New flight routes to watch in 2024 and beyond

CROSSING THE POND

US carriers, having restored most UK links this year, are looking to expand in Europe in 2024, but Ireland is also a focus. Here, Delta will restore its JFK-Shannon link on 23 May after five years. It and Aer Lingus will also battle it out on the Dublin to Minneapolis-St Paul route from 2024. Aer Lingus starts four flights a week from 29 April, rising to daily from October, with Delta offering five a week to MSP, one of its hubs, from 9 May. 

Dublin is also a focus for American Airlines next year, with its flight to its Dallas-Fort Worth home becoming year-round and an earlier start for its Dublin-Charlotte seasonal route on 5 March.

Canada will also see more airlift, with Air Canada increasing weekly frequencies from Heathrow, Edinburgh and Manchester to Toronto and going double daily from London to Montreal. Rival Air Transat also increases UK flights this summer, making Manchester-Toronto and Dublin-Toronto services daily in peak season. Dublin also gains New York’s JetBlue in 2024, when it starts seasonal daily JFK and Boston flights from 14 March. 

WestJet will launch a new direct service from Gatwick to St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador from 1 May. The three-times weekly service will operate until 25 October, opening up Canada’s eastern seaboard for summer touring. 

Delta launched a daily Gatwick-JFK flight in April 2023 and a service from Edinburgh to its main hub Atlanta in May; both remain in 2024 schedules. 

Meanwhile Edinburgh has attracted JetBlue, which will begin flying daily to JFK on 23 May until 30 September, the airline’s first Scottish route to New York. Introductory fares are from £399 for the main cabin and £1,499 for its Mint lie-flat business class.

The big transatlantic issue in 2024 is when start-up Global Airlines will commence flights. Global told TTG Gatwick-New York flights would begin in “Q1 or Q2” but has yet to reveal firm plans. If they do, Global will doubtless post attractive fares to fill its double decker Airbus A380 – rates that BA, Delta, JetBlue and Norse will surely match. 

LOOKING EAST

One airline adept at filling A380s is Emirates, although it now buys smaller aircraft and receives its first Airbus A350 this summer. It said a fleet reshuffle then would allow it to resume routes such as Adelaide lost to the pandemic. The carrier said it was “in close discussion” with the South Australia airport about restarting services. 

Also heading east, Air India will have a bigger UK profile in 2024 following last year’s privatisation. A new business cabin with enclosed suites will be on around a quarter of Air India’s fleet by March 2024 as part of its refreshed look. Another new cabin to watch out for is Lufthansa’s; it is currently retrofitting its new Allegris business class, with up to seven versions of the seat offering different levels of space and privacy. 

Starting on June 22, Gatwick becomes a brand new UK gateway for Singapore Airlines, with a five-times weekly service, which will offer the fastest connecting service from the UK to Sydney, in 21 hours and 40 minutes. This new service complements Singapore Airlines’ four daily flights from Heathrow and five-times weekly from Manchester, making a total of 38 direct weekly flights from the UK to Singapore, more than any other carrier.

Smaller carriers tend to work closer with the trade to make themselves heard and one such is Kazakhstan’s Air Astana, which has just celebrated 20 years of flying to the UK. The airline has just launched an agent and operator online training programme detailing stopover options and Kazakhstan as a destination, and has recently started working with Jules Verne to provide return flights for its Central Asia tours beginning in Almaty.  

REGIONAL NEWS 

On the airport side, 2024 should be when Southampton attracts attention from budget airlines following the opening of a runway extension in August. The extra 164 metres will permit the likes of easyJet to fly fully loaded flights further into Europe. 

Meanwhile, Manchester continues its revamp with redevelopment of Terminal 2 – home to Jet2 and Tui – due for completion in 2025. Another 14 new retailers will be unveiled in 2024, and a second pier is under construction. 

Newcastle will see the return of Aegean’s twice-weekly Athens service this summer. The series will start earlier, on 24 April, continuing until 23 October. Jet2 will also be heading to Greece, with a new summer Chania (Crete) flight from 2 May. 

Birmingham’s big 2024 news is the opening of an easyJet base with three aircraft stationed there for the first time. They will boost the number of routes from the current 13 to 29, with additions including Enfidha, Sharm el Sheikh, Rhodes and Kos.