Boston Aviation

Delta has announced another route from Boston. Starting October 1st, 2018, Delta Air Lines will fly four daily flights from Boston to Philadelphia on a CRJ900 aircraft of Endeavor Air. These flights will operate for Delta Connection. Delta will become the third airline to operate the route along with JetBlue Airways and American Airlines. Philadelphia is an American Airlines hub so I can imagine that American is not too happy with this addition as this will increase competition dramatically. For Delta, this is a great addition as they are adding their own planes onto a very competitive route from Boston. Delta has been trying to grow its presence in Boston because although Delta considers Boston a hub/ focus city, American Airlines transports more passengers from Boston because of its use of larger planes. Additions such as these, onto routes dominated by American, will help Delta become the larger carrier at Boston of the two. Source:  www.routesonline.com

I have posted a new video on my YouTube channel, reviewing my flight on JetBlue from Houston- Hobby to Boston Logan. Feel free to like the video and subscribe to my channel. Additionally, I have created an Instagram account feel free to follow it for different pictures and videos from flights. YouTube Channel:  www.youtube.com/channel Instagram tag: @nickolayav

An American Airlines 737-800 coming in for landing in Boston.

JetBlue is continuing its aggressive expansion efforts from Boston Logan Airport with newly announced flights to Havana and Mexico City. JetBlue Airways will begin operating weekly flights on Saturdays on an Airbus A320-200 starting November 10, 2018. Additionally, starting October 25, 2018, JetBlue will launch daily flights on an Airbus A320-200 to Mexico City. This route really surprised me, Boston to Mexico City is served daily by Aeromexico on a Boeing 737-800 and it is not a huge market from Boston. I am interested how both carriers load factors will be on this route. Sources:  www.flightglobal.com

Today, May 18, 2018, Primera Air is launching its flight from London-Gatwick to Boston Logan Airport. The flights will be operated by an A321neo on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, departing from London at 17:00 and arriving in Boston at 20:10, both local times. The return flights will depart Boston at 21:40 and arrive in London at 09:30 the next day, both local times. Primera Air will become the fourth low-cost transatlantic carrier that operates flights to Boston, with the other ones being Norwegian, WOW Air, and Level. Additionally, this will be the third airport in London that Boston has direct flights to, with the other ones being at Heathrow and Gatwick. Finally, Primera Air has announced some changes to the planes operating the flights. The previously planned Boeing 757 flights have been changed back to the A321neo. The carrier is still planning to launch its service to Paris- Charles de Gaulle on June 21, 2018. I hope Primera Air does well with its flights to Boston!

An Air France 777-200 ER coming in for landing at Boston Logan Airport after its flight from Paris-Charles de Gaulle.

Level, a low-cost subsidiary of Iberia, launched seasonal flights March 28, 2018, from Barcelona, Spain to Boston on Airbus A330-200. The flights were planned to operate until October 27, 2018, when it would be terminated until next season. Recently, Level has decided to make this flight operate year-round instead of seasonally. This is a huge surprise for me as it is pretty rare to see a route go from seasonal to year-round in such a short span of time. I guess the route has been doing pretty well for the airline so far. This year Boston will see a lot more capacity to Spain than previous years, with year-round flights to Barcelona and Madrid, and daily flights to Madrid in the summer, as opposed to last year where Boston did not have flights to Barcelona and only seasonal non-daily flights to Madrid. Hopefully, the load factors on all these flights to Spain will be good despite the large increase in the number of seats available.

Recently, I wrote about how PenAir will have to terminate Plattsburgh, Presque Isle and its seasonal flight to Bar Harbor because of the Essential Air Service contract ending. Unfortunately, the flights to Plattsburgh and Presque Isle have been moved to Washington-Dulles and Newark Liberty Airport on United Airlines, respectively, therefore, Boston will no longer have flights to those destinations. The good news is that the seasonal service Essential Air Service contract for flights to Bar Harbor has been awarded to Silver Airways which will operate the route twice daily starting July 1, 2018, on Saab 340. Therefore, Boston will not lose the seasonal flight to Bar Harbor under the Essential Air Service contracts. This will be Silver Airways' only destination from Boston. Additionally, Boutique Air has announced that it will operate three flights daily from Massena, New York to Boston. Massena is located just south of the Canadian border. The airline will utilize the Pilatus PC-12.

Boston Logan Airport has been expanding rapidly recently with constant announcements of new services, routes, and airlines. Unfortunately, not all airlines are doing so well in the market. SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) inaugurated daily flights from Copenhagen to Boston on a leased Boeing 737 from PrivatAir in early 2016 with 88 seats. When the lease on the plane ended, the airline decided to switch to its own Airbus A330-300 and A340-300 on the route while decreasing to three or four weekly flights. Unfortunately, the airline has not been selling so many seats on a much larger plane. Some planes during the winter had as few as 40 passengers on a plane with 240-260 seats. SAS had decent load factors throughout the summer, but their load factors throughout the winter have been terrible. The goal of the route is two connect the cities which are both centers for pharmaceutical companies and tourism. As a result of such abysmal load factors, the airline has decided to change the rout

A Spirit Airlines Airbus A320-200 coming in for landing in Boston Logan Airport.

WestJet has announced they will be terminating their Montreal-Trudeau to Boston route on June 27, 2018. Currently, the airline operates the flight twice daily on a Bombardier Dash 8- Q400. The flight is operated by WestJet Encore, the regional subsidiary of WestJet. This route is also operated by Air Canada Express. From Boston, WestJet Encore also flies to Halifax and Toronto-Pearson. It is unfortunate that this route will be terminated as it will give Air Canada a full monopoly on the route. Sources:  www.routesonline.com

A United Airlines Boeing 777-200 blasts out of Logan Airport en route to San Francisco International Airport as the sun sets over Boston. Also, the colorful assortment of tails of different airlines that operate from Terminal E can be seen in the background.

Another day, another new route from Boston Logan. Today, May 3, 2018, JetBlue Airways inaugurated its flights from Boston Logan Airport to Minneapolis- St. Paul International Airport. JetBlue will fly the route three times daily on an Airbus A320-200. JetBlue will become the fourth carrier that will fly the route with the others being Delta Air Lines, Sun Country Airlines, and Spirit Airlines. This will add increased competition on a route dominated by Delta, because of its hub location in Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. Hopefully, JetBlue does well on its new route. Source:  www.routesonline.com

Today, May 2, 2018, Norwegian Air Shuttle has launched another route to Boston Logan Airport from Paris- Charles de Gaulle. This is the second destination that Norwegian serves from Boston. Boston to Paris-Charles de Gaulle is also operated by Delta Air Lines and Air France in addition to Norwegian's new route. Primera Air is also going to start flying the route this summer, meaning there will be four airlines operating the route this summer. Although Boston to Paris is a large market, I really question if four airlines are too many. Hopefully Norwegian does well with the route. Source: www.routesonline.com

The airport awards by Skytrax were released. Skytrax is a company that rates, reviews, and ranks airlines. By many, its considered the official reviewer and ranker for airports and airlines. Recently the company released their ranking Top 100 Airports Worldwide for 2018. Unsurprisingly, Singapore Changi placed first again. Boston Logan was in 89th place, same place as in 2017, situated behind 11 other US airports. Hopefully, Boston is able to move up in the rankings next year. Read the article for more information: www.worldairportawards.com