Cathay Pacific continues its expansion in Europe with the launch of two new routes from Hong Kong. These operations, in line with its press release, will commence in 2025 and will be performed on 280-seat Airbus A350-900 aircraft.

Munich and Brussels will join Cathay’s European schedule, reaching 11 destinations on the continent. The German city will be added to the network for the first time, while the Belgian capital will return after five and a half years.

Hong Kong – Munich · eff June 16th, 2025

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

• CX 301  Hong Kong HKG 01:10 · 07:55 MUC Munich
• CX 300  Munich MUC 14:00 · 06:55+1 HKG Hong Kong

Hong Kong – Brussels · eff August 3rd, 2025

Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday

• CX 291  Hong Kong HKG 23:35 · 07:05+1 BRU Brussels

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday

• CX 294  Brussels BRU 16:15 · 09:45+1 HKG Hong Kong

Effective August 13th, 2025, operating on the same days (HKG 23:50 – 07:20+1 BRU // BRU 13:25 – 06:55+1 HKG).

Cathay Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Lavinia Lau said: “We are very excited to be adding Munich to our network for the very first time as well as returning to Brussels next year, making these our 10th and 11th destinations in Europe, respectively. Hong Kong is a world-class international financial, commercial and aviation hub, and these flights will provide our customers with a direct connection between our home city and two of Europe’s important centres.

“Cathay Pacific has been flying non-stop to Europe for over four decades and we remain very committed to this important market. In addition to launching these two routes, we are delighted to be adding more flights on our other European routes next summer, providing even greater choice and convenience for our customers travelling between Hong Kong and the continent.”

During summer 2025, Cathay plans to operate 93 weekly flights between Hong Kong and Europe, a 19% increase over the current schedule. The airline offers 78 services a week between Amsterdam, Barcelona, Frankfurt, London, Madrid, Manchester, Milan, Paris and Zurich (all from HKG).

Iberia launches intercontinental flights with Airbus A321XLR

On November 14th at 13:03 local time, Iberia’s first flight to Boston with an Airbus A321XLR departed from Madrid-Barajas, thus initiating intercontinental services using these aircraft.

According to our database, the A321 registered EC-OIL, arrived at Boston Logan Airport at 14:34 local time, following seven hours.

Iberia is the only airline to have Airbus A321XLR in its fleet. It currently has one, and plans to add more in the near future.

Fleet

• Airbus A319-100: 3
• Airbus A320-200: 11
• Airbus A320neo: 17
• Airbus A321-200: 14
• Airbus A321XLR: 1
• Airbus A330-200: 18
• Airbus A330-300: 8
• Airbus A350-900: 22

The company has 94 aircraft, averaging 10 years old.

Air Transat to add a new route to Spain

The Canadian airline has confirmed it will operate a brand new service starting in 2025.

On June 16th, 2025, by summer 2025, Air Transat will inaugurate flights between Montreal and Valencia. The Spanish city will have intercontinental services for the first time in 13 years, reaching routes to three continents (Africa, America and Europe).

At time of publication, operations will be once a week with 199-seat Airbus A321neo planes, until October 5th, 2025.

Thursday/Friday

• TS 276  Montreal YUL 21:00 · 10:05+1 VLC Valencia (Thursday)
• TS 277  Valencia VLC 11:55 · 14:10 YUL Montreal (Friday)

TAP is back in Los Angeles

TAP Air Portugal announced a major expansion in the United States for summer 2025, with the beginning of three routes from Portugal. The carrier will commence these services between May and June 2025, highlighting the return to Los Angeles after 35 years.

In addition to LA, Boston and San Francisco will have new TAP routes, although both cities are already part of the company’s regular schedule.

