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Hello and welcome to the The Atlantic Update for Wednesday 11 July 2018, providing a weekly bulletin on developments on transatlantic travel between Europe and North America. The Atlantic Update is published every Wednesday morning at 06:00 BST.
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JetBlue to order the Airbus A220-300
Airbus held a press event yesterday, Tuesday 10 July 2018, to mark the launch of the Airbus A220-100 and A220-300.
These aircraft were formerly known as the Bombardier C-Series CS100 and CS300. SWISS operate the A220-300 on selected flights between London Heathrow and Geneva.
JetBlue has announced it has ordered 60 A220-300 aircraft which will be delivered from 2020. It also has options for a further 60 aircraft which, if exercised, would be delivered from 2025. The aircraft will be used to replace JetBlue’s existing fleet of 60 Embraer E190 aircraft from 2020 to 2025.
JetBlue has also converted an existing order 25 Airbus A320neo to Airbus A321neo aircraft.
It is interesting to note that the JetBlue press release makes no mention of any orders for the Airbus A321 Long Range which, if ordered, could be used to launch services to Europe.
Virgin Atlantic adds flights for Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show
Last year Virgin Atlantic added special flights from London Heathrow to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronic Show.
These will return in 2019. Virgin Atlantic will add additional flights from London Heathrow to Las Vegas on Saturday 5, Sunday 6, Monday 7 and Thursday 10 January 2019. Return flights from Las Vegas operate on Saturday 5, Sunday 6, Thursday 10 and Friday 11 January 2019.
This is in advance of Virgin permanently moving the route from Gatwick to Heathrow from Sunday 31 March 2019.
Virgin Atlantic’s transatlantic joint-venture partner Delta will also operate special flights between Amsterdam, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Las Vegas along with Air France and KLM.
The Hollywood Skyway?
The Hollywood sign on Mount Lee is probably one of the most recognisable landmarks of the sprawling mass of Los Angeles County.
It’s a popular hiking route for both locals and visitors.
The Los Angeles Times (which we can’t link to because you can’t access it in Europe due to GDPR!) reports that Warner Brothers proposes to construct an aerial tramway from its studio in Burbank to the sign in Griffith Park. The cost is estimated at $100m which would be fully funded by Warner Bros. The tramway, if built, would take visitors on a 1 mile journey to a new visitors centre near to the sign.
The Tunnel That Could Break New York
In the UK, we often complain about about creaking infrastructure and long delays for projects to secure funding.
After all, the recent Thameslink upgrade was originally called Thameslink 2000 and Crossrail had been on the drawing board for decades.
However, nothing compares to the toxic state of deeply partisan federal, state and city politics that stymies investment decisions in the US. Anyone who has travelled by train in the North East, one of the few regions where it is preferable to air or road, will be familiar with the tunnels under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan.
The infrastructure in the tunnel suffered significant damage during SuperStorm Sandy in 2012. It is creaking and engineers fear it could break at any moment, which could cause huge disruption to the region. A long-standing proposal to construct a new tunnel known as “Gateway” has been mired in federal and state politics and there is little sign of it being resolved any time soon.
Politico has extensive feature on the tunnel that could break New York.
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The Atlantic Update is published every Wednesday at 06:00 BST. If you have any comments, suggestions or tips then please drop us a line at mail [@] londonairtravel.com
