New Airline Routes for March 2017
03/17/2017
In an inspiring week for Airline announcements, it's more competition for some, entirely new routes for others.This time round an impressive 28 new routes have been launched.Amongst this list are some fascinating new additions.
DUBAI RE-OPENS THE ATHENS-U.S. LINK
Most notable is the much vaunted Dubai-Athens-New York Newark route, which will link the U.S.A. and Athens directly for the first time in years. It also gives the business traveler further options for travel to the Gulf and may bring much-needed investment from the Gulf into Greece's ailing economy.
NEW ROUTE TO LATIN AMERICA
Southwest has announced a new route between Denver and Belize (once a week with no competition). Belize City is the main port and business center of the country of the same name.Located on a river just five miles from the Caribbean, Belize has become a popular cruise destination, so maybe a good piece of forward-planning.
SOUTHWEST EXPANDS IN THE U.S.
Southwest also began six internal routes including on the hugely competitive Las Vegas-Minneapolis (St.Paul) and New York (Newark)-Fort Lauderdale destinations.The former seven times a week, the latter fourteen.Newark-Fort Lauderdale already has 135 flights a week, so it will be a cut-throat market, which must drive down air fares.
MORE CHOICE IN SPAIN
Further abroad, Iberia has launched a Barcelona-Valencia route (twice a week) bringing competition to German Low-Cost Carrier Vueling. The distance between the two Spanish cities is only 217 miles, but the driving time is three hours six minutes, by train 4 hours twenty-five.However to fly is only 53 minutes, so a real time saver.
LOCAL INDIAN ROUTE
For the Backpackers, and the more adventurous, Vistara will fly seven times a week from Mumbai to Amritsar.Amritsar is an exciting destination in the sub-continent, being a Holy place for Sikhs and contains the breath-taking Golden Temple.
WIZZAIR AGAIN!
It will come as absolutely no surprise that aggressive Low-Cost carrier Wizzair started five new routes with some innovative links:
Cluj-Napoca to Bratislava links Romania's second city with the Slovak capital twice a week, Katowice to Catania (on the East coast of Sicily) twice a week.The Polish city will also be linked to Lisbon, Malta, and Reykjavik. The inclusion of Lisbon is an interesting one, as the Lisbon-Hanover route has a high demand but is as yet unserved.
AUSTIN TX IN THE NEWS
Among brand new routes with no competition, there are two services to Austin-Bergstrom TX; one is Southwest's flight to Kansas, the other is Delta's flight to Rayleigh-Durham N.C.
KEEP CHECKING
We will give you regular updates on all the latest route announcements.Aviation is a constantly changing industry, and what may not be available as a route today may well be tomorrow.