Airlines offer new flights

By Joe Brancatelli

ROUTE MAP

More Niche Flights Where They're Needed: The world's airlines are contracting furiously because demand from travel has plummeted, but that doesn't mean that there aren't niche markets where new service is needed. So don't be surprised by these interesting new operations:

Alaska Airlinesis launching a Bellingham, Washington-Las Vegas nonstop on June 25; the flights will operate three times a week.
After more than two years without commercial service, Grant County Airport in Moses Lake, Washington, has flights again. Skywest, operating as United Express, now flies two daily nonstops to Seattle using 30-seat regional jets.
Icelandair is launching service between Seattle-Tacoma and Reykjavik on July 22. There will be four weekly Boeing 757 flights.
Continental Airlines is launching two weekly Boeing 737 flights this summer on a Guam-Fiji-Honolulu route.
South African Airways is juggling its service on May 1. Its current service from New York's Kennedy Airport to Johannesburg will become a nonstop while its Washington flights will operate on a Dulles-Dakar-Johannesburg routing. Airbus A340s will be used on both routes.
Royal Jordanianis adding another link to the Middle East by reviving its Brussels-Amman nonstops that were suspended in 2003. The airline uses an Airbus A319 on the route.

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American Airlines has been testing in-flight Wi-Fi for almost eight months. Now the carrier says it will expand the service to as many as 300 jets in the next two years.
Delta Air Lines currently has 88 planes wired and is promising 300 wired planes by the end of the year.
LimoLiner, which runs luxury bus service between New York and Boston, added a stop in Hartford, Connecticut, effective April 16.
Emirates is dropping its Airbus A380 flights at New York/Kennedy and moving the gargantuan aircraft to the Toronto-Dubai route on June 1. Government treaties restrict Emirates to three weekly flights to Toronto and the extra capacity is needed. On the other hand, Emirates flies between New York and Dubai twice a day and the 498-seat A380, launched to New York last year, added too much capacity. Emirates is replacing the A380 with smaller Boeing 777-300ERs.
Hertz isbuying bankrupt Advantage Rent A Car for $33 million. It won the assets of the company in a bankruptcy-court auction and, at least for the moment, will continue to operate locations under the Advantage brand.