Now that the summer is officially behind us, the airline industry is already looking ahead to next summer, when scores of Americans are expected to jet off to popular destinations across the world.
That’s the underlying theme across many of the airline route-network updates that were shared in September. Travelers typically start looking for flights as early as about a year before departure, so it makes sense for carriers to announce their summer plans this far in advance.
Historically, summertime sees a dramatic rise in demand for transatlantic travel, and multiple carriers are leaning into that trend.
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Of course, there were a slew of other route updates in September, some noteworthy enough for a dedicated story and others that weren’t. Either way, we’ve rounded up the highlights, so read on for the September route announcements you might’ve missed.
American Airlines
Even though September wasn’t as splashy as American’s August network update — which included its biggest transatlantic expansion since 2019 — the Fort Worth-based carrier kept busy this month.
The airline announced an all-new transcontinental route between Miami and Orange County, which covers one of the nation’s most affluent catchment areas. The new service to the John Wayne Airport (SNA) joins recently announced service from Miami to Portland, Oregon, and Sacramento.
Airlines don’t usually publish splashy press releases when they’re cutting routes, so it’s worth mentioning that the carrier is pulling out of three routes in the coming months, as first seen in Cirium schedules:
- Austin to St. Louis.
- Philadelphia to Charlottesville.
- Raleigh/Durham to Tampa.
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Alaska Airlines
This month, Alaska announced that it’s adding a new route between Atlanta and San Diego.
Though San Diego is a base for the airline, Atlanta most definitely is not. When the airline announced the route, some aviation observers immediately commented that the new flight seemed aimed at Delta, which operates a fortress hub in Atlanta and which has encroached upon Alaska’s dominance in Seattle in recent years.
Alaska is no stranger to a turf war both with Delta and with other airlines — Alaska recently started new flights between San Diego and United’s hub in Washington Dulles — so it’ll be interesting to see if and how Delta responds.
This wasn’t the only interesting move that Alaska made this month. The carrier also scraped all domestic transcon redeyes to the Northeast from its schedule between early January and mid-February. The carrier says that “aircraft are being moved around and utilized for leisure markets during that timeframe.”
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Breeze Airways
Breeze Airways, the latest brainchild from serial airline entrepreneur David Neeleman, is expanding once again.
This time, the carrier is opening a new outstation in Springfield, its first airport in Illinois. It’ll start flying to Tampa and Orlando later this year.
Additionally, the airline is adding new service to Plattsburgh International Airport (PBG), which is located near Montreal along the Canadian border. This new service to Orlando might appeal to Canadians looking for discounted flights to the theme park capital of the world.
Finally, Breeze is also adding service from Portland, Maine, to Fort Myers.
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Delta Air Lines
Delta stole the show in September. The airline just unveiled an exciting expansion for next summer, which is poised to become its busiest transatlantic season yet.
The airline is adding new service from New York to Naples, Italy, and to Munich, as well as resuming a handful of routes and expanding service on some existing ones.
Not mentioned as part of the of the announcement is that Delta will stop flying from Atlanta to Dusseldorf, and it won’t launch service from Portland, Oregon, to Seoul or Tokyo as originally planned.
Delta isn’t just banking on a busy transatlantic summer. The airline also unveiled a slew of new domestic routes to popular summer destinations, such as Anchorage, Aspen, Colorado and the California cities of Burbank and Santa Barbara.
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Frontier Airlines
As one of the nation’s largest budget airlines, Frontier is no stranger to chasing demand in every season.
During the winter, that usually means pointing planes to warm-weather destinations, such as Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Indeed, that’s exactly what Frontier is doing with the addition of 14 new routes, half of which are resumptions from after the pandemic.
You’ll find new routes to cities such as Cancun, Fort Myers, Tampa and Santo Domingo.
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Hawaiian Airlines
Hawaiian didn’t announce any new routes this month, but it did drop some exciting news: the launch date for its Boeing 787 Dreamliner service.
Beginning on April 15, Hawaiian will start flying its 787s from Honolulu to San Francisco. The 787 ushers in a new era for the carrier’s onboard experience with an upgraded business-class product and a refreshed economy cabin.
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JetBlue Airways
JetBlue didn’t make many network headlines this month, but it did file plans to stop serving Cuba this month due to low demand.
