Airlines tweak their routes
Where they’re growing, shrinking.
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 grows in California
United Airlines announced a major international expansion at San Francisco International Airport, adding new flights to Melbourne, Australia; New Delhi; and Toronto.
United CEO Oscar Munoz called it United’s largest-ever international expansion in San Francisco, the carrier’s top West Coast hub.
To Melbourne, United will fly three weekly flights on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft beginning Oct. 29. The airline already offers service to Sydney from San Francisco and flies to both Sydney and Melbourne from Los Angeles.
United’s New Delhi service will be seasonal, with Boeing 787-9 flights launching Dec. 5. United currently offers nonstop flights from Newark to New Delhi and Mumbai, India.
To Toronto, United will fly two daily flights on Boeing 737-800 jets starting March 31. United already serves Toronto from most of its major hubs. From San Francisco, United’s other Canadian routes include Calgary and Vancouver, Canada.
Separately, United also announced it would add one new city to its U.S. network. That will come in Stockton, California, where the company will start United Express flights to its hub in Los Angeles starting June 6.
Frontier adds two new cities
Frontier Airlines announced three new nonstop routes from Denver on Tuesday, building out its network from its hometown and biggest hub.
The new service will begin in March, when Frontier connects Denver to Baltimore/Washington (BWI); Fort Lauderdale, Florida; and Hartford, Connecticut.
“With the addition of these three new routes, we (will) serve 93 cities non-stop from Denver,” said Tyri Squyres, vice president of marketing for Frontier Airlines.
Frontier does not currently fly to BWI or Hartford but has served those cities in the past. The carrier last flew from BWI in 2014 and from Hartford in 2011.
Lisbon to San Francisco, no stops!
TAP Air Portugal has been on an expansion tear in the United States, announcing three new routes that will begin in 2019.
San Francisco was the latest, with news coming just two weeks after TAP said it would also expand to Chicago O’Hare and Washington Dulles. Flights to all three cities will begin in June, with TAP flying the routes on its brand-new Airbus A330neo jets. TAP became the first airline in the world to fly the plane – Airbus’ latest variant of its A330 wide- body – earlier in December.
The U.S. expansion is part of broader resurgence that’s occurred at TAP since JetBlue founder David Neeleman became involved with the airline.
Neeleman, who can take credit for several major airline start-ups beyond JetBlue, was part of a group to take an ownership stake in TAP in 2015. Since then, the 73-year-old company has launched an overhaul of its product and brand.
Once its latest U.S. routes begin, TAP will fly to eight destinations in North America, including seven in the United States as well as Toronto.
WOW Air drops more U.S. cities
WOW Air has confirmed it’s axing service to at least four more U.S. cities as it restructures amid a cash crunch.
“We have decided to stop serving Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York JFK and Dallas/Forth Worth, so they will not feature in our schedule for 2019,” WOW Air spokeswoman Svanhvít Fridriksdóttir said to USA TODAY.
“Having said that, we will continue to serve our other destinations in North America.”
It remains to be seen if WOW will be able to do that. The Icelandic carrier says it will cut its fleet nearly in half, going from 20 planes to just 11 as it seeks to cut costs and raise cash.
“We will be making additional announcements early 2019,” Fridriksdóttir said.
Delta ups ante in Boston
Delta Air Lines is adding four new domestic routes from Boston, a move that comes amid increasing competition at New England’s busiest airport.
Delta’s expansion will add nonstop service between Boston and Chicago O’Hare; Cleveland; Newark Liberty; and Washington Reagan National.
The carrier touted the additions as options that will appeal to Boston business travelers seeking nonstop flights.
“These new routes, along with our existing flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles, means that beginning next fall, Delta will offer service to the five top business markets requested by our corporate customers,” Delta president Glen Hauenstein said.
American adds Glacier Park
The route map at the world’s largest airline will grow in June, when American Airlines will begin flying to the Glacier Park International Airport in Kalispell, Montana.
The airline will offer seasonal service to Kalispell from its hubs at Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles. American’s American Eagle affiliates will fly one daily round-trip flight from all three airports using Embraer E175 jets.
The new Kalispell service was revealed as part of broader 18-route announcement that focused largely on new summertime service. Among the other highlights, American will resume seasonal service to Halifax, Nova Scotia, with daily nonstop flights from Philadelphia and weekend-only service from New York LaGuardia.