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Hello and welcome to the The Atlantic Update for Wednesday 3 October 2018, our weekly bulletin on transatlantic travel between Europe and North America.
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Winter Is Coming
Primera Air has now joined eos, FlyGlobespan, MaxJet, Silverjet and Zoom on the list of defunct transatlantic airlines.
There has been huge growth in the transatlantic market in recent years with Norwegian pursuing rapacious growth at Gatwick and niche routes between secondary airports with the single aisle Boeing 737 Max. Wow Air and Icelandair have sought to make Reykjavik the Dubai of the North Atlantic.
Norwegian has already suspended all transatlantic routes from Belfast and Edinburgh and announced some winter seasonal suspensions at Gatwick. Wow Air has suspended Edinburgh, San Francisco and Stockholm from Rejkjavik. With Brent Crude reaching $85 for the first time in nearly four years, attention is inevitably going to be focused on smaller airlines.
It is often said that it is during the good times that airlines sow the seeds of their difficulties during a downturn. With a rising oil price and significant geopolitical uncertainty on both sides of the atlantic, it is going to be a long winter.
American Airlines Route Announcements
American Airlines has announced a number of new routes in the Americas for the summer of 2019.
This includes a number of new routes from Dallas Fort Worth, its principal hub.
From Sunday 3 March 2019, American will launch new domestic routes from Dallas Fort Worth to Valley International Airport, Harlingen, Texas; Augusta Regional Airport, Georgia; Gainesville Regional Airport, Florida; Yuma International Airport, Arizona; and Meadows Field Airport, Bakersfield, California.
From Tuesday 2 April 2019, American will launch new year-round services to Flagstaff Pulliam Airport, Arizona and Hollywood Burbank Airport, California. It will also launch seasonal service to Monterey Regional Airport, California.
Elsewhere, American will launch new routes on Thursday 14 February 2019 from Reagan National Airport, Washington, to Will Rogers Airport, Oklahoma City; from La Guardia to McGhee Tyson Airport, Knoxville, Tennessee and from New York JFK to San Antonio International Airport, Texas.
Also launching on Tuesday 2 April 2019 is a new route from Los Angeles to Tulsa International Airport, Oklahoma and from Saturday 8 June 2019 a new seasonal route from Charlotte to Cherry Capital Airport, Traverse City, Michigan.
These routes will be on sale at aa.com from Monday 8 October 2018.
Delta at London Heathrow
Delta has confirmed that its summer seasonal route from London Heathrow to Portland will operate daily in summer 2019.
The route is currently scheduled to operate from Friday 10 May 2019 to Wednesday 2 October 2019. It will also increase flights from London Heathrow to Detroit to twice daily from Thursday 9 May 2019. It currently operates daily, increasing to 11 times weekly in the summer.
Air New Zealand on The History of Californian Aviation
Air New Zealand has long flown from London Heathrow to Auckland via Los Angeles.
Whilst it is a relatively small presence on the London to Los Angeles route, it punches well above its weight and is a highly regarded competitor.
Air New Zealand has documented California’s contributions to the history of aviation over more than 100 years. This cover the most notable events, companies, people and technological innovations that have shaped air travel today.
Also of note this week:
JetBlue has launched a new twice weekly seasonal route from Boston to Palm Springs, operating twice weekly from Thursday 14 February 2019 to Tuesday 30 April 2019. It has also extended its seasonal service from New York JFK to Palm Springs, operating from Wednesday 10 October 2018 to Monday 27 May 2019. As per last year, some peak season flights will operate with the Mint premium cabin. (JetBlue)
United is to operate the Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner on select flights on transcontinental routes from Newark to Los Angeles and San Francisco from January 2019. (United)
Late Post-Publication Updates
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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