Porto – Boston · May 14th, 2025

Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday

• TP 227  Porto OPO 18:05 · 20:30 BOS Boston
• TP 228  Boston BOS 23:00 · 10:35+1 OPO Porto

Lisbon – Los Angeles · May 16th, 2025

Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

• TP 247  Lisbon LIS 09:55 · 14:40 LAX Los Angeles
• TP 248  Los Angeles LAX 16:40 · 12:00+1 LIS Lisbon

Lisbon – Terceira – San Francisco · June 3rd, 2025

Tuesday

• TP 241  Lisbon LIS 09:55 · 11:30 TER Terceira
• TP 241  Terceira TER 13:00 · 16:45 SFO San Francisco

• TP 240  San Francisco SFO 18:45 · 11:15+1 TER Terceira
• TP 240  Terceira TER 12:45+1 · 16:00+1 LIS Lisbon

LIS – LAX and LIS – TER – SFO will be operated by Airbus A330-900neo, and OPO – BOS with A321neo.

Nuuk airport and Air Greenland

As previously reported, Nuuk Airport unveils its new runway, which allows the operation of more aircraft, including Air Greenland’s Airbus A330-800neo.

The first service to the airport with the new runway was the airline’s flight GL 781, performed by the A330neo with registration OY-GKN, arriving on November 28th at 13:14 local time from Copenhagen.

Regarding the first take-off, the same aircraft departed Nuuk at 16:19 local time for Copenhagen, covering flight GL 782, thus inaugurating the Greenland – Denmark services with Airbus A330neo.

As well as the first flight to Nuuk, Air Greenland will add five new routes within Europe, which will initiate between March and June 2025.

• Kangerlussuaq (SFJ) – Copenhagen (CPH): 2 weekly · March 17th, 2025
• Nuuk (GOH) – Kangerlussuaq (SFJ): 2 weekly · March 17th, 2025
• Nuuk (GOH) – Billund (BLL): 1 weekly · April 1st, 2025
• Reykjavik (KEF) – Billund (BLL): 1 weekly · April 1st, 2025
• Nuuk (GOH) – Aalborg (AAL): 2 weekly · June 12th, 2025

We review other highlights of the European market

Aegean Airlines

As of June 2nd, 2025, for summer season, the Greek airline will start flying between Heraklion and Metz. Services will be operated with Airbus A320-200 jets:

Monday

• A3 420  Heraklion HER 14:25 · 16:40 ETZ Metz-Nancy
• A3 421  Metz-Nancy ETZ 17:40 · 21:40 HER Heraklion

Blue Islands

The company will launch new routes from Guernsey and Jersey to the UK, all using ATR 72-500 aircraft configured for 68, 70 or 72 passengers in single class.

• Jersey (JER) – Newcastle (NCL): 1 weekly · May 3rd, 2025
• Guernsey (GCI) – Newcastle (NCL): 1 weekly · May 6th, 2025
• Guernsey (GCI) – Exeter (EXT): 2 weekly · May 22nd, 2025

British Airways and BA CityFlyer

British will add new routes to Italy and France from London, by summer 2025.

The airline will operate on Airbus A320s and Embraer 190s, with capacity for 180 and 106 passengers, respectively.

• London Heathrow (LHR) – Rimini (RMI): 3 weekly · May 15th, 2025
• London Gatwick (LGW) – Salerno (QSR): 3 weekly · May 22nd, 2025
• London City (LCY) – Olbia (OLB): 1 weekly · May 28th, 2025
• London Stansted (STN) – Bergerac (EGC): 1 weekly · June 28th, 2025

Dan Air

Dan Air, a Bucharest-based charter company, commenced two routes in Europe between December 13th and 14th.

Both services, which will run until early January 2025, will be flown using 180-seat Airbus A320-200 aircraft.

• Bucharest (OTP) – Dublin (DUB): 3 weekly · December 13th
• Bucharest (OTP) – London (LTN): 3 weekly · December 14th

easyJet

Two new bases in Italy will be added by the low cost carrier from spring 2025, each with new routes.

According to its website, easyJet will launch 16 new destinations to/from Milan Linate (red color) and five from/to Rome Fiumicino (green color).

