Routes and Networks
Delta, Air France Add 5 New Transatlantic Routes
- Delta Air Lines has unveiled four new transatlantic routes as part of its summer 2023 schedule. The SkyTeam Alliance carrier will add Geneva to its map for the first time in 30 years with daily flights from New York JFK on April 10; Delta last flew JFK-Geneva from 1991-93 after it acquired Pan Am‘s European assets. In addition, Delta will also connect Atlanta to Edinburgh from May 25; Los Angeles to London Heathrow from March 25; and New York JFK to London Gatwick from April 10. By the carrier’s measure it will fly 8 percent more seats to Europe next summer than it did this summer; based on that percentage, Delta will fly roughly 5 percent fewer seats to Europe in summer 2023 than it did in 2019, according to an Airline Weekly analysis of Diio by Cirium schedules. The JFK-Gatwick route was previously set to launch in 2020 but postponed due to the pandemic.
- And Delta’s partner Air France is also adding a new transatlantic route. The airline will begin daily flights to Newark Liberty and Paris Charles de Gaulle with a Boeing 777-200 on December 12; a route it hasn’t served since 2012. In addition, Air France will connect Paris to Kittilä, Finland, Tromsø, Norway, and Salzburg, Austria, weekly, and Innsbruck twice weekly from December 10. The airline plans to fly the same number of flights this winter as it did three years ago.
- Wizz Air is adding at least 12 routes to its network in Italy and the UK; two markets its CEO has called “investible.” The discounter will connect Milan Malpensa to Cardiff from October 30; Rome Fiumicino to Barcelona, Paris Orly, Porto, and Valencia, and London Luton to Bydgoszcz and Lodz, Poland, from December; Malpensa to Yerevan, Armenia, and Marsa Alam, Egypt, from January; and Fiumicino to Göteborg, Malaga, and Sevilla from April 2023.
- U.S. public charter regional Contour Airlines will add seven new destinations to its map this fall. Flights to Altoona, Pa., from Philadelphia begin October 4; Cape Girardeau and Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., to Nashville on October 18; and Clarksburg and Lewisburg, W.V., Paducah, Ky., and Shenandoah Valley, Va., to Charlotte between November 1 and December 6. Contour will also connect Fort Leonard Wood to Dallas-Fort Worth from October. All of the destinations are subsidized under the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Essential Air Service program. Contour has avoided the pilot staffing issues that other U.S. regionals face by operating under the less restrictive Part 135 certification.