James lives and breathes route development. Educated in Air Transport Management at Loughborough University and Cranfield University, James has a PhD in Airline Strategy and Economics. James was Market Opportunity Analyst at London Luton Airport and Chief Analyst at anna.aero. He taught airline strategy and economics to undergraduate and postgraduate students for five years and has worked closely with multiple carriers on route and market intelligence projects. He is based near London, UK.
The Northern Hemisphere winter season is nearly here. On Sunday, October 25, northern airlines will switch to winter schedules based on IATA slot seasons. Hundreds of new routes globally will be launched on or around this date, including a few dozen long-haul markets.
This article looks at a handpicked selection of eight upcoming long-haul routes, all of which will take off next week. They were chosen because they are different or historical in nature. This process necessarily meant that other links are not mentioned in this article, rather than being forgotten.
Eight Exciting New Long-Haul Routes Beginning Next Week
All the following services will launch between October 19 and October 25, which rules out Virgin Atlantic to Phuket, which will start on October 18. Many more long-haul routes will lift off in the week beginning October 26, but they are not considered here. The emphasis on excitement in the headline is deliberate, as the appeal of these routes is, of course, hugely subjective.
Delta Air Lines' new service to Riyadh might have featured (it is certainly unusual), but the attacks on Saudi Arabia mean that flights have been pushed back to March 2027 at the earliest. The postponement was inevitable. Given seemingly low bookings and despite funding by the Saudi Air Connectivity Program, it remains to be seen if the first flight ever takes off.
The list features a controversial entry: Belavia to Bangkok. Of course, this is mentioned for network intrigue and not for political reasons. 
British Airways' upcoming services from London Heathrow to Tampa and San Jose, Costa Rica, are not mentioned, as both routes simply switch from London Gatwick. Lufthansa from Frankfurt to Kuala Lumpur and El Al from Tel Aviv to San Francisco are among those that are also not there.
|
Start Date |
Route |
Airline |
Operations In November |
Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
October 23 |
British Airways |
Three weekly 777-200ER |
First time that BA will have nonstop flights to Sri Lanka. They operated via the Maldives until 2015, which was when the airline last served Colombo |
|
|
October 24 |
United Airlines |
Daily 787-8 (very occasionally 787-9) |
Back after six years, it'll be the first time that United has flown from Chicago to both Narita and Haneda. The carrier probably wanted two daily flights to Haneda but couldn't get the slots |
|
|
October 25 |
Etihad Airways |
Four weekly 787-9 |
A brand-new market and Calgary's only Middle Eastern carrier. One of 27+ routes for Etihad in 2026 and 2027 |
|
|
October 25 |
Finnair |
Daily A350-900 |
A brand-new market and the airline's new longest-ever scheduled operation |
|
|
October 25 |
Minsk to Bangkok |
Belavia |
Weekly A330-200 |
The airline's first scheduled flights to Thailand |
|
October 25 |
Air India |
Three weekly 777-300ER |
The airline is replacing Air Canada, which most recently served Mumbai via London Heathrow |
|
|
October 25 |
Tel Aviv to Tokyo Narita |
Arkia |
Two weekly A330-200 (GullivAir; shown above) |
A brand-new market for Arkia and the airline's new longest-ever service. Flights launch with an A340-300 leased from USC, but quickly switch to the A330-200. The A340-300 returns from January to March |
|
October 25 |
Air Canada |
Two weekly A321XLR |
A brand-new market and the only North American airline in the Canary Islands, but not for long. Also, the first time Canada has had flights to the archipelago |
Finnair To Australia For The First Time
Next Sunday, Finnair will take off from Helsinki Airport (HEL) to Melbourne Airport (MEL), with flights launching in time for the all-important summer Down Under and ahead of the Christmas rush. It will be the only airline from a European Union country to serve Australia. It'll be the third European carrier to fly to the country, alongside BA and Turkish Airlines. BA will double its presence in Australia in January 2027, when flights to Melbourne resume.
AY145 will leave Finland at 1:15 AM, arriving in Victoria via Bangkok at 7:20 AM the following morning. AY146 will depart Australia for the first time on October 26, leaving at 3:30 PM and getting back at 6:00 AM the next day. Fifth freedom traffic rights exist between the capitals of Thailand and Victoria.
The departure and arrival times in HEL are, of course, for connectivity, mainly across the Nordics and the Baltics, but also to other Northern European cities. OAG data shows that the period between midnight and 1:00 AM or so corresponds to Finnair's second-largest departure bank to Asia-Pacific, while 4 AM to 6 AM is the airline's largest arrivals bank.
Air India From Mumbai To Toronto
In early August, Air India revealed that it'd begin flying from Mumbai's 
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) to 
Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ). The route was revealed less than three months before the first departure, which was not a lot of time to drive awareness and sales. Air India is used to short timeframes.
In the press release, Air India repeatedly stated that flights would be nonstop, even though they're operated by the Boeing 777-300ER. As expected, service to Canada will stop to refuel and change crew in the Italian capital. Most of the airline's services to North America stop there as a consequence of headwinds and detouring to avoid Russian, Pakistani, and Iranian airspace. Flights from YYZ back to BOM are due to be nonstop.