Milan Linate

• Barcelona (BCN)
• Birmingham (BHX)
• Brussels (BRU)
• Copenhagen (CPH)
• Edinburgh (EDI)
• Figari (FSC)
• Frankfurt (FRA)
• Ibiza (IBZ)
• Lisbon (LIS)
• Luxembourg (LUX)
• Manchester (MAN)
• Oslo (OSL)
• Palma de Mallorca (PMI)
• Split (SPU)
• Tenerife (TFS)
• Vienna (VIE)

Rome Fiumicino

• Brussels (BRU)
• Frankfurt (FRA)
• Hamburg (HAM)
• Munich (MUC)
• Zurich (ZRH)

Eurowings

Beginning in March 2025, the airline will expand its route network in Europe, with 17 new scheduled services to be offered on Airbus A319, Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 planes.

• Düsseldorf (DUS) – Seville (SVQ): 3 weekly · March 30th, 2025
• Berlin (BER) – Bilbao (BIO): 2 weekly · April 11th, 2025
• Salzburg (SZG) – Barcelona (BCN): 2 weekly · April 11th, 2025
• Cologne (CGN) – Bastia (BIA): 1 weekly · April 12th, 2025
• Düsseldorf (DUS) – Ljubljana (LJU): 3 weekly · April 12th, 2025
• Berlin (BER) – Corfu (CFU): 1 weekly · April 26th, 2025
• Salzburg (SZG) – Calvi (CLY): 1 weekly · April 27th, 2025
• Berlin (BER) – Jerez de la Frontera (XRY): 2 weekly · April 29th, 2025
• Berlin (BER) – Newcastle (NCL): 2 weekly · May 1st, 2025
• Cologne (CGN) – Klagenfurt (KLU): 2 weekly · May 2nd, 2025
• Düsseldorf (DUS) – Warsaw (WAW): 5 weekly · May 2nd, 2025
• Düsseldorf (DUS) – Mostar (OMO): 2 weekly · May 3rd, 2025
• Düsseldorf (DUS) – Aktion (PVK): 1 weekly · May 3rd, 2025
• Cologne (CGN) – Erbil (EBL): 1 weekly · May 7th, 2025 (Iraq)
• Düsseldorf (DUS) – Genoa (GOA): 1 weekly · May 8th, 2025
• Stuttgart (STR) – Mostar (OMO): 1 weekly · May 10th, 2025
• Linz (LNZ) – Kos (KGS): 1 weekly · May 11th, 2025
• Stockholm (ARN) – Aktion (PVK): 1 weekly · May 17th, 2025
• Graz (GRZ) – Heraklion (HER): 1 weekly · May 26th, 2025
• Stuttgart (STR) – Malta (MLA): 2 weekly · June 8th, 2025
• Prague (PRG) – Faro (FAO): 1 weekly · June 17th, 2025

Georgian Airways

Between December and January 2025, Georgian Airways will add some flights to Europe with Boeing 767-300(ER) aircraft.

Schedule from Tbilisi

• Amsterdam (AMS): December 21st and January 4th, 2025
• Milan (BGY): January 3rd, 2025
• Larnaca (LCA): January 5th, 2025

Georgian has a 22-year-old, 245-seat Boeing 767-3Q8ER (4L-GTR) in its fleet.

Icelandair

At 13:19 local time on December 3rd, Icelandair’s first Airbus A321-271NX, registered TF-IAA, landed in Reykjavik. The airplane arrived from Hamburg, brand new from the factory.

This A321LR becomes Icelandair’s first Airbus aircraft, which entered service on December 10th with flight FI 306 between Reykjavik and Stockholm. As well as the A321, 17 Boeing 737 MAX 8, 4 Boeing 737 MAX 9, 11 Boeing 757-200, 2 Boeing 757-300, 5 Boeing 767-300(ER), 3 DHC-8-200 and 3 DHC-8-400 are part of the fleet.

On the other hand, as of December 27th, the airline will double its seats per flight between Reykjavik and Nuuk, by introducing DHC-8-400s on this route.

Monday and Friday

• FI 113  Reykjavik KEF 08:05 · 09:00 GOH Nuuk
• FI 114  Nuuk GOH 09:45 · 14:45 KEF Reykjavik

It currently operates 37-seat DHC-8-200s, and the DHC-8-400s have 76 seats.

KLM

The Dutch airline will start three new routes in 2025, all within Europe.

Exeter, Ljubljana and Biarritz will join KLM’s regular schedule from Amsterdam.

