Welcome to my 115th weekly routes article! I've analyzed a few subjectively exciting examples of routes that took off recently. While not a new route, and therefore not customarily covered here, it is worth recalling that Japan Airlines' first Airbus A350-1000 entered service on January 24th from Tokyo Haneda to New York JFK.
3rd time lucky for Monterrey-Denver?
Viva Aerobus has commenced flights between Monterrey and Denver. With Thursday and Sunday service, the first roundtrip used the A321neo, although the A320 is down to operate from now on. It is the first time the ULCC has served Colorado.
Monterrey, 1,006 miles (1,619 km) from Denver, was the Colorado city's largest unserved Mexican city in the past year. It had around 15,000 roundtrip passengers (41 daily, ignoring seasonality and before demand is stimulated). Denver was Monterrey's third-largest unserved market after Orlando and San Francisco.
Monterrey-Denver has had non-stop flights before. Aeromexico had flights – albeit not many – between 2016 and 2020, while Volaris operated between 2016 and 2018. That's right: two carriers at the same time. The result was predictable: US DOT T-100 data shows that the SLF fell to a ridiculous 55%. Ouch. Viva is in a much stronger position.
Denver Receives New International Service As Viva Aerobus Launches Monterrey Flights
The new route is the first of six new US routes in 2024.Porter begins its current longest route
Fast-growing Canadian carrier Porter has inaugurated service from Toronto to San Francisco, which is its longest route until Montreal-Vancouver begins in April.
Launched on January 25th, San Francisco runs daily using the E195-E2. PD669 leaves Canada at 10:30 and arrives in California at 13:22 local. PD670 departs at 14:50 and returns at 22:46.
The market will welcome its fourth operator, Lynx, in May. Looking ahead to July, there will be 56 non-stop flights a week by Air Canada (35), Lynx (daily), Porter (daily), and United (daily).
Porter welcomed its first jet in December 2022 and already has 29 (!) of them. They have been pivotal in radically changing its network and operation, with the airline almost singularly responsible for the virtually complete change in North America's longest Embraer flights.
4+ Hours: North America’s 10 Longest Embraer Flights
Nearly all these flights began in 2023 or will do so in 2024, showing just how much change there has been.Avelo's 1st international routes – kind of
In an intriguing twist, Avelo has started 'its' first international routes. Well, not entirely: they operate on behalf of Apple Vacations, so it is not the same thing at all. But it is still noteworthy.
The first of three weekly Lansing-Cancun flights left the Michigan capital on January 27th. It used 18-year-old 737-800 N803XT, which Flightradar24 shows was positioned from Lexington the day before and arrived in Lansing at 04:39. A second route, Lansing-Punta Cana, took off on January 28th, and is served twice-weekly.
Cancun is served on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, and Punta Cana on Thursdays and Sundays. A third fun-in-the-sun route for Apple Vacations this winter is Montego Bay, which starts on February 2nd and runs on Fridays.
Icelandair to Innsbruck
On January 27th, Icelandair took off from Keflavik to Innsbruck for skiing and other winter sports reasons. It appears to be the first time the 1,725-mile (2,777 km) airport pair has had scheduled flights.
Not that there are many services: just a Saturday-only 737 MAX 8 operation until March 2nd. It is already scheduled to return on December 21st.
Innsbruck is one of three Austrian airports to have Keflavik flights this January-March. There is also Vienna (twice-weekly by both Wizz Air and Austrian) and Salzburg (weekly by both Icelandair and PLAY).
Saint John gains 1st Florida route
The New Brunswick city of Saint John – not to be confused with St John's in Newfoundland and Labrador – has gained non-stop flights to the sun thanks to Flair.
The ULCC has inaugurated a weekly service to Orlando Sanford, 1,439 miles (2,315 km) away, with the first roundtrip using the 737 MAX 8. The route will operate until the end of April. It comes shortly after Flair began other Sanford routes.
It is Saint John's only international service and the first time the city has had Orlando flights. However, it is pretty used to international routes, which were variously offered to Cancun, Cayo Coco, Santa Clara, and Varadero between 2011 and 2020.
As a blast from the past, Pan Am Clipper Connection (or Boston-Maine Airways) served Saint John from Bangor (2002-2003) and Portsmouth (2002-2004) using – yes – the Jetstream 31. The routes were no more than 290 miles (466 km).
And finally...
While not a new route, I am happy to include Loganair, the so-called 'Scotland's Airline,' in this week's edition. The reason? It has retired the last of its always-fun-to-fly Saab 340s with brilliant celebratory photos.
The last aircraft withdrawn was the 33.7-year-old G-LGNA, which was delivered to US operator Metroflight in 1990 and entered Loganair's employ in 1999. Loganair's final two flights were on January 25th and operated as LM340 – I like the flight number – from Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands via Inverness to Glasgow.
While it is the end of an era, Loganair will now use the ATR 42 or ATR 72 on routes previously flown by the Saab, streamlining its fleet. With far more seats, the seat-mile costs will be decently lower. Assuming enough seats are filled, it will benefit from the significant revenue uplift from carrying more passengers.
That's all for now, folks. See you next time.