Boston Aviation

The new KLM flight to Boston announced this week will have the flight number 617. This is interesting because 617 is the area code for phones near Boston. I love how original airlines are about things like this sometimes.

Another day and another new route is announced to Boston. KLM has announced they will begin service to Boston during the summer season of 2019. KLM will operate its Airbus A330-300 with 292 seats for the flight. Beginning March 31, 2019, the airline will offer 3 weekly flights and starting July 1, 2019, the airline will offer 4 weekly flights from Boston. Skyteam Alliance partner Delta operates 2 daily flights from Boston to Amsterdam during the summer, and these new flights are not replacing any flights, but are instead an addition to the flights already offered. The flights will operate year round. This is an amazing expansion for Boston, Terminal E will be very colorful next year with the large amount of new international airlines. Source:  www.usatoday.com

Today, July 1, 2018, has finally arrived. This means that LATAM Brasil is finally launching direct flights between Sao Paulo and Boston on a Boeing 767-300ER. This flight will last 10 hours and 15 minutes. This will be Boston's southernmost flight, as well as Boston Logan's first flight south of the equator. Massport has been trying to get a direct route to Brazil for a very long time, so it is great to see Massport achieve its goal. This flight will connect the large Brazilian diaspora around Boston as well as numerous businesses between the two cities. The flight will arrive in Boston on July 2, 2018.

Virgin Atlantic has a seasonal flight from Manchester, England to Boston Logan Airport. Currently, the airline flies twice weekly. The only other airline that flies this route is Thomas Cook Airlines, three times a week. Today, the airline has announced that they intend to fly the route three times weekly next year, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Interestingly, these are the same days that Thomas Cook operates its flights.

A United Airlines Boeing 737-700 coming in for landing in Boston. The plane has the registration N15710 and is 19.9 years old. The plane used to fly for Continental Airlines until the airline merged with United.

This Saturday, June 23, 2018, Emirates will fly the Airbus A380 to Boston on the flight's regular schedule. For a while, it has been rumored that Emirates is considering increasing capacity on the flight by increasing capacity on the route by either adding a second daily flight or by changing the plane to an A380. Currently this is just a test to see how the plane would operate in Boston Logan, but hopefully, this could lead to Boston seeing the A380 on a regular basis. For passengers, this is a huge win, the A380 is much more spacious than the Boeing 777 the airline currently uses.  I really hope they add the A380 flights on a permanent basis. It would be nice to see the gates that Massport built exclusively for the A380, (it has 2 doors vertically, not horizontally so it can only be used for the A380) be used more, because now they feel slightly useless, considering Boston only gets seasonal 3x weekly service from British Airways, while having 3 gates for A380s.

More information has been released about Sichuan Airlines planned flight from Chengdu to Boston. The airline filed its plans for the twice-weekly flight with the U. S. Department of Transportation. The airline plans to start flights December 17, 2018, flying a 331 seat Airbus A350-900. The proposed schedule is to depart Chengdu on Mondays and Fridays at 21:00 and arrive in Boston at 00:15 (+1 Day). The flight will depart Boston at 02:15 on Tuesdays and Saturdays and arrive in Chengdu at 06:35(+1 day). The flight distance is 7,400 miles. The flight isn't on sale yet, but I do not see any reason why the US DoT would not approve the flight. When I first heard rumors about the possibility of this flight, I questioned if it was an empty promise, but by this point, it is clear that the airline is planning to start this service. I do question how this flight will do in the long run, because the demand to Chengdu is not very large. I could see this route being used by people connecting fr...