Welcome to my 141st weekly routes article! I have analyzed subjectively exciting services that began or resumed in the past week or so. As usual, multiple other example launches are listed at the bottom. Click here to see the last jam-packed edition.
As always, this article does not cover all services but rather those that intrigue or are particularly significant.
Lufthansa’s second Johannesburg route
It took 20 years, but
Lufthansa
has finally resumed flying between Munich, its second-busiest hub, and Johannesburg. The carrier last served this route in 2004. Of course, it is not quite this simple, as fellow Star Alliance member South African Airways flew it between 2007 and 2020. SAA’s woes mean it has not returned to Europe.
Lufthansa reintroduced the 4,542 nautical mile (8,412 km) route on September 2. It operates three times weekly year-round on the A350-900. Like most Europe-South Africa services, it operates overnight southbound, although, somewhat unusually, it is a day service back to Europe. When it last flew the route in March 2004, it used the gas-guzzling A340-300.
Johannesburg is one of two sub-Saharan African cities Lufthansa serves from Munich. It has flown to Cape Town since 2012 and operates seasonally in the northern winter (daily A350-900). Naturally, the German giant serves both South African cities from Frankfurt.
Take off: Emirates to Madagascar
The Middle East giant’s passenger aircraft now fly to 22 African destinations. The latest addition was the Madagascan capital, Antananarivo, which welcomed the first-ever Dubai service on September 3.
Emirates
operates four times weekly via Seychelles in both directions on the 777-300ER. As Seychelles-Antananarivo has been unserved since Air Seychelles ended the route in 2019, it is fortunate that Emirates has fifth freedom rights. However, the market is tiny.
EK707 leaves Dubai at 08:55 and gets to Madagascar at 16:50 local time. Returning, EK708 departs at 18:35 and returns to the Middle East at 04:20+1. Unsurprisingly, this is well-timed for connectivity, especially to/from Europe, which had seven in ten of Antananarivo’s passengers last year outside Africa.
France will be critical to Emirates’ flights. Paris had 40% of the total non-African traffic, with many passengers flying non-stop with Air France, Corsair, and Madagascar Airlines, although the latter no longer operates. Mumbai was second and Dubai third.
TAP launches new Brazilian route
For obvious reasons, Brazil is a vital country in TAP Air Portugal’s long-haul network. The South American nation has 87 weekly departures from Lisbon/Porto, accounting for half of TAP’s long-haul total.
The September 3 launch of the Star Alliance member’s first-ever flight from Lisbon to Florianópolis helped. At 4,547 nautical miles (8,421 km), it became TAP’s second-longest route after Lisbon-San Francisco. It was the first time Florianópolis had ever had European service.
TAP now serves 11 Brazilian cities. However, that will become 12 when Manaus flights begin on November 4, rejoining its network after eight years. While Manaus was previously served non-stop on the A330-200, it will now run via Belém using the A321LR—the carrier’s longest LR service.
Jetstar’s new longest A321LR route
September 6 was a historical time for Australia’s Jetstar. The Qantas Group low-cost carrier inaugurated its longest Airbus A321LR route from Perth to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi. The route covers 2,864 nautical miles (5,304 km) each way and is flown four times weekly on the high-capacity, 232-seat type. The first flight to the Thai capital took 6h 41m.
It competes directly with Thai Airways’ daily 787-operated service—the first time the market has had two operators. In 2019, the Perth-Bangkok point-to-point market had approximately 115,000 roundtrip passengers. Now that the two airlines operate, traffic will easily be at a record level.
Perth is now a Jetstar base. The airline’s international LR network has four routes to Asia. Alongside Bangkok, there’s Singapore (started on August 1, 2024), Phuket (August 6, 2024), and Bali (long served by Jetstar but recently switched to the LR).
flynas begins 1st Jeddah-Berlin flight
Neither Jeddah nor any Saudi city has had Berlin flights. That is not too hard to understand. Last year, only ~14,000 passengers flew between the two cities, equivalent to 19 passengers daily each way. It rose to 49,000 for the Middle East country generally (69 PDEW).
The 2,189 nautical mile (4,054 km) market now has non-stop flights, with flynas running three times weekly on the A320neo. It will be joined by Eurowings in November, both partly because of funding from the Saudi Air Connectivity Program. It is one of several new routes for flynas recently.
As usual, passengers can connect in Jeddah to other Saudi cities and destinations in the Middle East and beyond. However, the list of places is not big, and there are even fewer opportunities when both directions are considered. For example, Mumbai flights connect from Berlin but not to Germany.
Then there’s…
Many other route launches have occurred in the past week or so. They include Spirit between Burbank and Sacramento and San Jose, among other domestic additions. This means the ultra-low-cost carrier now has three intrastate routes from the LA Basin airport (Oakland flights started in April 2024). Alas, I could not find any celebratory photos.
Alaska Airlines served Burbank-San Jose until 2019 and JSX until 2018, leaving only Southwest. Meanwhile, Sacramento has only seen Southwest for 20 years; the last carrier was in 2004. Elsewhere, easyJet has resumed Nice-Agadir (last served by the airline in 2020) and Newcastle-Amsterdam (last operated in 2015).
JetBlue has started flying between Boston and Presque Isle (a brand-new addition to the carrier’s network, driven by EAS funding), Cape Air replaces JetBlue on off-season Hyannis-JFK, and Atlantic Airways is back in Stewart, among various other US launches and celebrations.
Meanwhile, BA CityFlyer started London Stansted-Split, Air India Express took off from Kolkata to Dhaka, Emirates celebrated 10 years of passenger flights to Brussels, IndiGo now serves Jaffna, its next international destination…
That’s it for this week. See you next time.