This Week It's Alaska Airlines, JetBlue and US Airways Heading Here and There

November 9, 2012 at 8:10 AM | by kjb | Comments (0)

Sometimes it�s hard to stay on top of all the new route announcements that come our way, so we�ve complied a little bit of a rundown below. As long as you can afford the fares, this should definitely help add to your passport stamp collection.

· Alaska Airlines:
We�re pretty sure that we�ve mentioned this in the past, but now it�s time for Alaska Airlines to finally start the flying. In total it looks like this week�and this weekend�is when Alaska Airlines is starting up three new nonstop options between west coast cities and the island of Hawaii. Portland�the one in Oregon�got their very own flight over to Kauai earlier in the week, and yesterday was the day for nonstop flights to begin between Maui and Bellingham, Washington.

Finally, for those that really need an escape from the cooler temperatures there�s also a nonstop option between Anchorage, Alaska and Kona over on Hawaii�s Big Island that starts tomorrow. All of the new options are seasonal, so get your flying in before they disappear around the middle of next April.

· Southwest Airlines:
It isn�t exactly time for Southwest Airlines to start flying internationally just yet, but some new flights down to Puerto Rico seem like a step in the right direction. San Juan is going to be the carrier�s first city outside the continental United States, as they�re planning to start heading there as soon as April. Nonstop flights will arrive in San Juan from both Orland and Tampa beginning on April 14, 2013. Tampa will be getting one daily flight, and Orlando scores most of the flights with three daily roundtrip options.

It sounds like this is all part of Southwest taking over some AirTran routes, but as of now it is just these city pairs that will be getting the blue-bellied planes. No plans for Mexico�or Hawaii�just yet, but again flying over the water for this first time is a good start.

· JetBlue:
To us there�s a few things that remind us of JetBlue, and they have to be in-flight television, free snacks, and plenty of flights to and from sunny destinations. It looks like the skies above the Caribbean will soon be a little more crowded, as JetBlue is planning some new options to and from their base in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The new flights are scheduled to start doing their thing on May 1 of next year, as San Juan will connect with Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

That�s not the only inter-island-international flight, as they�re also planning on flying from San Juan over to Santiago, Dominican Republic as well. The flights are scheduled to do their thing once per day as of now, but with a boost in demand that could always change.

· Ethiopian Airways:
We still can�t get enough Boeing 787 news, so once again we�re passing along some information about where you can hop aboard the newest airplane in the skies. Ethiopian Airways is ready to start flying some of its new planes between Addis Ababa and Toronto beginning today, as they look to connect the two cities�and two countries�two times per week.

If either spot isn�t your final destination there�s obviously plenty of connection opportunities to and through each city, but you�ll likely be disappointed without the 787 carrying you to your next spot. Ethiopian Airways might not get the news when compared to United or ANA, but we�re pretty sure that their 787 has got the new airplane smell too.

· US Airways:
It�s never too early to start thinking about summer vacation, and it�s clear that those in charge of picking out new routes over at US Airways already have warm weather on the brain. The plan is to connect Philadelphia to Shannon, Ireland beginning on May 22, 2013. It�ll be just a seasonal route for the summer, but this is the first time the flight is returning after around four years of it not happening.

Daily flights will head back and forth aboard Boeing 757s, as the flying fun does its thing until the beginning of September. Shannon even has US customs and immigration clearance, so when you get back to the nifty fifty you�re free to just stroll out the door of the airport.

[Photos: InSapphoWeTrust and Jaunted]

Jaunted

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