Welcome to my 60th routes newsletter! I've covered a selection of new routes that took off or returned in the past week. Why not sign up and receive my newsletter in your email inbox every week?
SalamAir begins two Prague routes
In an exciting development, Oman's SalamAir has commenced not one but two Czech Republic routes. On October 21st, Muscat-Prague lifted off, the first time that the airport pair has been served. It's served 1x weekly until January 27th, with all flights by the 212-seat A321neo.
Also 1x weekly from October 21st was Salalah-Prague. The operating aircraft routed Muscat-Prague-Salalah, with the first Salalah-Prague-Muscat services on October 26th.
Flightradar24 shows that the 2,983 miles (4,800km) between Muscat and Prague, just 17 miles (27km) short of being long-haul, took precisely 6h 42m. Curiously, 6h 42m is the same duration as SalamAir's first Prague-Salalah flight, on which it competes directly with Smartwings' 1x weekly charter operation.
Rochester-Orlando gets 3rd airline
ULCC Spirit has become the third airline from Rochester (New York) to Orlando. It is the first time that the 1,033-mile (1,662km) market has had a trio of operators. Most years, there have been two – and sometimes just one. It is the first time that Spirit has served Rochester.
As usual, Spirit has a 1x daily operation, although it reduces a little in December and January. It joins Southwest (typically 1x to 3x weekly now but up to 8x weekly in summer) and Frontier (typically 3x or 4x weekly, but 1x daily next year).
In 2019, the market had 91,000 passengers, falling to 24,000 in 2020 and reaching 48,000 last year. That's based on nonstop flights. When traffic flying via hubs is added, Rochester-Orlando had over 164,000 total passengers in 2019, 95,000 in 2020, and 64,000 last year.
flynas introduces Riyadh-Mumbai
Saudi carrier flynas has been busy recently with multiple routes introduced. The latest is Riyadh to Mumbai, which took off on October 20th. It last served the market in 2011.
flynas currently has a 3x weekly A320neo service, rising to 1x daily from the end of October. It presently leaves the Saudi capital at 20:20 and arrives in India at 03:05 AM. Returning, it departs at 04:20 AM and returns home at 05:55 AM.
Riyadh-Mumbai is a pretty large market. In 2019, it had over 172,000 roundtrip point-to-point passengers, behind only Delhi and Hyderabad. flynas is now the fourth airline on it, joining Air India (1x daily, A320neo), IndiGo (1x daily, A321neo), and Saudia (A330-300).
Aer Lingus is back in Miami
Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus has reintroduced Dublin for Miami, reconnecting the two cities with nonstop service for the first time since March 2020.
The 4,165-mile (6,703km) route currently runs 2x weekly but rises to 3x weekly in November using A330-300s. EI141 leaves Ireland at 15:40 and arrives in Florida at 19:45 local. Returning, EI140 departs at 22:00 and arrives back at 11:45 AM (+1).
Miami joined Aer Lingus' network in September 2017. Booking data shows that Miami had a seat load factor of 77% in 2019 when over half of the passengers were point-to-point. Still, transit passengers were significant, with Manchester (over Dublin) to Miami as the largest market.
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Kirkuk welcomes the first civil flight
Kirkuk International Airport opened to commercial traffic on October 16th and welcomed its first airline flight – Iraqi Airways from Baghdad – four days later. The carrier deployed the 11.6-year-old YI-AQF, a 90-seat, all-economy CRJ-900.
Located in Northern Iraq, the city of Kirkuk is around 66 miles (106km) south of Erbil and 169 miles (272km) north of Baghdad. It has one of the nation's biggest metro populations.
There appears to be no scheduled or bookable flight to Kirkuk. And while Iraqi Airways' website mentions it, nothing appeared when I searched its booking engine. However, if/when that changes, it'll be the country's sixth airport with commercial flights, joining Baghdad, Basra, Erbil, Najaf, and Sulaimaniyah.
VietJets from Da Nang to India
Over the years, Vietnam has barely been connected nonstop to India. In 2019, over 270,000 passengers flew between the two, but eight in ten had to fly via somewhere.
However, the number of nonstop routes has grown enormously this year, with VietJet inaugurating two more: Da Nang (Vietnam's third-largest city) to Delhi and Mumbai. Needless to say, neither route has been served before.
VietJet operates Da Nang-Delhi 4x weekly and Mumbai 3x weekly. On two days, the Delhi flight departs Vietnam at 17:20 and arrives back at 04:45. On the remaining two, they – like all Mumbai services – leave at 20:00 and return at 07:25 (Delhi) and 07:55 (Mumbai).
Wizz Air's 9th aircraft in Albania
You might not realize it, but Albania is an important country for Wizz Air. In November, it is the ULCC's eighth most-served nation by flights. It has marginally more than Bulgaria but slightly fewer than Spain. In all, the Wizz Air Group has about one in every two of Albania's flights (49%).
Wizz Air has 702 Albania services, up from just 55 (!) in November 2019. It is, of course, the result of more based aircraft and many new routes.
And now, it has celebrated its ninth stationed aircraft, an A321ceo. The ULCC's route network in Albania has risen to 43 routes: 39 from Tirana and four from Kukës.
That's it for the 60th edition of my routes newsletter. Sign up to get something like this in your inbox each week.