Hop aboard new flights to Hawaii, Milwaukee, Rome
Airlines constantly tweak their schedules, trying to find profitable new routes or pulling the plug on ones that have underperformed. Airports and communities court these new services.
There are dozens of changes to airline routes each month. Here’s a look at some of the most interesting:
UNITED WANTS TO BE TOP CARRIER TO HAWAII United Airlines is making a play for the Hawaii market, increasing service to the state from four of its hub airports.
The carrier will add 11 additional flights to Hawaii, an expansion United said would give it “more flights between the mainland and the Hawaiian Islands than any other carrier.”
From Denver, United is upgrading three of its Hawaii routes from seasonal to year-round service. United also will add additional Hawaii flights on existing routes from its hubs at Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Besides the hubs seeing increased Hawaii service, United also flies to the state from Washington Dulles, Tokyo and Guam.
SOUTHWEST LATEST TO CUT BACK IN CUBA Southwest Airlines will ax two of its three routes to Cuba, becom-
ing the latest U.S. carrier to trim flights to that nation amid disappointing demand.
Southwest said flights to Varadero and Santa Clara will be discontinued so that the airline can “concentrate its future service to Cuba in Havana.” Southwest will keep its existing service to Havana from both Fort Lauderdale and Tampa.
Service to Varadero and Santa Clara will end Sept. 4.
Two smaller airlines have pulled out of Cuba altogether. Frontier axed its Miami-Havana flights in June, ending its only route to Cuba. And small carrier Silver Airways, which once had plans for nine Cuba routes, stopped flying to the country this spring.
ALLEGIANT UNVEILS ‘HISTORIC’ EXPANSION Allegiant Air announced 28 new routes and three new destinations in what the company billed as “the largest-ever announcement of new service in the company’s history.”
The expansion puts three more cities on Allegiant’s route map.
Flights from the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast begin Aug. 30. Service to the two other new cities – Milwaukee and Norfolk – starts in the fall.
Allegiant will fly non-stop to five destinations from Milwaukee and to three from Norfolk. The carrier’s single new route from Gulfport — to Orlando Sanford — will revive service that Allegiant
discontinued in 2009.
Allegiant also is adding a bevy of new routes between other cities it already serves. That includes Allegiant’s base at the Phoenix–Mesa Gateway Airport, where the company is adding a total of eight seasonal or yearround routes. With the new flights, Allegiant will serve 45 cities from Mesa.
Other cities faring well in Allegiant’s expansion include the carrier’s Florida bases in Punta Gorda (five new routes), OrlandoSanford (four) and St. Petersburg (four).
Earlier in the month, Allegiant announced plans for another new city. Providence will join Alle-
giant’s network in September, when the airline launches the first of three routes from the city.
NORWEGIAN AIR EXPANSION CONTINUES AT FULL THROTTLE Norwegian Air’s torrid U.S. expansion shows no sign of slowing down. The fast-growing budget airline announced yet another new European destination from the United States: Rome.
Flights will be on the carrier’s new Boeing 787 “Dreamliners” and will start in November from Los Angeles and Newark.
Flights from Oakland begin in February. Tickets went on sale with fares as low as $189 one-way from Newark and $229 one-way
from California.
Norwegian has been expanding at a breakneck pace since debuting in the U.S. in 2013. With the Rome routes, Norwegian will be flying a total of 52 non-stop routes to 13 European destinations from 12 U.S. gateways.
Norwegian’s Rome announcement came just two weeks before the airline began a major expansion from mid-sized cities in the U.S. Northeast. On June 15, the company began the first of 12 new non-stop routes linking Providence; Hartford, Conn.; and Newburgh, N.Y., to several destinations in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
Norwegian plans to use its brand-new Boeing 737 Max jets for those flights.
MORE SOUTH AMERICA OPTIONS ON AVIANCA South America’s Avianca brand launched two high-profile routes to the United States in June.
The first came June 2, when Avianca began service between Boston and Bogota. The Colombian carrier, which traces its roots to 1919, is the only carrier flying non-stop between the cities. Avianca flies four weekly flights on the route with 120-seat Airbus A319 jets.
On June, 23 Avianca Brasil kicked off a new route connecting Miami and Sao Paulo. The service is the first to the U.S. by Avianca Brasil, a sister company of Avianca. The airline offers one daily round-trip flight on the route using Airbus A330 widebody jets.