dailynewsnblog
Welcome to my 213th weekly routes article! While 70+ routes started in the examined period, only a small selection is included in this article. Five mini-stories were chosen; all the services launched between June 17 and 23. You can see last week’s jam-packed edition here.
Four New Transatlantic Routes From Canada In Two Days
On June 17, 
Air Canada inaugurated service from Montreal to Palma de Mallorca, becoming the first time that Palma has ever had scheduled flights from Canada. It operates three times a week on the 255-seat Boeing 787-8, which is the airline’s lowest-capacity widebody. Originally, the Airbus A321XLR was to operate.
The next day, Canada’s largest carrier began the first-ever flight from Halifax to Brussels, which will benefit from the airline’s codeshare agreement with Brussels Airlines. The three-weekly service uses the 169-seat 737 MAX 8. The capital of Nova Scotia has by far the most flights to Europe in 2026 than in any other year. WestJet and Air Canada have collectively launched multiple new routes.
On June 17, Air Transat began flying from Montreal to Dakar, with a twice-weekly A321LR operation. It is the first time the Francophone market has been served by any carrier and the first time the Canadian leisure airline has flown the LR to sub-Saharan Africa.
The following day, Air Transat commenced the first service from Toronto to Tirana, which runs weekly on the A330-200. It is the sole operation from North America to Albania. That’s less to do with the market size but more because it is low yielding.
Day | Toronto To Tirana; Local Times | Day | Tirana To Toronto; Local Times |
|---|---|---|---|
Thursday | 10:00 PM-1:00 PM+1 (nine hours) | Friday | 3:00 PM-7:15 PM (ten hours and 15 minutes) |
10-Hour Nonstop Flights: Air Transat Launches Brand-New Transatlantic Route [Map]
It is the first time that Canada has had service to this European country. See more here!
easyJet & Wizz Air Start 14 Routes
The low-cost carrier easyJet inaugurated 11 routes in the examined period, while the ultra-low-cost carrier Wizz Air started three. Funnily enough, the biggest of them all in Europe, Ryanair, did not begin any routes in the seven days.
easyJet now operates from Basel to Lille; Bordeaux to Cagliari; Bristol to Reus and Thessaloniki; Cagliari to Nice; Milan Linate to Brindisi; Milan Malpensa to Berlin; London Gatwick to Newquay and Reus; Lyon to Keflavik; and Newcastle to Lisbon.
Most of the links are served twice weekly. The leading exception is Linate to Brindisi, with four weekly services. Only one route (Newcastle to Lisbon) has not been served by easyJet or any other airline before.
Wizz Air took off from the Bulgarian resort destination of Varna to Paris Beauvais (twice-weekly), which was last served by the airline in 2020. It also began the first-ever service between Tirana and Tallinn (three weekly) and inaugurated its first service from the Albanian capital to Palma de Mallorca (twice-weekly).
Qantas Resumes 1-Stop Service To Samoa
On June 16, Qantas reintroduced a one-stop service from Sydney to Apia, Samoa, via Auckland. Last part of the airline’s network in 2023, Australia’s flag carrier runs three times weekly on the 737-800.
Flights back to Australia’s busiest airport have the highest block times. Depending on the specific days, this could be nine hours and ten minutes to over 11 hours (!). The significant difference is the amount of ground time in New Zealand on what is a same-plane, same-flight-number service. At times, there’s over a three-hour wait!
Fifth freedom rights are available between Auckland and Apia. In the 12 months to April 2026, that market had 163,000 round-trip passengers, which was well over three times the traffic volume of Sydney-Apia.
Qantas was presumably attracted to the large Auckland market being exclusively served by Air New Zealand. The entry of Australia’s largest carrier marked the first time it has operated nonstop between New Zealand and the Pacific.
9-Hour Boeing 737 Flights: Qantas Launches This Exciting New Route [Map]
The carrier relaunches its connection between Sydney and Samoa via a stopover in Auckland.
Arajet’s New Eight-Hour Nonstop Service
Arajet is a Dominican Republic airline that broadly focuses on connecting North America with South America via its homeland in the Caribbean. While this was originally through Santo Domingo, it has increasingly added flights to the ever-popular tourist destination of Punta Cana.
The carrier’s latest inauguration took place on June 16, when it took off from Punta Cana to Rosario, Argentina. Operating three times weekly using the Boeing 737 MAX 8, this route is timed at up to seven hours and 48 minutes. Cirium Diio shows that it is the second time the market has been served, following Aerolineas Argentinas’s brief operation in 2025.
With around 18,000 round-trip local passengers in the 12 months to April 2026, the existing point-to-point market will grow because of Arajet’s new nonstop flights. The carrier will also focus on passengers connecting in Punta Cana to reach cities in the Caribbean, Mexico, and the US.
flydubai Arrives In Libya
Benghazi is Libya’s second-most populous city. A coastal city much closer to the Egyptian border than to Tripoli, Benghazi has not previously had passenger flights by any UAE carrier. Now it does.
On June 17, 
flydubai launched a three times weekly 737 MAX 8 service from Dubai to Benghazi. This marked the debut of Emirates’ narrowbody-operating partner in Libya. The summer-only service has a maximum block time of just over six hours. Flights use Dubai’s Terminal 3, which enables easy connections to/from Emirates’ services.
flydubai competes directly with the little-discussed Libyan carrier Berniq Airways, which deploys the A320ceo to/from Dubai. Berniq originally flew to Dubai Al-Maktoum but later switched to the main airport. While this Libyan operator relies on the local market, flydubai has considerable connectivity to fill up its 166-seat aircraft.
