Airline network planners kicked off the holiday season dreaming about warm-weather destinations.
One spot in particular caught the eye of the “Big Three” U.S. airlines: Tulum.
A brand-new international airport will soon open at this popular destination in Mexico’s Riviera Maya. This new airport should eliminate the need for sun-seekers to fly to Cancun and then take a two-hour car ride to Tulum, giving travelers unprecedented convenience to this popular oasis.
Want more airline-specific news? Sign up for TPG’s free biweekly Aviation newsletter.
At this point, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Ailrlines and Spirit Airlines have all announced new service to Tulum, but that’s only scratching the surface of the route-map changes that airlines announced in November.
Read on for the full recap.
American Airlines
American’s network planning department had perhaps the busiest November of all the major U.S. airlines. The carrier made sweeping changes to both its domestic and international networks — and the news was mostly negative.
Starting with the cuts, American axed all international flights from Seattle, where it planned to operate a strategic West Coast gateway hub in partnership with Alaska Airlines. The airline had originally planned to move some of its long-haul operations from Los Angeles to Seattle and launch new service to far-flung destinations such as Bangalore, India.
That short-lived experiment is now history, though, as American scrapped the last of its long-haul flights (service to London) from Seattle this month.
Daily Newsletter
Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter
Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts
Domestically, American did an about-face in Austin, where it spent much of the pandemic boosting service to what some aviation observers thought could become a focus city for the airline. This month, the airline cut a whopping 21 routes to the city, effectively reversing almost all of the growth it unveiled during the pandemic. (Interestingly, American’s move comes just days after Virgin Atlantic also announced that it would cease flying to Austin — another new route that launched during the pandemic.)
It wasn’t all bad news for American, though. The airline joined the fray in announcing new service to Tulum from three hubs: Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami.
American also proposed a new service from New York to Tokyo and increased frequencies on routes to Latin America. The carrier closed out the month by announcing beefed-up schedules on 30 routes from Dallas-Forth Worth International iAirport (DFW), where the airline says it will fly its busiest schedule ever.
Alaska Airlines
Alaska’s hub in Portland received a big boost with the addition of a new service to Nashville. This will be the city’s only nonstop flight to the Music City, and it represents Alaska’s 53rd nonstop destination from Portland.
Just this month, Alaska inaugurated new service from Portland to Miami, giving those based in Oregon’s biggest city more choices when flying with Alaska.
Allegiant Air
Ultra-low-cost carrier Allegiant Air is expanding its presence in Central Florida with the addition of a new airport to its route map: Orlando International Airport (MCO).
Allegiant has long operated a hub at Orlando’s secondary airport — Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) — but this will be the first time the carrier has flown to the region’s more popular (and more convenient) MCO airport.
Allegiant will commence service to MCO from Allentown, Pennsylvania; Asheville, North Carolina; and Knoxville, Tennessee.
Elsewhere, the carrier is adding nine other new routes, touching airports as big as Los Angeles and as small as Bismarck, North Dakota.
Breeze Airways
Breeze Airways continues to seek out demand from smaller, underserved airports. This month, the carrier unveiled a total of eight new cities and 16 new routes across two separate announcements. Perhaps most interesting among them is new service to New York’s Stewart International Airport (SWF).
Over the years, SWF has struggled to retain traditional airline service, so Breeze’s additions will most certainly be appreciated by locals and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the government agency that manages and oversees this airport.
Delta Air Lines
It was a pretty quiet month for Delta, which made only two noteworthy changes to its network.
Delta filed plans to axe two of its longest routes from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA), and it also added a second daily flight from Atlanta to Seoul, giving those based in the Southeast easier access to destinations across Asia.
Frontier Airlines
Frontier didn’t actually announce any new routes this month, but it did give us an indication of where it might grow in the future. This month, the Denver-based carrier announced it would make Cleveland its 11th crew base.
Frontier likes to operate an “out-and-back” network from its crew bases, so it’s possible that this move might be setting the stage for a larger network expansion from this Ohio city. Frontier followed the Cleveland news with plans for other bases at airports serving Chicago and Cincinnati.
JetBlue Airways
JetBlue also didn’t announce any new routes this month, but it did offer some hints as to its future long-haul network.
For one, it applied for slots to serve Lisbon next summer. JetBlue will also be able to continue serving Amsterdam next summer because the proposed Dutch flight cap was overturned by local regulators.
Spirit Airlines
Spirit’s route map is losing a major pin early next year. This month, the airline shared plans to close its outstation at Denver International Airport (DEN).
The airline cited the grounding of some of its Airbus jets for engine inspections as the primary reason behind the cuts. Most recently, Spirit served Denver from Fort Lauderdale, Las Vegas and Miami.
Southwest Airlines
Southwest also didn’t announce any new flights this month, but it did offer hints as to where it might expand to next.
Even though the carrier operates a major fortress hub at the Dallas Love Field (DAL) airport (where it leases 18 of the airport’s 20 gates), the airline is considering expanding to the nearby Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) when the Wright Amendment restrictions end in 2025.
Only time will tell what happens next.
United Airlines
United was back in growth mode in November, adding both new domestic and new international service. It expanded frequencies on many domestic routes to Florida and ski destinations during the winter, and it also announced a slew of new services to Tulum, where United is currently slated to become the largest U.S. airline.
Aeromexico
Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU) continues to win new international service. This time, the latest expansion comes courtesy of Aeromexico, the Mexican flag carrier, which will launch new service to Mexico City next summer.
Service will operate once daily on an Embraer E190.
Icelandair
Another airport growing its long-haul portfolio is Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT). This month, Icelandair announced new service from Pittsburgh to Reykjavik, starting next summer.
The new Icelandair service joins British Airways’ flights to London, bringing back some pride to this airport that was once a key hub for US Airways.
WestJet
You may not have necessarily seen this one coming, but Canadian carrier WestJet is launching year-round, nonstop flights from Regina International Airport (YQR) to Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) as part of its summer 2024 schedule.
You can catch the full details in the story below.
