Routes go to the heart of airlines and airports, and I celebrate them in my weekly newsletter.
Welcome to my 77th routes newsletter! I've covered a selection of new routes that took off in the past week. Why not sign up and receive my newsletter in your email inbox every week?
Driven by considerable Moroccan diaspora in Germany, Air Arabia Maroc has launched its first route to Weeze, an airport that is perhaps best known as being served by Ryanair. Weeze is located about 52 miles (83 km) from central Düsseldorf and about 45 miles (73 km) from Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
On March 2nd, Air Arabia Maroc started Fez-Weeze with a weekly flight. When writing, neither Cirium nor its website shows that it'll increase. Curiously, it competes head-to-head with Ryanair, which has a triple weekly operation.
It is one of three Morocco-Germany routes for Air Arabia Maroc this summer, joining Nador-Cologne and Nador-Hahn. A lot of Germany’s Moroccan diaspora originates from the Nador region.
Click here for Fez-Weeze flights.
On March 1st, Malaysia’s new entrant MYAirline – I like the ‘MY’ bit, given the country’s two-letter code – inaugurated its next route: Kuala Lumpur to Miri. Located on Borneo 854 miles (1,375 km) from the Malaysian capital, it is served daily using A320s, although it’ll increase to double daily on March 15th.
This April, AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines, and MYAirline have 273 Kuala Lumpur-Miri departing flights. Happily, that is 11% more than the 243 the market had in April 2019.
Miri is one of eight routes for the airline, joining Kota Kinabalu, Kota Bharu, Kuching, Langkawi, Sibu, Penang, and Tawau. As of early March, MYAirline has 17 daily flights planned this summer.
Click here for Kuala Lumpur-Miri flights.
Like my coverage? Sign up for my weekly routes newsletter.
Air India has resumed Delhi to Copenhagen. Last flown in mid-2020, the Star Alliance member reintroduced the 3,634-mile (5,849 km) route – which connects two Star hubs – on March 1st. With three weekly 787-8 flights, AI157 leaves India at 13:30 and arrives in Denmark at 17:50. Returning, AI157 departs at 19:50 and arrives home at 07:40 (+1).
Air India launched Copenhagen in September 2017. At the time, it was one of two Scandinavian routes, alongside Stockholm. However, the Swedish capital ended in 2020 with no clarity on whether it will return.
In 2019, Delhi-Copenhagent had 48,000 roundtrip point-to-point passengers, about three-quarters more than Mumbai-Copenhagen. Booking data shows that Air India transported about 30,000 of the 48,000 P2P passengers. A further 40,000+ transited Delhi, primarily across India; 15,000 connected over Copenhagen; and about 18,000 bridged Copenhagen and Delhi.
Click here for Delhi-Copenhagen flights.
This March, Cancun is Canada’s most-served international destination by seats for sale. It has benefited from the arrival of Canada Jetlines, which on March 3rd introduced service to the Mexican resort from Toronto Pearson. It has three weekly flights, although they later reduce to twice-weekly.
Canada Jetlines is one of seven airlines on the 1,615 miles (2,599 km) between Pearson and Cancun. It joins Sunwing, Air Canada/rouge, WestJet, Air Transat, Swoop, and Flair. Between them, they have 216,000 departing seats in March and an average of nine daily flights, although as many as 12. March seat capacity has risen by 12% above its previous best.
Click here for Toronto-Cancun flights.
Like my coverage? Sign up for my weekly routes newsletter.
Kuwait to the Uzbek city of Samarkand might not seem like an obvious market, but Jazeera Airways has launched twice-weekly flights on March 1st. Depending on the day, they depart from Kuwait at either 05:10 or 00:25. They don’t operate for most of the peak summer but return in September.
The attractiveness of Samarkand was not just about being Uzbekistan's second-largest city or tourism or its geographic location relatively near other fairly big cities. It is also about market access and undoubtedly also highly attractive fees and charges.
Central Asia has been an area of growth for Jazeera. This coming summer, it’ll serve Almaty, Bishkek, Dushanbe, Namangan, Osh, Samarkand, Tashkent, and Turkistan.
Click here for Kuwait-Samarkand flights.
That's it for the 77th edition of my routes newsletter. Sign up to get something like this in your inbox each week.
We hope you like the items we recommend and discuss! Simple Flying has affiliate and sponsored partnerships, so we receive a share of the revenue from some of your purchases. This won’t affect the price you pay and helps us offer the best product recommendations.
Route Development Analyst – James lives and breathes route development. Educated in Air Transport Management at Loughborough and Cranfield, James was Market Opportunity Analyst at London Luton Airport and Chief Analyst at anna.aero. Now writing data-driven analysis for Simple Flying. Based near London, UK.
