From 1970s costumes to an appearance from Oscar Munoz, Routesonline rounds up the best tweets and images as United Airlines bid farewell to its last Boeing 747.
Boeing’s iconic 747 jumbo jet has been a staple of United’s fleet for 47 years, but the US airline has bid farewell to the Queen of the Skies for good.
While its rivals Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways are looking closely at the sustainability of their business models, Qatar Airways shows no signs of slowing its incredible network growth and surprised guests at this year’s Arabian Travel Market in Dubai this week by revealing an additional 12 new markets that should see the airline service in 2018.
United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Etihad Airways is to reduce the frequency of its flights between Abu Dhabi and San Francisco from early next year in a move that will help facilitate the growth of its flights into Dallas.
JetBlue confirms it will take delivery of ten additional Airbus A321s in 2017 and nine of these will be configured in its MINT arrangement to be introduced on routes to Las Vegas, San Diego and Seattle from New York; to San Diego and Seattle from Boston and to Los Angeles and San Francisco from Fort Lauderdale.
San Francisco is a key centre for Israeli business travel and one of the most popular US leisure destinations for Israelis. From its San Francisco hub, United operates nearly 280 daily flights to more than 90 destinations in North America, Latin America, Europe and the Asia/Pacific region providing transfer support to the strong point-to-point demand.
Twenty years after it first launched flights from Manchester, Virgin Atlantic is making history by offering the northern city’s first direct service to San Francisco as part of an expanded summer 2017 schedule that will also deliver a regular link to Boston. The two new routes will cut journey times to both US cities by eliminating the need for connections.
The largest carrier at Long Beach Airport is increasing both the number of destinations and flights, having been awarded three new slots at the airport.
The new initiative will be led by senior executives from both carriers, who will meet regularly to coordinate new initiative rollouts, promote closer cultural integration between Air China and United, and prepare both companies for future joint opportunities, according to a joint statement.
The major US carrier is making strides in one of the fastest growing markets in the world, with a third secondary Chinese city route in their schedule. United will serve routes to Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’an, Chengdu and now Hangzhou.
Have you wondered what enticed an airline to a certain destination? What the data says about demand on the city pair and connecting markets? What external factors may have influenced the airline in selecting a specific city pair? How this business case differs from others?
Fiji Airways, Fiji’s National Airline, has announced plans to commence seasonal twice-weekly direct services from Nadi to San Francisco starting June 2016. The flights, operating in June, July, August, December 2016 and January 2017, will depart from Nadi International Airport to San Francisco International Airport on Thursdays and Sundays.
Denver International Airport has had a strong year post hosting Routes Americas and recently announced the return of an important European hub link to Munich with Lufthansa. Earlier this month it announced record traffic with the busiest September in Denver aviation history.
The airline became a pioneer of ultra-low-cost travel between Europe and North America when it debuted its flights into the US market earlier this year and will replicate this in Canada with its new flights to Montreal and Toronto from May 2016. This latest growth is described by the carrier’s chief executive officer, Skúli Mogensen as a “game changer for WOW air” as it seeks to cement itself as the “industry leader” in the ultra-low-cost long haul category.
United currently has 22 787s in its fleet and will receive three more before the end of this year. These include a mix of 787-8 and larger 787-9 variants which allow the carrier to fit the right-sized aircraft to its existing and new markets. The aircraft is being used at San Francisco International Airport to support the growth of United hub operation from where it provides nearly 280 daily flights to more than 90 destinations in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.
The new route will complement the carrier’s existing US network of Newark Liberty, New York JFK and Chicago O’Hare and will be its longest non-stop service at a distance of around 7,670 miles and a 16 hour flight time. It will be served by a Boeing 777-200LR and will operate on a three times weekly basis from December 2, 2015.
The type is debuting from this month on the Incheon – Frankfurt route with a three times weekly rotation on the KE905/906 flight from September 2, 2015, replacing a 777-300ER. This will increase to a daily deployment from October 1, 2015.
What are the world's longest scheduled air routes by distance and block time? As Emirates Airline reveals plans to launch a Dubai - Panama City route in February 2016, Routesonline investigates.
Australian airline, Qantas Airways has said it will resume flights between Sydney and San Francisco after Australian authorities gave approval for an expanded codeshare arrangement with American Airlines.
This year has already seen JetBlue introduce flights from Fort Lauderdale to Albany, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Mexico City, Nashville and Philadelphia. These have quickly followed the launch of services to Jacksonsville, Los Angeles and Pittsburgh late last year.
The state-run airline has proposed to fly three weekly flights each to San Francisco and Toronto from New Delhi with a Boeing 777-200LR aircraft, which is likely to be reconfigured to include more seating capacity, the airline has said.
As of November 2015, Delta will increase service between New York-JFK and Los Angeles International Airport from nine to ten daily peak-day flights. Four flights will be operated with Boeing 767 widebody aircraft and six flights will use Boeing 757 aircraft. Delta will also be upgrading three of its eight daily flights between New York-JFK and San Francisco to Boeing 767 widebody aircraft.
JetBlue grew its departure capacity from Boston’s Logan International Airport by 355.9 per cent between 2005 and 2014, an average annual rise of 39.5 per cent. The airline overtook Delta Air Lines as the airport’s largest operator by departure seats in 2010 and now has over a quarter share of capacity, up from just 5.8 per cent in 2005. It is forecasted to grow capacity 4.3 per cent this year and this latest expansion will see further rises in 2016.