• Exeter (EXT): 7 weekly · March 30th, 2025
• Ljubljana (LJU): 7 weekly · March 30th, 2025
• Biarritz (BIQ): 7 weekly · April 19th, 2025

Loganair

Effective May 31st, 2025, the Scottish carrier will fly between Glasgow and Newquay. Loganair will provide, according to its website, a weekly frequency by Embraer 145 jets configured for 49 passengers in single class.

Saturday

• LM 417  Glasgow GLA 15:40 · 17:10 NQY Newquay
• LM 418  Newquay NQY 17:45 · 19:15 GLA Glasgow

Loganair will be the only operator on this route.

Lufthansa

Munich – Hamburg on Airbus A350-900s.

The German airline will again offer domestic services with widebody aircraft, which will have a limited schedule.

At the time of publication, flights are planned from January 5th to 10th, 2025.

Schedule

• LH 2070  Munich MUC 14:55 · 16:15 HAM Hamburg
• LH 2071  Hamburg HAM 17:15 · 18:30 MUC Munich

Neos

The carrier will open a new route to Greece beginning in June 2025, by summer.

As per its website, Neos will serve once a week between Milan and Chania with 186-seat Boeing 737-800 airplanes.

Saturday

• NO 6970  Milan MXP 12:00 · 15:40 CHQ Chania
• NO 6971  Chania CHQ 16:30 · 18:20 MXP Milan

Pegasus

Nice, new destination for Pegasus Airlines.

At 11:05 local time on December 16th, Pegasus Airlines’ inaugural flight from Istanbul Sabiha landed in Nice. The Turkish carrier will offer four weekly frequencies with the following schedule:

SAW – NCE

• PC 1151  Istanbul SAW 10:25 · 11:45 NCE Nice (Monday)
• PC 1151  Istanbul SAW 13:00 · 14:20 NCE Nice (Wednesday)
• PC 1151  Istanbul SAW 08:15 · 09:35 NCE Nice (Friday)
• PC 1151  Istanbul SAW 16:00 · 17:20 NCE Nice (Sunday)

NCE – SAW

• PC 1152  Nice NCE 12:50 · 17:50 SAW Istanbul (Monday)
• PC 1152  Nice NCE 15:25 · 20:25 SAW Istanbul (Wednesday)
• PC 1152  Nice NCE 10:40 · 15:40 SAW Istanbul (Friday)
• PC 1152  Nice NCE 18:25 · 23:25 SAW Istanbul (Sunday)

Ryanair

The low cost airline will inaugurate, by summer 2025, three new destinations to/from Warsaw Chopin:

• Málaga (AGP): 4 weekly · March 30th, 2025
• Pisa (PSA): 2 weekly · March 30th, 2025
• Tirana (TIA): 2 weekly · March 31st, 2025

SAS

In addition to the new route to Seoul, which we announced in this article, Scandinavian Airlines System will introduce new services within Europe for summer 2025.

Bergen

• Málaga (AGP): 2 weekly · June 27th, 2025

Copenhagen

• Wroclaw (WRO): 6 weekly · March 30th, 2025
• Varna (VAR): 1 weekly · June 26th, 2025
• Bilbao (BIO): 2 weekly · June 27th, 2025
• Cagliari (CAG): 1 weekly · July 1st, 2025

Oslo

• Rhodes (RHO): 1 weekly · June 29th, 2025

Stockholm

• Bodø (BOO): 2 weekly · June 27th, 2025

SkyUp

New base in Chișinău.

SkyUp will open a new base in the Moldovan capital in summer 2025 and start eight new scheduled routes. The Ukrainian airline will operate 189-seat Boeing 737-800s:

• Alicante (ALC): 2 weekly
• Barcelona (BCN): 3 weekly
• Beauvais (BVA): 2 weekly
• Heraklion (HER): 4 weekly
• Larnaca (LCA): 3 weekly
• Lisbon (LIS): 1 weekly
• Palma de Mallorca (PMI): 2 weekly
• Thessaloniki (SKG): 1 weekly

Turkish Airlines

The company intends to boost its operations on four routes from/to Istanbul effective 2025. Algiers, Chicago, Colombo and Hong Kong will have the following increases:

• Algiers (ALG): from 21 to 28 weekly · June 9th, 2025
• Chicago (ORD): from 14 to 17 weekly · July 7th, 2025
• Colombo (CMB): from 7 to 9 weekly · July 11th, 2025
• Hong Kong (HKG): from 7 to 10 weekly · October 27th, 2025

TUI Airways

TUI will introduce four routes to/from Ireland by summer 2025, which it will offer on Airbus A320-200s with a capacity of 180 passengers in single class.

