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United, WestJet and Copa Airlines Plan New Routes to Here and There

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.

· WestJet:
If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out what WestJet has to offer, this may change in 2012 as they bring new flights down to the nifty fifty. Of course they already have cheap flights to here, there, and everywhere in and around Canada, but now they're prepping to take on New York-LaGuardia.

Live, in-flight television will be yours to enjoy on seven new nonstop flights between NYC-LaGuardia and Toronto beginning June 4. A couple weeks later they’ll be boosting the flight frequency up to eight flights, so they definitely mean business when it comes to serving the flying public between New York City and Toronto. They even just launched a codeshare deal with Delta, so you can continue on aboard Delta until your final destination.

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Virgin Atlantic, JetBlue and United Airlines Announce New Routes to Warm Destinations

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.

· Virgin Atlantic:
Unfortunately we’ll be waiting a little bit for this new route to take flight, but we’re still pretty excited that Virgin Atlantic is looking to head into Mexico. The new option will link London with Cancun, and this will be the airline’s 33rd destination around the globe. Things are scheduled to start up on June 12 of 2012, and the new flights will run just two times per week. They’ll be using Boeing 747s to get the job done on this new route, and they’re planning on splitting things into three different cabins—start saving up your pence for a chance to ride in one of the upper class suites.

· Southwest Airlines:
They’re busy gobbling up AirTran, but that doesn’t mean that Southwest Airlines doesn’t have a little time to add some new options to its route network. The free checked baggage airline just added three nonstop options into and out of Denver from Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, and Newark-Liberty. None of these cities are new to the Southwest family, but the ability to connect a little closer to the West Coast should improve the trip for those looking to make the journey across the country. After all, one connection is always way better than two.

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Free Stuff Alert: Austrian Airlines Takes to the DC Streets to Give Away Coffee and Flights

Hey—would you like to fly to Austria for free, or at least score a complimentary cup of some nice Austrian coffee? Apparently Austrian Airlines is putting some pilots and chefs out on the street of Washington DC and New York City these next couple weeks to get people thinking about Vienna, via their tastebuds.

First up is Washington DC. Starting today, "dashing pilots" will dispense free Julius Meinl coffee from rocketpacks, stationed in high-traffic areas around the city. They'll also tell you how to enter to win a pair of tickets direct from either DC or NY to Vienna.

Here's the full schedule of where to find them in DC, April 25-May 1:

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New Airline Routes Head to Eastern Europe, Wisconsin, and Even Baghdad

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.

· Finnair:
If you’re looking for a different European experience this summer, maybe Finland is worth a visit. Finnair is bringing back its nonstop service between Toronto and Helsinki, beginning on May 26, five days a week through the beginning of September. Even if Finland isn’t your final destination, the flight is timed so that you can connect to around 50 other destinations in Europe. For those located in the nifty fifty, don’t forget that American Airlines is launching a Helsinki option from Chicago beginning this May—they’re buddies with Finnair in the oneworld airline alliance.

· Delta:
Summer is just around the corner, or at least that’s what we keep telling ourselves. Delta is getting right to start-up all kinds of seasonal service starting on June 1, so we wanted to pass along just a few of the destinations that are accessible from New York-JFK. Budapest, Zurich, and Kiev all become nonstop options at the beginning of June, but act quickly, as service wraps up on October 29. There’s similar season service from the Big Apple to Reykjavík and Malaga, Spain as well.

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Can Itsy Bitsy Smart Car 'Airplanes' Convince You to Fly Biz Class on Austrian Airlines?

Have you ever flown Austrian Airlines? We haven't because we don't often think of Vienna has the gateway for our European vacations. And usually, we're frantically trying to make the most of our miles accumulated on domestic airlines like American and Continental.

But in an effort to persuade people like us, Austrian Airlines has unveiled its Smart Car "Airplanes" to create awareness about their business class services, calling it the "smart ride to Europe."

The Smart Car "Airplanes" will be cruising throughout New York and Washington, D.C. for the next month (first NYC; then after Labor Day, DC.) As an added bonus the cars will be handing out free bottles of cold water to folks passing by.

