
Air China will use an A330-200 between San Jose and Shanghai. (Image: Mehdi Nazarinia/Wikimedia Commons)
In international airline route news, San Jose will get a second China route, and San Francisco will get more capacity to China and to the South Pacific; Delta adds a number of new code-share routes to Europe; JetBlue begins new South America service and a code-share expansion gives the carrier a new Africa route; and a Mexican low-cost carrier adds a couple of transborder services.
Although it is still awaiting approval for the route from the U.S. Government, Air China has started to take reservations on flights between San Jose and Shanghai Pudong, for travel starting June 16, according to Airlineroute.net. The carrier plans to fly the route three days a week with a two-class, 237-seat Airbus A330-200. It will be San Jose’s second China route, following Hainan Airlines’ launch of San Jose-Beijing service last year. It’s a busy time for international services at San Jose – the airport will welcome new British Airways flights to London Heathrow in May and new Lufthansa service to Frankfurt on July 1.
Despite the new San Jose route, Air China is not neglecting San Francisco International; it reportedly plans to increase its SFO-Beijing schedule from seven flights a week to 11 starting August 2. It will use a 777-300ER for the new flights. In other news at SFO, Fiji Airways plans to kick off seasonal service between San Francisco and Nadi, Fiji, using an A330-200. The service will operate two days a week (Thursdays and Sundays) from June 16 through August 14, and again December 15-January 15.
The people in Delta’s code-sharing office are busy these days. Joint venture partner Air France recently announced plans to begin new service in June from New York JFK to Paris – not to Charles de Gaulle, but to Orly Airport. Delta plans to put its code not only onto those transatlantic Orly flights, but also onto Air France flights beyond Orly to Biarritz, Bordeaux, Lorient, Marseille, Pau, Perpignon, Toulon and Toulouse. Delta’s code is also going onto flights operated by Transavia, a KLM subsidiary. Delta passengers can connect at Amsterdam onto Delta-coded Transavia flights to Seville and Alicante, Spain; Thessaloniki, Greece; and Marrakech, Morocco. Meanwhile, Delta this week put its code onto CSA Czech Airlines flights out of Prague to Bratislava, Copenhagen, Skopje and Zagreb.
In an expansion of its partnership with South African Airways, JetBlue has put its B6 code onto SAA’s four weekly flights between Washington Dulles and Accra, Ghana. Both carriers operate out of Concourse B at Dulles, and JetBlue’s TrueBlue members can earn points throughout SAA’s network. In other news, JetBlue has started flying a new international route to South America, offering daily service from Ft. Lauderdale to Quito, Ecuador with an Airbus A320.
Interjet, a low-cost Mexican carrier, has started flying twice a day between Dallas/Ft. Worth and Mexico City. And on May 19 the carrier plans to add daily Los Angeles-Cancun flights.
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