JSX
JSX, popular for its shared private jet experience that departs from FBOs (fixed-base operators), is moving its operations in San Diego.
The carrier will stop serving the San Diego International Airport (SAN) and move to the McClellan-Palomar Airport (CLD) in Carlsbad beginning on Oct. 5. The carrier will continue to fly to Las Vegas (LAS) and Taos (TSM) from CLD after moving.
Spirit Airlines
New Yorkers have reason to rejoice, even if they don’t typically fly with Spirit Airlines. The carrier quietly filed plans this month to start service from LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to both Atlanta and West Palm Beach during the winter season.
Spirit’s new service to Palm Beach should be especially exciting since this route has historically seen high fares during peak travel periods. Only Delta and JetBlue currently operate in this market.
Meanwhile, Spirit is entering a crowded market from New York to Atlanta — Delta, Frontier, JetBlue and Southwest all already fly between these cities.
Avianca
Avianca is adding three new U.S. routes in December. This includes new service from Oakland (a new city for the airline) to San Salvador, as well as service from New York to San Pedro Sula and from Chicago to Guatemala.
Note that these routes will only be flown during the peak holiday period from December to early January.
Condor
San Antonio scored a big win this month with its first-ever flights to Europe.
Condor Airlines will begin flying seasonal flights to Frankfurt on May 17, 2024. Condor will use its flagship Airbus A330-900neo on the route, which offers a top-notch business-class experience.
If you’re not familiar, Condor is a German leisure carrier that’s been trying to reinvent itself after years of having its strategy dictated by larger airline investors, such as Lufthansa and the now-defunct Thomas Cook Group.
San Antonio has been itching for transatlantic service for years, and the city’s mayor said that “this a spectacular win for San Antonio.”
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Lufthansa Group
Speaking of German carriers, the Lufthansa Group isn’t resting on its laurels. The group announced a major U.S. expansion earlier this month, which will kick off just in time for the summer 2024 season.
This includes two new Lufthansa destinations: Raleigh/Durham and Minneapolis, both of which will be served from Frankfurt. Additionally, Lufthansa will launch a new flight from Seattle to Munich.
The carrier will also debut the popular Airbus A380 this upcoming summer from Munich to Washington Dulles.
Swiss will also commence flights from Zurich to Washington Dulles on March 28, 2024, followed by new flights from Zurich to Toronto commencing on May 10, 2024.
Lufthansa is also adding additional frequencies and upgauging certain U.S. routes, and you can read about all the updates below.
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Norse Atlantic
Norse Atlantic Airways, one of Europe’s new low-cost carriers, announced earlier this month that it’ll connect Los Angeles with Paris starting on May 1, 2024.
The airline is entering a crowded market — Air France, Delta and Air Tahiti Nui already fly between these two cities — so it’ll be interesting to see how Norse fares.
With one-way tickets starting at $279, Norse offers some very attractive intro rates, but long-haul flights aren’t cheap to operate. Even if you don’t fly with Norse, at least the carrier’s presence should cause the incumbents to lower their fares.
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Starlux
Starlux Airlines is a new luxury carrier based in Taiwan that started flying to Los Angeles earlier this year. And beginning in December, you’ll start seeing Starlux’s sleek Airbus A350s flying to San Francisco.
The carrier has already received rave reviews from flyers, myself included, for its top-notch onboard experience, and the airline has a nascent partnership with Alaska Airlines that includes mileage redemptions (though the standard rates aren’t especially attractive).
Starlux flies to a slew of destinations in the Asia-Pacific region, so even if Taiwan isn’t your final destination, this is a route that you don’t want to miss.
VivaAerobus
VivaAerobus, one of Mexico’s ultra-low-cost giants, announced this week six new routes from the U.S. to Monterrey. The new destinations include Austin, Denver, Miami, New York, Oakland and Orlando.
As we look towards October and beyond, expect to see many new routes between the U.S. and Mexico. That’s because the U.S. just upgraded Mexico’s aviation safety designation to category 1, which means that Mexican carriers can once again add new routes to the U.S.
On the heels of the announcement, Aeromexico and Volaris are expected to announce new U.S. routes in the coming weeks.