Alaska Airlines will add a new trancon route. (Image: Alaska Air)
In domestic route developments, Alaska Airlines will add a new transcontinental route as well as service to another California city; American plans to trim capacity for its Northeast Corridor shuttle service; JetBlue sets a starting date for more transcontinental service with Mint-equipped aircraft; Frontier adds a pair of routes from Las Vegas; and Allegiant enters new markets from Newark and Oakland.
Alaska Airlines has scheduled a March 16 start for new daily non-stop 737 service linking Portland, Oregon with Orlando – the only non-stops between those two cities. Meanwhile, Alaska also said it will add new service effective April 13 between its Seattle hub and San Luis Obispo, California. That route will be flown for Alaska once a day by SkyWest using a 76-passenger E175 with first class, Preferred Pus and main cabin seating.
American Airlines plans to adjust capacity this fall on the Northeast Corridor shuttle service that it inherited from US Airways. Starting November 4, the carrier will reduce the number of daily shuttle flights between New York LaGuardia and Boston from 16 to 15, and will trim the schedule between LGA and Washington Reagan National from 16 to 13 daily roundtrips. In addition, American will begin to use Embraer 175s operated by Republic Airlines on five daily LGA-Boston flights and on eight LGA-Washington flights; the rest will continue to user larger E190s.
JetBlue is slowly expanding its premium cabin Mint service to more routes. (Image: JetBlue)
As JetBlue continues the gradual expansion of its Mint premium cabin service to more markets, it has reportedly set a date for the start of Mint flights on the Los Angeles-Ft. Lauderdale route. According to airlineroute.net, JetBlue will introduce Mint service on one of its two daily LAX-FLL flights on March 20, and will offer it on both flights by April 20. The carrier has expanded Mint from its JFK-LAX and JFK-San Francisco routes to San Francisco-Boston, with plans to add LAX-Boston this fall; next year, Mint should appear on select routes from Seattle, San Diego and Las Vegas as well.
Low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines is growing at Las Vegas McCarran, with plans to add new daily service from there to both Nashville and Tampa starting September 6. Using 150-seat A319s. And on October 30, Frontier will begin new daily flights between Colorado Springs and Orlando.
Another low-cost carrier, Allegiant, plans to launch the only non-stop service between Oakland and El Paso, Texas on October 6, offering two flights a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. Meanwhile, Allegiant also plans to move into United’s Newark hub in November after the airport opens up more takeoff and landing slots. Allegiant will fly from Newark to Cincinnati, Savannah (Georgia), Asheville (N.C.) and Knoxville.
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