The New Flight Routes Taking Off This Spring(1)

The busy spring break travel period is in full swing and while travelers will have to contend with far more crowds compared to recent years that were plagued by the pandemic, soaring demand for air travel has prompted airlines to add service to new destinations or restart popular routes that were suspended due to the COVID-19 crisis. This season has already seen major U.S. carriers start up new service as flight options continue to increase ahead of the peak summer travel period. Here's a look at some of the notable routes that travelers can look forward to flying in the coming weeks and months.

American Airlines will begin a handful of new routes from New York's LaGuardia Airport this May. Starting May 5, the carrier will offer service between LGA and the following cities: Birmingham, Alabama; Buffalo, New York; Columbia, South Carolina; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Greenville, South Carolina and Knoxville, Tennessee.

Delta Air Lines is restarting service between San Antonio and New York City via JFK Airport on May 8. Delta will operate an Airbus A220 on the route, which it has not flown since 2020. The carrier also recently launched seasonal service between Harlingen, Texas and Minneapolis-St. Paul on February 17 and has plans to expand its operations in Texas this summer. Delta will also expand its service between Atlanta and Tel Aviv, Israel to daily flights on April 16 and will introduce service from Atlanta to Nice, France starting May 12. The latter marks the first time that Delta will connect customers between Atlanta and the coastal French city in over a decade.

Ultra-low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines will connect Puerto Rico with a handful of big cities this spring, with service between San Juan and Cleveland; Detroit; Baltimore; Chicago (Midway) and Dallas beginning May 4. Frontier will also connect San Juan with Cancun, Mexico starting May 25. Meanwhile, service from Orlando, Florida to Ponce, Puerto Rico and flights from Tampa, Florida to Aguadilla, Puerto Rico will begin May 4.

Hawaiian Airlines plans to restart three-times-weekly service between Honolulu and Fukuoka, Japan beginning April 28. The carrier was forced to suspend the route in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hawaiian will also connect the Hawaiian Islands with the Cook Islands this spring, debuting weekly service between Honolulu and Rarotonga on May 20.

JetBlue, which currently finds itself in a complicated merger with Spirit Airlines, will launch several new routes this spring, including daily service from New York (LaGuardia) to Nassau, Bahamas starting March 30. The airline will also launch daily service from LaGuardia to Bermuda and Cape Cod, Massachusetts beginning May 5. That same day, JetBlue will begin offering four daily flights from LaGuardia to Atlanta.

Southwest Airlines, which recently extended its bookable flight schedule through October, launched daily nonstop service between Long Beach, California and Kansas City, Missouri on March 9. The low-cost carrier also added seasonal service on Saturdays between Denver and San Jose, Costa Rica on March 11, the same day it launched a new nonstop seasonal route on Saturdays between San Diego and Eugene, Oregon.

United Airlines will launch direct, daily flights between New York (Newark Liberty) and Dubai starting March 25. The carrier will also expand its European offerings in late May with flights between Newark and Stockholm, Sweden; San Francisco and Rome; Chicago (O'Hare) and Shannon, Ireland; Washington Dulles and Berlin, Germany and Chicago O'Hare and Barcelona, Spain.