EVA’s “Hello Kitty” 777-300ER now flies between Houston and Taipei. (Image: EVA)
In international route news this week, Delta is cutting its London schedules from LAX and Newark; three airlines kick off new U.S. routes to China and Taipei; El Al comes to Boston; Ethiopian begins LAX service; and an unusual plan by a Scandinavian airline to fly from the U.S. to the Caribbean.
According to airlineroute.net, which tracks schedule changes, Delta plans to discontinue its Newark-London Heathrow service October 15, and also to drop its daily Los Angeles-LHR flight — although that will be replaced by a second daily LAX-London flight by Delta’s joint venture partner Virgin Atlantic.
Three Asian carriers have new U.S. service. China Southern has kicked off non-stop 777 flights between New York JFK and Guangzhou, operating 10 times a week this summer. SFO-Guangzhou started this week, too. Hainan Airlines — which started service earlier this month between San Jose and Beijing — has now started flying three days a week between Boston and Shanghai Pudong, using a two-cabin 787; and between Seattle-Shanghai Pudong service four times a week, with an A330. And Taiwan’s EVA Air has started flying three times a week (increasing to four on July 2) from Houston Bush Intercontinental to Taipei with a 777-300ER (painted in ‘Hello Kitty’ livery!).
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June 28 is the launch date for new El Al non-stop service between Boston and Tel Aviv, operating three times a week with a two-class 767-300. And Ethiopian Airlines has kicked off its new 787 service from Los Angeles to Addis Ababa three times a week via a stop in Dublin, Ireland.
Here’s an unusual plan: Norwegian, the European ultra-low-cost carrier that has been slowly building up a network of flights to the U.S. from Scandinavia and London Gatwick, now says it will begin flying between the U.S. and the Caribbean. Specifically, it will launch service three times a week December 3 from New York JFK to Martinique and Guadeloupe; and twice a week to both islands from Boston and Baltimore/Washington. How can this be? Norwegian has long taken advantage of Open Skies rules that allow it to operate between the U.S. and any point in the E.U. — like London Gatwick. And it turns out that also applies to Martinique and Guadeloupe, which are departments of France — and thus technically part of the E.U.
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So Delta take one of Virgin’s slot pairs at Newark, which Virgin probably paid a lot of money for, and then promptly turn round and sell it to United for a 100% profit! Once again a “joint venture” only works one way, and from what I’m hearing from current and ex Virgin employees this is just the latest in a long line of things since DL/VS started the “joint venture” SRB must have been desperate for money to sign such an agreement!