By Joe Brancatelli
After almost two years of cutbacks in flights, airlines are beginning to add new service again. The new flights will barely put a dent in the nearly 20 percent contraction in the national route network, but it can’t hurt. Here’s what to look for soon:
- Alaska Airlines is adding St. Louis to its route network. It launches daily Boeing 737 flights from its Seattle hub on September 27.
- Hawaiian Airlines launches flights between Kahului, Maui, and Las Vegas on October 3. The twice-weekly nonstops will operate with two-class Boeing 767s.
- Lan Peru begins flights between San Francisco and Lima, Peru, on July 1. The airline will use two-class Boeing 767-300s on the route.
- Delta Air Lines is adding daily nonstop flights to Mexico City from Minneapolis. Flights begin December 18 with Airbus A318s configured with first and coach cabins. Delta also says it will resume flying Minneapolis-Paris on a year-round basis and go to daily flights on its Minneapolis-London route.
- American Airlines will add 11 flights a week to Brazil in the fall. That’ll cover daily flights between New York‘s Kennedy Airport and Rio de Janeiro and four weekly flights between Miami and Brasilia. The service launches November 18, but American won’t be operating first-class cabins on either route. The Boeing 767s (to Rio) and 757s (to Brasilia) will be configured only with business and coach classes.
- And American Eagle, the commuter operation of American Airlines, is starting a daily nonstop between Manhattan, Kansas, and Dallas/Fort Worth on November 18.
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Joe Brancatelli is editor and publisher of JoeSentMe.com, a non-commercial Web site for business travelers. Copyright 2009 by Joe Brancatelli. Licensed by contract for Orbitz use.
