Welcome to my 128th weekly routes article! I have analyzed subjectively exciting services that began in the past week or so and then listed multiple other example launches at the bottom. Click here to see the last week’s jam-packed edition.

As always, this newsletter is about choosing services that intrigue or are particularly significant.

Delta begins Minneapolis-Dublin

Delta now has four routes to the Irish capital. It’s because of the May 9 launch of Minneapolis to Dublin, with the 3,246 nautical mile (6,012 km) route running daily with the Boeing 767-300ER. As you’d expect, it is summer seasonal. Delta now has a record four daily Dublin flights.

The SkyTeam airline has never previously served the airport pair, and there are questions about whether it really wanted to. After all, it only announced it after Aer Lingus confirmed its return to Minnesota.

The Irish flag carrier reinstated the link on April 29 with the A330, although when it originally flew to Minneapolis in 2019, it was on wet-leased 757s. Delta wins the frequency race as it runs daily against Aer Lingus’ four weekly services. Will both carriers be back next year?

Toronto sees double

Toronto ranks third of all North American airports for the number of European flights this summer. Its position was helped by the arrival of two new carriers: ITA Airways and SWISS.

While ITA’s predecessor, Alitalia, served Toronto for years, ITA hasn’t – until now. Its summer seasonal Rome Fiumicino service launched on May 10 and operates daily with the A330-200 and, at times, the A330-900. It is the third carrier on the airport pair, joining Air Canada and Air Transat. The launch came shortly after ITA began Chicago flights, with eight North American airports now served.

On the same day, May 10, SWISS began flying between Zurich and Canada’s busiest airport. The route operates five weekly and uses the airline’s commonest widebody: the A330-300. Toronto joins Montreal in SWISS’s Canadian network, while leisure carrier Edelweiss serves Vancouver.

Zurich-Toronto is an important Star Alliance hub link. Funnily enough, SWISS coexists with partner Air Canada on it, which operates up to daily with the A330-300/777-200LR. It has served the route for 20+ years. SWISS began Toronto flights soon after the carrier returned to Washington Dulles after 21 years.

Related

ITA Airways Focuses On North American Market With New Rome-Toronto Flight

A colleague wrote this article, which has background info.

China Southern is back in Mexico

On May 11, SkyTeam’s China Southern introduced non-stop flights from China to Latin America, returning to Mexico for the first time since 2020.

China Southern previously flew to Mexico City from Guangzhou between 2017 and 2020, stopping in Vancouver in both directions. However, it is now from Shenzhen, traveling non-stop to Mexico City and via Tijuana inbound. Shenzhen-Mexico City covers 7,639 nautical miles (14,147 km), making the route the world’s new ninth-longest passenger service.

Running twice-weekly on the A350-900, CZ8031 leaves China at 21:00 and gets to Mexico at the horrendous time of 23:00. CZ8032 departs at 01:00, arrives in Tijuana at 04:00 local, refuels, leaves at 05:30, and returns to Shenzhen at 12:20+1. Ouch. It takes 21h 20m back to China.

This year, China Southern operates one of six passenger services between East Asia and Latin America. It joins Aeromexico to Seoul and Tokyo, All Nippon from Tokyo to Mexico City, Air China to São Paulo, and (soon) Air China to Havana.

Related

7,639 Nautical Miles: The World’s New 9th Longest Route Takes Off From Shenzhen China

It has overtaken Singapore-Los Angeles in distance.

SWISS jets to South Korea

Zurich and Seoul Incheon have long had non-stop flights. But until now, they have been exclusively in the hands of SkyTeam’s Korean Air. That changed on May 7, when Star’s SWISS began a summer seasonal A340-300 service. It is among the world’s longest non-stop A340 routes.

While covering 4,733 nautical miles (8,765 km) based on the Great Circle, it is much longer in reality – at least 13% longer – due to avoiding Russian airspace.

SWISS runs three times weekly, just like Korean Air. The South Korean capital has become SWISS’ eighth Asian destination (excluding the Middle East). It joins Bangkok, Delhi, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai Pudong, Singapore and Tokyo Narita. It has 50 weekly departures to Asia this summer, down from a high of 56 in the pre-pandemic 2019.

American’s next airport is Nice!

The world’s largest airline has started flying to Nice. American serves the Côte d’Azur daily from Philadelphia, the oneworld airline’s largest European hub, using the Boeing 787-9.

It is the first time American has served more than one French airport simultaneously and the first time that Philly has had Nice flights.

It is one of four brand-new European routes for American this summer. It joins Dallas/Fort Worth to Barcelona, Philadelphia to Copenhagen, and Philadelphia to Naples. All are daily.

While Barcelona is Dallas’ largest unserved European destination, the trio from Philly has tiny point-to-point passenger volumes. Yes, such traffic will rise meaningfully with the non-stop flights, but they’ll still rely heavily on transit traffic.

Related

Take Off: American Airlines Begins 2nd Of 4 New European Routes This Year

Two more new routes will begin in June.

I hoped to include Air Canada’s brand-new Montreal-Madrid service in the analysis section, but oddly, no promotional images were found when writing on May 13.

Then there’s…

As usual, many other routes have started in the past week or so. The very long list includes Scoot introducing its first Embraer E190-E2 flights (Singapore-Krabi was the first route); Aer Lingus Regional reinstating ATR 72 flights from Dublin to Brest and Rennes; and ULCC Spirit beginning multiple routes, among them Baltimore to Boston, New Orleans, Portland (OR), and San Diego.

Croatia Airlines returned to Istanbul after 11 years, this time from Split, a new destination for IST; Freebird reopened its Paderborn, Germany, base; and Breeze introduced Tampa flights from Greenville-Spartanburg and Myrtle Beach, among other new services for the fast-growing operator.

HK Express took off to Sanya; Georgian Wings commenced Tbilisi-Prague using the 737-300 (!); Pakistan’s Fly Jinnah, part-owned by the Air Arabia Group, started Islamabad-Muscat; and fast-developing Münster Osnabrück welcomed yet another airline, this time Marabu, with a twice-weekly Heraklion operation.

Want more?

Jet2 jetted to Tivat from Birmingham, Burgas from Bristol, Verona from Glasgow, and others; Avelo started flying between Manchester and Greenville-Spartanburg, among the mix; and Eurowings added the only service to the UK’s Manchester from Stuttgart, shortly after Stuttgart-Edinburgh began.

Norwegian introduced Harstad/Narvik to Palma; Air Arabia Maroc started Tetouan-Amsterdam; Condor Cologne-Palma; Flair Toronto-Quebec City… Again, this is just a selection! Routes: They make the world go round.

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