• Shannon (SNN) – Palma de Mallorca (PMI): 1 weekly · May 6th, 2025
• Cork (ORK) – Corfu (CFU): 1 weekly · May 9th, 2025
• Dublin (DUB) – Larnaca (LCA): 1 weekly · May 14th, 2025
• Dublin (DUB) – Enfidha (NBE): 1 weekly · May 19th, 2025

TUIfly Nordic

As of May 22nd, 2025, the airline will commence flights to Burgas from Gothenburg, to be performed during summer 2025. TUIfly will serve with Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft:

Thursday

• BLX 481  Gothenburg GOT 06:45 · 10:45 BOJ Burgas
• BLX 482  Burgas BOJ 11:55 · 13:55 GOT Gothenburg

At publication time, operations will be through the end of August 2025.

Volotea

New Volotea routes.

From April 2025, the Spanish carrier will begin eight new services in Europe, being France, Greece, Italy and Spain the markets with new flights.

• Strasbourg (SXB) – Lyon (LYS): 2 weekly · April 4th, 2025
• Lille (LIL) – Patras (GPA): 1 weekly · April 9th, 2025
• Palermo (PMO) – Bilbao (BIO): 2 weekly · April 12th, 2025
• Asturias (OVD) – Castellón (CDT): 2 weekly · May 11th, 2025
• Bordeaux (BOD) – Menorca (MAH): 2 weekly · July 6th, 2025
• Florence (FLR) – Alghero (AHO): 2 weekly · July 6th, 2025
• Strasbourg (SXB) – Heraklion (HER): 1 weekly · July 7th, 2025
• Palermo (PMO) – Heraklion (HER): 1 weekly · July 8th, 2025

Widerøe

The airline continues to expand its route network in Norway, with the launch of Oslo – Stavanger effective June 28th, 2025. Widerøe will have two services per week, offered on the same day, in line with its website.

Saturday

• WF 1425  Oslo OSL 10:25 · 11:25 SVG Stavanger
• WF 1426  Stavanger SVG 12:00 · 13:05 OSL Oslo

Saturday

• WF 1435  Oslo OSL 19:05 · 20:05 SVG Stavanger
• WF 1436  Stavanger SVG 18:40 · 19:45 OSL Oslo

Wizz Air

More routes from/to Venice and Craiova.

The low cost carrier confirmed it will commence five destinations from Venice Marco Polo International Airport, four of them within Europe and one to Africa. In addition, Wizz Air will initiate four routes to/from Craiova.

Venice

• Budapest (BUD): 2 weekly · March 8th, 2025
• Barcelona (BCN): 4 weekly · March 30th, 2025
• Madrid (MAD): 7 weekly · March 30th, 2025
• Athens (ATH): 3 weekly · March 31st, 2025
• Sharm el-Sheikh (SSX): 3 weekly · March 31st, 2025

Craiova

• Madrid (MAD): 2 weekly · June 1st, 2025
• Memmingen (FMM): 4 weekly · June 1st, 2025
• Bari (BRI): 3 weekly · June 2nd, 2025
• Dortmund (DTM): 3 weekly · June 2nd, 2025

New aircraft added by European airlines in November

• Air France

• Jet2

• KLM (x3)

• Maersk Air Cargo

• Smartwings (CSA Czech Airlines livery)

• Swiss International Air Lines

• Transavia France

• Turkish Airlines

• Wizz Air

Other reports we have published

• Asia and Oceania
• Africa and Middle East
• United States and Canada
• Latin America

Cover photo: JJ Wang – JetPhotos (Hong Kong-Chek Lap Kok Int’l Airport – VHHH)