Welcome to my 190th weekly routes article! It includes six mini-stories about subjectively exciting services that took off between October 28 and November 3. As always, only a selection has been chosen.

United Airlines Begins Koror-Tokyo Flights; 2 Routes Return To Israel

On October 29, United inaugurated service from Koror (Palau) to Tokyo Narita. Palau is well-known for inbound tourism, particularly, of course, related to water. It is not a huge market—around 13,000 passengers in the past year without nonstop flights—but it is pretty high-yielding.

Credit: United

The new route covers 1,728 nautical miles (3,200 km) each way. The Star Alliance member serves it twice-weekly on the 737-800. Japan Airlines operated until early 2020, while Delta did so until 2018.

Credit: United

Elsewhere, on November 1, United resumed service from Chicago O’Hare to Tel Aviv (four weekly 787-8), followed by Washington Dulles to Tel Aviv the next day (three weekly 787-8). For obvious reasons, both routes were suspended in 2023.

United has 28% of all US-Tel Aviv flights in November, which is down three points compared to November 2022. Its network has yet to fully recover, as San Francisco-Tel Aviv has not returned. Its share will reduce further next year with the return of American from New York JFK and Delta from Atlanta and Boston.

American, JetBlue & Southwest start 8 routes in 4 days

On October 30, JetBlue took off from Orlando to Las Vegas, running twice daily on Mint-equipped machines. It is the first time the carrier has served that market. It replaces Spirit, which pulled off that route on November 1.

Credit: Flightradar24

Two days later, JetBlue relaunched three routes from Fort Lauderdale: Atlanta (19 weekly to three daily; last served in June 2024), New Orleans (12 weekly to twice daily; flown until June 2024), and Pittsburgh (daily; flown until 2021). Southwest ended Fort Lauderdale-Atlanta service in April.

On November 2, Southwest launched Chicago O’Hare-Tampa flights (daily; last served in June 2024). It means the market has five carriers again, with up to 14 daily flights. It complements Southwest’s Tampa offering from Midway.

That same day, American recommenced two links: Chicago O’Hare-San Jose (Costa Rica; daily; last flown in August 2022) and New York LaGuardia-Fort Lauderdale (two to three daily; served until 2008). American Eagle restarted Miami-Sarasota (daily on Envoy Air’s E175s; last flown in January 2009).

Credit: Sarasota–Bradenton International Airport

Adelaide Gets 2 More Trans-Tasman Routes

Air New Zealand has started the first-ever nonstop service from Christchurch to Adelaide. The A320 operation runs twice a week. Covering 1,653 nautical miles (3,061 km) each way, it is South Australia’s shortest-ever international link. Until now, Auckland was first.

Credit: Adelaide Airport

On 31 October, Qantas resumed flying from Adelaide to Auckland, having last done so between 2004 and 2007. It runs daily on the 737-800 and competes against Air New Zealand.

Other than short-term flights to India that were influenced by COVID-19, Qantas’ return marked the airline’s resumption of regular international operations from South Australia’s capital since Singapore flights ended in 2013.

Credit: Qantas

LOT Polish Takes Off For Morocco

LOT Polish has grown strongly this year, adding multiple cities to its network. Unsurprisingly, most, but not all, of these additions are from its Warsaw Chopin hub.

They include Marrakech, which saw Poland’s flag carrier for the first time on October 29. The twice-weekly service runs through to May on the 737-800. It competes directly with Wizz Air, which has served the market since 2018.

Credit: LOT Polish

At 1,769 nautical miles (3,276 km), it has become LOT Polish’s new longest African scheduled service, surpassing the distance to Cairo by more than a quarter. However, the airline has various longer sub-Saharan charter flights.

Air Transat Begins New 1-Stop Flights To South America

The Canadian leisure carrier Air Transat has served Colombia since December 2015. Until now, it has only ever flown to Cartagena and San Andrés (between 2017 and 2020 only).

Credit: Gate 7

On November 1, Medellín, Colombia’s second-most populous city, joined its network. In a low-risk operation, A321neo flights run weekly from Toronto via Cartagena. Obviously, there are no traffic rights on the domestic Colombian city pair. A second route (Montreal-Cartagena-Medellin) begins next May.

Credit: Gate 7

It appears to be the first time that both Toronto and Montreal have had Medellín service. In 2024, the former had 40,000 round-trip local passengers (it was a decent-sized market), while the latter had 21,000.

Turkish Airlines Returns To Sulamaniyah

The city of Sulaymaniyah is in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Turkish Airlines flew there from Istanbul between 2011 and 2023. In 2023, the five most popular connecting markets were London, Manchester, Stockholm, Birmingham, and Gothenburg. The route was stopped due to the increased military threat and the consequent impact on safety.

Credit: Turkish Airlines

The Star Alliance member returned on November 2, with a four-weekly 737-800 operation, increasing to daily at the end of March. Historically, up to two daily departures were available.

In November, Turkish Airlines serves five Iraqi cities from Istanbul: Baghdad, Basra, Erbil, Kirkuk, and now Sulaymaniyah. It has six to eight daily flights (the record was 11 daily). It previously flew to Mosul (until 2014) and Najaf (until October 2025).