Southwest’s New Routes, Air Canada’s New Cafés, Qatar Culls First Class, and More Airline News

In this week’s round-up, we’ll take a look at delays to United’s planned new routes from Chicago (ORD). On the topic of routes, 2 new destinations were added to Southwest’s network!

Also this week, Air Canada expanded its grab-and-go lounge offering, and the ongoing tensions in the Middle East continue to have an impact on airline operations, with new measures being taken in Dubai and by Qatar Airways.

Let’s take a look at what you might’ve missed this week.

United Delays Start of New Chicago Routes

At the start of the year, United celebrated what was supposed to be its busiest-ever summer of flights from its Chicago hub, coinciding with the announcement of new regional routes connecting the Midwest. Just weeks before some of the new routes to Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin were scheduled to start, United has delayed the original April and May inaugural dates until June 1. It’s unclear what the exact cause of the delay is, but it’s likely due to not meeting capacity targets on the routes.

Southwest Adds Launches Flights to Santa Rosa and St. Maarten

This week, Southwest added 2 new sunshine destinations. The airline touched down for the first time in Santa Rosa, California (STS) and the Caribbean island of St. Martin (SXM).

Southwest will slowly build out its Santa Rosa network, with nonstop flights connecting Burbank (BUR), Denver (DEN), Las Vegas (LAS), and San Diego (SAN). As for St. Martin, Southwest now offers daily service from Orlando (MCO) and starts a weekend service from Baltimore (BWI) on Saturday, April 11.

Air Canada Opens More Airport Cafés

Air Canada is leaning hard into the grab-and-go style lounge offering with the opening of 2 new Air Canada Cafés. The latest to open its doors was a second location at its Vancouver (YVR) hub on Friday, April 11. This follows the recent opening of the airline’s second Air Canada Café at Montréal (YUL), which is located in the U.S.-bound departures area of the terminal.

Dubai Restricts Foreign Airlines to 1 Flight per Day

The ever-evolving conflict in the Middle East has just caused another setback for airlines, as reported by Reuters. The emirate of Dubai will limit all foreign airlines to operating just 1 flight per day to its airports between April 20 and May 31.

While U.S. and European airlines often operate only 1 flight per day and won’t be affected, airlines in neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Kuwait will see their schedules to Dubai slashed. The country most impacted is India, whose airlines were scheduled to operate hundreds of round-trip flights to the emirate during that period.

Qatar Airways Pauses First Class Temporarily

Qatar Airways is temporarily no longer offering first class on its flights. The airline’s only aircraft offering the cabin is its superjumbo Airbus A380, which it has just temporarily grounded until June 1. The demand for travel to and via the Middle East has dropped so low that flying these planes doesn’t currently make sense. At the time of writing, Qatar’s A380 is scheduled to restart flying again in the early hours of June 1 with flights to Bangkok (BKK), London (LHR), Paris (CDG), Singapore (SIN), and Sydney (SYD).

KLM’s First Airbus A350 Gets Closer To Flying

The Airbus A350 will vastly improve the onboard experience for KLM passengers when it takes to the skies, hopefully before the end of the year. Its business class cabin, comprising 34 lie-flat seats, will feature sliding doors. This is a major upgrade compared to the business class cabins on the aging Airbus A330s and Boeing 777-200s that it will gradually replace. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (DAR), and Toronto (YYZ) are scheduled as the aircraft’s first destinations.

Final Thoughts

From route delays and route launches to new Airbus A350s and new lounges, it was another varied week in the airline world. However, it’s sad to see that issues arising from the conflict in the Middle East are becoming all-too common.

We’ll see you next week with more aviation news that you might have missed.