline. On October 31st, Fly Jinnah, the Air Arabia Group's latest unit, inaugurated Karachi to both Islamabad and Lahore, Pakistan's largest markets: in 2019, Karachi-Islamabad had 965,000 passengers and Lahore 832,000. While the first day had just one flight, both are now 2x daily, and Fly Jinnah is one of five carriers on each.
On November 1st, it started Karachi to Peshawar (158,000; 1x daily, joining PIA), and on November 2nd Karachi to Quetta (121,000, 4x weekly, alongside PIA).
On the first day, Fly Jinnah's initial revenue-generating flight left Karachi for Islamabad at 13:11, returning at 18:38. It used AP-BOP, one of the three A320s it currently has. Later that day, AP-BOQ left Karachi for Lahore at 18:11, returning at 22:30, marking its introduction to commercial flying.
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Tulsa gets NYC nonstop after 8 years
Tulsa again has nonstop flights to New York. It comes eight years after United ended Newark in 2015. And for the first time, Tulsa to New York LaGuardia has nonstop service, with American providing a 1x daily 65-seat Embraer 170 service. It later becomes 6x weekly (no Saturday) before returning to daily at the end of February.
Presently, AA4321 leaves Oklahoma at 05:48 and arrives in LaGuardia at 10:00 local. Returning, AA4426 departs at 18:30 and arrives back in Tulsa at 21:15. It allows a day trip to the Big Apple. It's a similar scheduling setup for American's Tulsa-Washington National flights.
It shouldn't be surprising that New York was Tulsa's largest unserved market at city level between January and August this year. And at the airport level, LaGuardia was within the top four. In 2019, when demand was 'normal', LaGuardia had 55 passengers daily each way.
Click here for Tulsa-NYC flights!
Transavia France to Istanbul
Those traveling between France and Istanbul now have one more choice of airline. Transavia France, a unit from the Air France-KLM Group, has introduced two Istanbul Airport routes: Paris Orly to Istanbul (typically 4x weekly but 6x next summer) and Lyon (2x weekly). It supplements its existing Nantes route (2x/3x weekly), a destination Turkish Airlines is keen to serve.
Transavia France has no head-to-head competition from Orly, but it competes indirectly with Pegasus' 2x daily year-round service from Sabiha Gökçen. It's different from Lyon. It competes directly with Turkish Airlines' typically 2x daily offering.
Orly used to have service to Istanbul's then main airport, Ataturk, both Turkish Airlines (until 2008) and Air France (2014).
Click here for Paris-Istanbul flights!
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KLM commences Katowice
Another destination is now in KLM's route network: Katowice. It comes as Aarhus, Denmark, joined the ranks, meaning that KLM serves 91 airports Europe-wide this winter.
Located 631 miles (1,015km) apart, KLM serves the Polish city of Katowice 6x weekly (no Tuesday flight). Come mid-February, it'll be 1x daily. On all occasions, Cityhopper's 132-seat E195-E2s are used.
It isn't the first time that Amsterdam has had Katowice flights. It was linked by Transavia between May 2017 and March 2020. The city is KLM's sixth in Poland, joining GdaÅ„sk, Kraków, PoznaÅ„ (started October 2020), Warsaw, and WrocÅ‚aw.
Click here for Amsterdam-Katowice flights!
Kuwait Airways returns to Hyderabad
The major Indian city of Hyderabad has welcomed back Kuwait Airways after a long 13-year absence. It last served the 2,096-mile (3,373km) airport pair between October 2007 and October 2009 using A300s and A310-300s.
Now it's back, but with A320s and occasionally A330-200s. There is a 4x weekly service, leaving Kuwait at 21:00 and arriving in India at 04:05. Returning, it departs at 05:05 and arrives back at 07:25, 10h 25m roundtrip.
Unlike before, when Kuwait Airways was the sole operator with a nonstop operation, it will now compete with IndiGo (4x weekly) and fellow Kuwaiti carrier Jazeera (3x weekly). There are days with up to three flights.
Click here for Kuwait-Hyderabad flights!
ITA is back in Tokyo
The successor to Alitalia, ITA is back in Tokyo Haneda from Rome Fiumicino. It resumed the airport pair on November 5th, with a 3x weekly operation deploying 334-seat A350-900s. It is the first time since last September that there have been nonstop flights, coinciding with Japan's reopening. It is due to become 1x daily next summer.
While it is only the second year that Rome has had Haneda flights by any airline, Italy's capital was long been connected to Tokyo Narita. The last flight was by Alitalia in March 2020, when everything shut down. It last saw a Japanese carrier in 2010, when Japan Airlines ceased the long route.
Click here for Rome-Tokyo flights!
That's it for the 62nd edition of my routes newsletter. Sign up to get something like this in your inbox each week.