The most exciting new flight routes from the UK this summer
Plane Talk: As airlines bring in their new schedules, there are plenty of new horizons – from Get Your KIX to The Only Way Is Paris
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The last day of March in 2019 is a busy one for the aviation world. On the day the clocks go forward, summer officially begins. And that is the cue for airlines to introduce a wide range of new links.
Go back 12 years, and I counted 100 fresh departures from UK airports for the summer of 2007. That was the point of maximum expansion during the low-cost aviation revolution. Things swiftly went into reverse after the economic crash the following year.
But horizons are expanding once again, with new route opportunities (and, if a choice of times is more important for you than destinations, plenty of increased frequencies).
To make the new routes more memorable for you, I have awarded each a name. (Do let me know if you have better ideas.)
Over the past couple of years, Ryanair has repeatedly said that expansion from the UK will slow because of Brexit. But the Irish airline has plenty of new tricks for the summer – starting with Check-in Kiev. This is the new Ryanair service from Manchester to the Ukrainian capital.
Another is the Exe Patria, connecting south Devon with southern Italy through an implausible Ryanair link between Exeter and Naples.
The travelling public needs convincing, too, given that five days before the first flight I found a fare of £9.99 for 1,100 miles of air travel.
Some of the “new” British Airways routes are actually back to the future, resurrecting links such as Heathrow to Pittsburgh. BA will operate the Rust Belt Rover to western Pennsylvania only four times a week, rather than its former daily service.
Osaka is another retread: Heathrow to the Japanese city is also four-weekly on BA20, also known as Get Your KIX (the airport code for Kansai International).
British Airways has a genuinely new route from Heathrow to Charleston – the charming city near the southern tip of South Carolina. With just two flights a week, to an airport which is not a hub, BA’s move looks a touch tentative – but if it can attract high-spending leisure travellers from eastern Georgia as well as the Charleston region, the Carolina Colonial might prove a summer surprise.
One of the key new British Airways routes when the winter schedules began last October was Durban. During the summer there will be a surge in competition as Emirates raises frequency with four extra services between 14 June and 4 August.
A much smaller Gulf rival, Kuwait Airways, is stepping up its flights from Heathrow to its hub, adding two extra Boeing 777s a week – representing an extra 700 seats in either direction, which spells more capacity and possibly lower prices to destinations in the Indian sub-continent.
The pressure on fares is shown by British Airways offering non-stop flights for a week from Heathrow to Mumbai for under £400 return.
Such is the competition that troubled Jet Airways is cutting one of its three-daily services from Heathrow to Mumbai for the summer; it has also abandoned its recently launched link from Manchester to India’s biggest city.
BA itself abandoned the short-lived link from Heathrow to Chengdu in western China when it found its planes half-full or worse. Air China believes it can do better, with three flights a week from Terminal 2 to the People’s Republic’s fifth-biggest city aboard the Panda Express.
From Gatwick, the big new destination is Rio, served by Norwegian. The Copacabana Connection is in competition with BA's long-established link from Heathrow.
Gatwick also gets a connection with San Francisco, with Norwegian switching its Oakland service to the Californian city's main gateway. The Sussex airport has lost its link with Newquay in Cornwall, which has switched to Heathrow. It also lost Wow Air – which, had it not gone bust on 28 March, was due to switch services to Stansted.
At least the biggest airport in Essex has something to celebrate: The Only Way Is Paris. Yes, the route from Stansted to the French capital has been resurrected, with easyJet now giving it a go after Air UK (ask an elderly relative), Buzz and Air France abandoned the link. Call it TOWIP.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments