New air routes: Delta and Virgin expand partnership; Emirates, Etihad and Qatar confirm new destinations

Garuda Indonesia has announced its summer schedule, extending its service from London Gatwick to Jakarta to six days a week from 23 July to 28 October.

The route, via Amsterdam, will accommodate the demand of summer travel to the Indonesian islands popular with British and European business and leisure travellers.

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Delta Air Lines and Virgin Atlantic Airways are celebrating a significant expansion of their trans-Atlantic partnership with the introduction of six new daily services.

The two airlines began their summer schedule this week and will offer up to 39 return trans-Atlantic flights a day between the UK and 15 destinations across North America. The joint schedule now includes 10 daily flights between New York and London Heathrow, with eight daily departures from New York-JFK and two departures from Newark. Customers travelling between JFK and London Heathrow will benefit from a memory schedule of regular evening departures from New York.

Virgin Atlantic is launching a second daily service between Los Angeles and Heathrow, complemented by significant investment on the ground with the first-ever Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Los Angeles due to open next month. Combined with the Delta service launched in October 2014, the partnership will offer three daily flights from Los Angeles to London and expects to carry close to 400,000 annual passengers on the route.

This summer, Delta flights between London Heathrow and Boston, Los Angeles and New York will operate from Heathrow’s Terminal 3 alongside all Virgin Atlantic services. Delta flights between Heathrow and Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis-St Paul, Philadelphia and Seattle will operate from Terminal 4. Delta One and Upper Class passengers departing from London Heathrow Terminal 3 will be able to enjoy a seamless transfer from car to lounge via the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Wing. Business class passengers travelling from Heathrow Terminal 4 will enjoy complimentary access to the SkyTeam lounge.

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Gulf carrier Emirates will launch a daily service to Orlando, Florida on 1 September. The route will be served by a Boeing 777-200LR with eight First Class suites, 42 Business Class lie-flat beds and 216 Economy Class seats.

Emirates flight EK 219 will depart Dubai International Terminal 3 at 03:50 hours local time and arrive at Orlando International Airport Terminal B at 11.40 hours local time, a flying time of 15hrs 50mins. The return flight, EK 220 will depart Orlando International at 14:20 hours and arrive into Dubai at 12:30 the following day, a 14hr 10min flight.

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Abu Dhabi carrier Etihad Airways has launched a new daily service between Johannesburg and Abu Dhabi via its codeshare partner, South African Airways (SAA). 

The new service has been introduced as part of an expansion of the strategic partnership agreement between the two airlines, and complements Etihad Airways’ existing daily service from Abu Dhabi to Johannesburg, to provide guests with a double-daily service and greater choice and flexibility whether travelling from Africa, the United Arab Emirates or beyond.

The new South African Airways service is operated by a two-cabin Airbus A330-200 aircraft, configured to carry 36 passengers in Business Class and 186 in Economy Class.

Etihad has also commenced four times weekly, non-stop services between Abu Dhabi and Madrid.

The inaugural flight – EY075 – departed Abu Dhabi Airport on schedule at 2:35am local time and touched down at Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport at 8:45am local time on 30 March.

The Madrid route is operated using a two-class Airbus A330-200 aircraft, configured to carry 262 guests, with 22 Business Class flatbed seats, and 240 Economy Class seats. The flights offer a total of 2,096 seats per week.

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Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air has confirmed it will be adding a further two routes later this summer, to Bologna and Glasgow.

Wizz Air now offers a total of 42 routes to 20 countries from the Hungarian gateway. Set to begin on 5 June, the twice-weekly service to Bologna will become the carrier’s seventh Italian destination from Budapest. The launch further consolidates Italy’s position as the third largest country market served from Hungary’s capital airport, offering a total of 10,828 weekly seats (according to OAG Schedules Analyser). The twice-weekly service to Glasgow will launch on 13 June.

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Qatar Airways will boost its flight frequencies to Jakarta and Denpasar (Bali) from 5 July and 16 July respectively.

The total number of weekly flights to the Indonesian capital city will rise to 21 making it a thrice-daily service, while for Denpasar, Qatar Airways will commence a full twice-daily operation from 16 July meaning a total of 14 flights a week to the popular tourist destination.

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Vietnam Airlines has begun its daily service from Heathrow Terminal 4 with a direct service from Heathrow and operate five weekly services to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

The route frequency will be further increased to a daily service as Vietnam Airlines benefits from the strong transfer traffic and premium passenger demand that Heathrow attracts.