This week in air travel has seen a great deal of news in the Pacific.
Fiji Airways and Alaska Airlines announced a strengthened codeshare partnership that adds 18 new destinations via 19 new airports via Fiji Airways’ San Francisco hub. The new flights to/from Nadi via San Francisco, which are now available for booking, are: Albuquerque, Austin, Boston, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Kahului, Kansas City, Kona, Las Vegas, Nashville, New Orleans, Orlando, Palm Springs, Raleigh Durham, Salt Lake City, San Diego, Baltimore BWI, Washington Dulles and Washington Reagan. Members of Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan program can also earn and redeem miles for travel on Fiji Airways.
In flight news, this week American Airlines and Japan Airlines (JAL) announced plans for a special nonstop flight between Tokyo Narita and Las Vegas McCarran to support additional demand for CES 2019. American Airlines will operate the flight January 4 – 14, 2019, on a Boeing 787-8. The flight will be marketed by Japan Airlines. For the 10-day period, American’s service between Tokyo and Chicago O’Hare will operate through Las Vegas, while Japan Airlines will continue to offer nonstop service between Tokyo and Chicago O’Hare during the same period.
Also in the Pacific, this week Delta announced plans to expand its Delta One suites and Delta Premium Select service to five more transpacific routes in 2019. As the airline takes delivery of additional A350-900 aircraft and refurbishes more 777-200ER and LR aircraft, it will add the new seating to the following routes:
- Minneapolis – Tokyo (Haneda)
- Atlanta – Tokyo (Narita)
- Seattle – Tokyo (Narita)
- Los Angeles – Tokyo (Haneda)
- Los Angeles – Sydney
Enhanced 777-200LR service between Los Angeles and Sydney will start in 2019; exact schedule details will be published at a later date. All Delta transpacific departures from Los Angeles will have the Delta One suite and Delta Premium Select as a result once fully implemented in 2019.
In another major flight update, this week United Airlines announced plans to add a new nonstop flight between its Washington Dulles hub and Tel Aviv, starting May 22, 2019 (subject to government approval). The new flight will be the first to be operated by a U.S. carrier between the two cities, United said.
Finally, in tech news, this week KLM announced the launch of a new service on Google Assistant that allows customers to use voice commands to search for KLM flights. The service is available in both English and Dutch.
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