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Austrian Airlines Makes a Half Century

We weren't quite sure about Austrian Airlines when they started offering a big brown to passengers, but we've figured out it's just a bad name for a good coffee. So we'll be nice to Austrian Airlines today because the carrier's celebrating its 50th birthday.

The airline has seen a whole heap of changes in that half-century, with initial flights all heading west to destinations like London, Frankfurt and Paris. These days, the focus is on building up flights into central and eastern Europe as well as Russia, and with flights to Riyadh and Jeddah starting in August, the Middle East is a big target area as well.

And in another piece of Austrian Airlines good news, they should move into the new Skylink terminal at Vienna's airport in the summer of 2009. They might not sell big browns there but they should be able to make connection times short and painless. Happy birthday, Austrian Airlines!

Related Stories:
· Austrian Celebrates 50th Anniversary [Business Traveller]
· Gimme a Big Brown, Danke [Jaunted]

[Photo: Guy Flaneur]

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Gimme a Big Brown, Danke

Austrian Airlines already thinks it's pretty special for serving up strudel in its special snack box, and now the press wires are going mad over their new coffee house in the sky concept.

In the tradition of a typical Viennese coffee house, business class passengers now get a choice of 11 Austrian coffees with their strudel (or other dessert of their choosing, but who'd take anything other than strudel?). The Wiener Melange and the Wiener Fiaker sound intriguing enough, but please tell us who wants to drink the Grosser Brauner: "the Big Brown?"

[Photo: Al-Fassam]

Related Stories:
· Austrian Airlines Brings Hot Food to Economy [Opodo]
· Austrian Airlines Introduces Viennese Coffee House in the Air [World Travel Guide]
· A Yodel and a Strudel and You're There [Jaunted]

Austrian Airlines / Food / Airlines / → All Tags

A Yodel and a Strudel and You're There

Austrian Airlines have got all excited this week about their new "Austrian Snack Box." Their press department's bombarded corners of the web with hype about the meal now being served on all international flights more than 65 minutes long (that precision is something that goes with being German-speakers, we presume).

It's not really surprising to learn that, depending on the time of day, your Austrian Snack Box could include some Austrian pastry delicacies like a nice apple strudel, or later in the day a special beef salad or cold cuts. But what they really say is so special about it is the postcard lid. Yep, this super-specially-designed box has a lid that you can tear off and use as a postcard--at the moment Austrian Airlines will even stick a stamp on it for you for free if you "mail" it on board.

The press machine says passengers are overjoyed with the new deal and call it "delicious, tasty, refined and fresh." What they don't mention is the passengers who just think they'd rather have a bigger meal without the frilly postcard...and the postcard recipients who will wonder why their love letters give off the faint aroma of schnitzel.

[Photo: superciliousness]

Related Stories:
· Something to Write Home About From Austrian [EasierTravel]

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Airline Report: Fly Austrian to Iraq

Not that it's an obscure route or anything, but Austrian Airlines just announced that the company will finally start flights from Vienna to Iraq in December. The launch had previously been scheduled for March of 2006. The service includes a bi-weekly flight from Vienna to Erbil, in the Kurdistan region. So far, it looks like they'll be flying an Airbus A319 on the route. Using some sample dates in January, we pulled up a ticket price of €933.30 ($1201).

Iraqi Kurdistan announced plans for a new tourism campaign last month, so officials there should be tickled. Marketing representatives hired by the Kurdistan regional government noted to the press that "Westerners walk around freely and there is an active nightlife," and that while the region "might be close" to the war "in miles, it's a lot further from that in reality." Some think that the campaign was politically motivated rather than inspired by a genuine dedication to boosting tourism--Kurdistan has, after all, sought independence from Iraq in the past.

Drop those Euros at your own risk!

[Photo: bees-knees]

Related Stories:
· Austrian Airlines to fly to northern Iraq as first European commercial carrier [IHT]
· Iraqi Kurdistan launches tourism campaign [USAT]
· Kurdistan - The Other Iraq [Official Site]