This week has seen a number of airlines announcing new service and expanded capacity on routes foreign and domestic. Some of the notable:
– American will add a new city to its route network, with flights starting March 3 to Merida, the largest city on the Yucatan Peninsula. They’re planning 5 weekly roundtrips from Dallas, using an Airbus 319. That will make 120 flights a day to 21 Mexican destinations.
– Low-cost carrier Frontier is adding new routes from Florida, including a daily non-stop from Tampa to St. Louis and seasonal routes between Fort Meyers and Detroit and Indianapolis. From Denver, they’re adding service to Charlotte and Philadelphia in March.
– United, the first U.S. airline to take delivery on 787 Dreamliners, plans to send one from San Francisco to the Chinese interior city of Xi’an three times a week from May to October, pending approval. It would be the first U.S. flight to the city, and the city’s first trans-Pacific connection.
– Delta is making two moves in its international service. It’s adding 4 flights a week from JFK to Tel Aviv, bringing the total to 11, using a 777-200ER with 291 seats. It sees increasing demand. American/US Air, which flew from Philadelphia, is pulling out of Israel, and Delta may hope that its 5-a-day Philly-JFK schedule will encourage Philly passengers to fly to Israel that way.
The second Delta move is a daily nonstop between Raleigh-Durham, NC and Paris, where connections to 75 European cities are available through partners Air France and KLM. It’s Raleigh’s second overseas route; American flies to London from there.
