American begins Doha

After two and a half years of delays, American Airlines has inaugurated New York JFK to Doha, its first Qatar route. It is its second Middle East destination after Tel Aviv.

Operating 1x daily, it uses 304-seat B777-300ERs, American's largest aircraft. It leaves JFK at 00:55 and arrives at 21:00 local time. Returning, AA121 departs Doha at 01:35 and returns at 08:45. Passengers can connect to/from Qatar Airways' services.

The route is a consequence of the deepening relationship between American and Qatar Airways. They're both in oneworld and signed a codeshare agreement in early 2020. American's 1x daily supplements Qatar Airways' 2x daily JFK service using A350-1000s.

Many new Europe-US/Canada routes

Multiple new routes between Europe and the US/Canada have started. These include Azores Airlines from Ponta Delgada to New York JFK; British Airways London Heathrow-Portland; Finnair Helsinki-Seattle; Iberia Madrid-Dallas; LOT Polish Krakow-Newark; Lufthansa Frankfurt-St. Louis; SAS from Copenhagen and Stockholm to Toronto; United Palma-Newark; and WestJet Edinburgh-Toronto.

Although a simple continuation from Alitalia's days, ITA launched Rome-Los Angeles, while Eurowings Discover replaced Lufthansa on Munich-Montréal.

Lufthansa serves St Louis 3x weekly year-round using A330-300s. It is the first time since January 2019 that St Louis has had European flights, but nearly two decades have passed since it was linked to mainland Europe. Lufthansa will target the near 300,000 passengers between St Louis and wider Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia.

Ethiopian begins Togo-Washington Dulles

The Togolese capital of Lomé is now connected non-stop to Washington Dulles, with Ethiopian Airlines' 3x weekly service beginning and ending in Addis Ababa using B787-8s. It has full traffic rights from Togo to the US, just as it does between Lomé and Newark (4x weekly) and JFK (3x weekly).

It means that the Ethiopian flag carrier now serves Addis-Dulles 10x weekly. The new 3x weekly joins a 1x daily service that routes from Addis via Dublin outbound (to refuel) and non-stop inbound.

Ethiopian stops in Lomé because that is the hub of its partner, ASKY. It means Dulles passengers can quickly connect to destinations across West Africa, such as Accra, Abuja, and Lagos.

Volotea starts nine new routes

Nine new routes have been inaugurated by Volotea: Ajaccio-Luxembourg, Bordeaux-Athens, Cagliari-Bilbao, Cagliari-Nice, Lille-Calvi, Nantes-Athens, Nantes-Brindisi, Naples-Pantelleria, and Venice-Kalamata.

The photo celebrates the launch of Cagliari, on the Italian island of Sardinia, to Nice, just 319 miles (514km) apart over the sea. Volotea currently has 1x weekly flights (base fares from just €8/$9 one-way when writing), but it rises to 2x weekly from July 11th. It ends for the season on November 7th.

Nice is Volotea's 20th destination from Cagliari. Its network comprises nine destinations in Italy, eight in Spain (including Nice), and one each in Spain, Germany, and the Czech Republic. This summer, Cagliari is Volotea's third-busiest airport by flights, with services up by a huge 130% over summer 2019.

LOT Polish begins Mumbai and Sarajevo

Thanks to LOT Polish, Warsaw is now connected to Mumbai and Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The routes are new for the carrier and will operate year-round. Sarajevo is served 5x weekly during the summer, reducing to 4x in winter, while Mumbai is 2x weekly year-round. Mumbai supplements Warsaw-Delhi, which started in September 2019.

Sarajevo primarily uses 82-seat Embraer 175s, its aircraft of choice across Central and Eastern Europe, while Mumbai sees 252-seat B787-8s and 294-seat B787-9s.

Both routes focus heavily on transit passengers, including to North America. To maximize connections over Warsaw – there is little point-to-point demand – Sarajevo has a split schedule.

On Mondays and Thursdays, LO579 departs Warsaw at 14:40 and arrives in Sarajevo at 16:30. Returning, LO580 leaves at 17:10 and arrives back at 19:05. On the other days, it runs 10:35-12:25, 13:05-15:00. This ensures many two-way connections across Poland, Northern Europe, and the US/Canada.

Budapest-Moldova linked after 10 years

ULCC Wizz Air has introduced Budapest to the Moldovan capital of Chișinău. With 4x weekly summer flights, the 457-mile market (735km) utilizes A320s, although the first rotation used the A321neo. It'll reduce to 2x weekly in winter.

The market was served for years by Moldavian Airlines, mainly by the Saab 2000 but also the Saab 340, until March 2012. It has therefore been unserved for over a decade.

In 2019, around 9,000 roundtrip passengers traveled indirectly. As usual, Wizz Air will need to stimulate demand from low prices and promotions to achieve strong seat load factors, with 22,000 seats for sale in 2022. And that's despite starting halfway through the year.

AnadoluJet introduces Ankara-Brussels

The lower-cost subsidiary of Turkish Airlines, AnadoluJet, has inaugurated Ankara, the Turkish capital, to Brussels. To celebrate, there was this great water salute and, of course, Belgian chocolates.

With up to 3x weekly flights using B737-800s, the summer-seasonal service will end on October 28th. It competes head-to-head with up to 2x weekly flights by SunExpress.

The market mainly focuses on Turkish diaspora and has 36,000 seats for sale this summer, the highest number to date. For context, around 60,000 roundtrip passengers flew Brussels-Ankara in 2019, the vast majority transiting in Istanbul. In terms of non-stops, it was an underserved market.

Ankara is one of four airports in Turkey served by Turkish Airlines and/or AnadoluJet from Brussels, joining Istanbul Airport, Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen, and Antalya.

Frontier enters Tampa-Cancún

There are 39% more flights between the US and Cancún this summer than in any other year. Tampa is playing a role, whose Cancún flights have risen from just 19 departures across all summer 2019 to 229, up by 1,105%.

Tampa-Cancún now has up to 2x daily flights across incumbent JetBlue and new entrant Frontier. Delta ceased the airport pair in March 2020. (ULCC Frontier has also started Houston Hobby and Houston Intercontinental to the Mexican resort.)

Frontier has between 2x and 7x weekly Tampa-Cancún flights, with the highest number in July (not 1x daily as there are two flights on Saturdays). Not coincidentally, JetBlue temporarily ends the 1x daily route on July 10th before returning on September 7th.