Roundup – 10 Minute Rule

We’ve been a bit busy the last few days. And there is always so much to read to keep up and talk about. We’re going to try to sit down for a few hours and catch up on the backlog. In the meantime, here are some of the things we’ve been reading.

• South African Airways announced its new nonstop service from Washington-Dulles to Dakar, Senegal will begin May 1st and will be the only nonstop service from the Washington area to Western Africa. The flight will refuel in Dakar for one hour and continue on to Johannesburg.
• JetBlue launched its service from Orlando to San Jose, Costa Rica on Thursday. It will be the carrier’s first Central American destination and its ninth country.
• Air Canada will launch daily service between Vancouver and Paris for a seasonal period from July 1st through September 29th. The plane will operate from Vancouver to Montreal and onward to Paris.
• Icelandair announced it would begin nonstop service from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Reykjavik, Iceland, beginning July 22. Service will be four times weekly, and will connect to service to Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, London, Helsinki, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris. Icelandair will work in cooperation with Alaska Airlines for connections to additional cities, including San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Anchorage and San Jose.
• Today in the Sky reports that AirTran‘s new service to Harrisburg, PA from Orlando is doing well, with 91% of seats sold for the daily service.
• Air Azul, a public charter operator whose flights are operated by Sun Country Airlines, will be offering twice weekly service to Melbourne, FL from Newark’s Liberty Airport on Wednesdays and Saturdays beginning on June 10th. In addition to Melbourne, Air Azul will offer flights to Newark from South Bend, Ind.; Toledo, Ohio; Rockford, Ill.; and Lansing, Mich. It also will offer flights to Baltimore-Washington International Airport from Lansing and Rockford. Their goal appears to be underserved cities to larger metropolitan areas, unlike Allegiant, which offers service from these types of cities to large leisure destinations. But we will hold our judgement for now. Either way, more on this later. And does anyone think Air Azul is a ripoff of the name JetBlue?