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Joined: 17 Jun 2005
Posts: 949
Location: Carmel, IN

I just posted a note about new Northwest international routes - nothing for IND yet. Thought it would be interesting to post some of the other recent additions announced lately. As you're probably aware, most of the legacy carriers are focusing on international expansion as these tend to be the most profitable kinds of routes. The new Open Skies agreement between the US and EU is also leading to more direct international routes across the Atlantic. CO led the way with all their 757 flights from EWR to smaller European markets like Bristol, Birmingham, Berlin, etc. DL came out of bankruptcy and added a ton of international routes out of both JFK and ATL, and they've been using the 767 - DL has the largest 767 fleet of any airline in the world. One of DL's routes is ATL-SVO (Moscow), which I flew - not bad. In fact, just last month when I flew that route, it was the only nonstop flight from the US to Moscow available on a U.S. carrier. So the first new route in the list of recent annoucements is interesting. Here they are:

ORD-SVO (Moscow Shermetyevo) on AA, 767
ATL-LHR
JFK-LHR
LAX-LHR, all these three on DL or Air France via a joint venture, aircraft to be determined
ATL-Queretaro, Mexico, DL, aircraft not announced
JFK-St Maarten, JetBlue, A320 (I think)
SEA-HNL, Alaska, 737-800 (OK I know it's not international, but I put it here anyway)
EWR-Mumbai, CO, 777-200
SFO-CAN (Guangzhou, China), UA, aircraft unknown
JFK-TLV (Tel Aviv)
JFK-EDI (Edinburgh)
JFK-Dakar, Senegal and Nairoibi, Kenya
JFK-Cairo
JFK-Malaga, Spain
JFK-Amman, Jordan
JFK-Lagos, Nigeria, all JFK above on DL, no aircraft announced
JFK-Panama City, Panama
JFK-Guatemala City
JFK-Port of Spain, Trinidad
JFK-San Jose, Costa Rica
JFK-Liberia, Costa Rica, all 5 JFK above on DL, no aircraft annc.
ATL-Stockholm, Sweden, DL, 767-300ER
LAX-FRA, UA, aircraft unknown
ATL-Bonaire, DL, 737-800
ATL-St Kitts, DL, 737-800
LGA-Bermuda, DL, aircraft unknown
DFW-Providenciales, AA, aircraft unknown
ORD-Buenos Airies, AA, 767-300
SLC-CDG (Paris), DL, 767-300

So you get the point. There are a lot of international route expansions going on, but they're almost all from either minor U.S. hubs to major international destinations, or they are from major U.S. hubs to secondary or minor international destinations. Other than NW adding BDL-AMS a while back, there hasn't been much international expansion from focus cities or other midsize markets directly to Europe or Asia. Although I guess you might put PDX-AMS in this group.