Routes: Europe for $88? + United Dreamliner to London + Lisbon, Belgrade

In international route news, SAS is offering a super-low fare on its new Los Angeles-Stockholm route that starts next month; United’s SFO-London route will get a 787-9 in April; Portugal’s TAP adds a pair of new U.S. gateways and a U.S. partnership; Air Canada drops a U.S. route; Norwegian postpones a U.S. route to Ireland; and Air Serbia sets new transatlantic service

To stimulate interest in its new Los Angeles-Stockholm service, which begins on a daily basis March 14, SAS is offering a $99 one-way fare, a spokesperson tells TravelSkills. The booking deadline is March 6, and it’s for travel from March 14-25. When we looked at SAS’s booking site on Wednesday, we found prices even lower ($87.90, including taxes and fees) for select dates in that period – but the special fare was available for eastbound service only. Roundtrip flights from Stockholm to LAX were running around $1,305. SAS will use an Airbus A340 on the route.

According to the website Airlineroute.net, which tracks airlines’ schedule filings, United is planning to put a 787-9 Dreamliner on one of its two daily San Francisco-London flights (UA900/901) starting April 5, continuing at least through May 24. It replaces a 747-400; the other flight uses a 777. We wonder if this has anything to do with British Airways new 787-9 flight between San Jose and London starting in May. Hmm.

TAP Portugal, which currently flies from Lisbon to Miami and Newark, plans to add two more U.S. gateways this year, beginning daily Lisbon-Boston flights June 11, followed by new Lisbon-New York JFK daily service July 1. The carrier will use Airbus A330s on the routes. TAP will use JetBlue’s Terminal 5 at JFK and Terminal C at Boston. TAP has a new partnership with JetBlue that will feed traffic from other U.S. cities to the transatlantic flights. TAP is partly owned by David Neeleman, the founder of JetBlue.

Air Canada plans to eliminate service between New York JFK and Toronto Pearson effective April 3. The carrier, which currently operates twice-daily Air Canada Express flights in the market, continues to fly from Toronto to LaGuardia and Newark airports. (If I were flying between Toronto and NYC, I’d be on Porter Airlines, which flies from close in Toronto City airport to La Guardia.)

 Norwegian Air International is putting off its previously announced plan to begin flying between Boston and Cork, Ireland in May. The company cited “continued delays” by the U.S. Transportation Department in granting approval for the service, for which Norwegian was planning to use a 737-800. The airline still hopes to get the new route off the ground sometime this summer.

Air Serbia, a successor to the former Yugoslavian carrier JAT, is moving ahead with plans to kick off transatlantic service in June, although it has yet to receive U.S. approval, according to the trade journal Air Transport World. The airline plans to fly between Belgrade and New York JFK five times a week, using a two-class A330-200 leased from India’s Jet Airways. Both airlines are partly owned by Etihad Airways.

 

NOTE: Be sure to click here to see all recent TravelSkills posts about:  Should I tip my Uber driver? + Boeing 747 nearing its end? + Bargain hunters travel guide for 2016 + World’s best airline lounge? + Fares to Europe tumble 

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