New Airports and new destinations in transatlantic travel
02/06/2017
Introduction
The transatlantic airspace is about to get more crowded as new routes and airports seem to be announced almost every week (and remember that one-third of the airports in the world are in the U.S.A.) . Here we examine the new players on the U.S. field, and how some old ones are faring:
New York (JFK) still leads the way
Regarding airports, New York (JFK) is the market leader (43 services). Followed by Toronto (38 services). Newark is closing in (32 services) as is Montreal (30 services). Airports like Chicago (23 services) help make up the chasing pack. But it is three other airports that really catch the eye, with big increases in flight services over the past five years. Miami takes the lead here with a net gain of eight, San Francisco (+7) and Boston (+6). San Francisco in particular has some great cheap flight offers .
Smaller airports continue to surprise
However, it is in the small airports that we get some real surprises with 50 terminals (up 4) having at least one non-stop connection with Europe.But six airports have a non-stop connection now that they did not have six years ago:
Austin, Texas now has a service with British Airways to London Heathrow, and Condor (a German leisure airline) flies to Frankfurt
Hartford, Connecticut has an Aer Lingus service to Dublin.
New Orleans has the same new services as Austin.
Providence, Rhode Island has a service to Ponta Delgado, in the Azores
San Jose has BA flights to London Heathrow and Lufthansa to Frankfurt.
Finally, Winnipeg has a Westjet service to London Gatwick
And the bad news
On the downside, Memphis has lost its Delta service to Amsterdam and Hamilton its flight to Terceira in the Azores.
But an honorable mention for Oakland, California
Oakland Airport, near San Francisco is also a surprising success story, operating Norwegian flights to Barcelona, London Gatwick, Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Oslo. British Airways to London Gatwick and SATA to the Azores and Lisbon. It has been noted, by the world famous travel writer Simon Calder, that this could be a particularly good year for Oakland airport as 2017 is the 40th anniversary of the famous 'Summer of Love.' when flower power took over California, and San Francisco in particular. Oakland should expect a significant 'spike' in visitors.
Conclusion
From all this, we can see a few discernable trends: Budget and smaller airlines are forging ahead in new destinations. A particular mention must be made of Norwegian (yet again) in its muscular intervention into the U.S. aviation market. In contrast, B.A. is still making its presence felt. It must also be noted that flights to the Azores feature quite strongly in these lists, surely one to watch ?.