Yahoo Lifestyle New airline routes to try this year
A new year means new resolutions, new opportunities and, importantly for travelers, new flights.
Hawaii trips are set to get a bit easier at Southwest Airlines. Greenland will get what may be its first U.S. nonstop on United Airlines. And a newly beefed-up Alaska Airlines is launching flights to Tokyo and Seoul.
Airlines have unveiled more than 600 new routes to, from or within the United States for 2025, according to Cirium Diio, an aviation analytics firm.
Here are some route developments to know as you plan trips this year.
- - -
Southwest: Red-eye flights
A lot is changing at Southwest. The airline will dump its long-standing open-seating policy in favor of assigned seats, introduce extra-legroom premium seats and launch its first overnight flights. The first of those red-eyes will take off from Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix late on Feb. 13 and land in Baltimore, Nashville and Orlando on Feb. 14.
But the real exciting stuff starts April 8, when Southwest adds red-eyes from Honolulu, Maui and Kona to Las Vegas and Phoenix. None of these are new routes, per se, but the overnight timings mean that Southwest fliers who don’t live on the West Coast will have much faster and shorter trips home from the islands.
Southwest plans to offer up to 33 overnight flights this summer, connecting not only Hawaii to the U.S. mainland, but also San Diego to Baltimore and Sacramento to Orlando.
- - -
United: Greenland
Have a taste for the unknown? Prefer somewhere off the beaten path where the sun never sets? Curious to explore the massive Arctic landmass that President Donald Trump has threatened to take over? United’s new nonstop to Nuuk, Greenland, from Newark Liberty International Airport may be just the ticket.
“It’s hard not to get excited about United’s new route from Newark to Nuuk,” said Brett Snyder, president of the travel assistance service Cranky Concierge and author of the Cranky Flier blog. “It’s so unique in that getting to Greenland was remarkably difficult for Americans previously, having to fly via Europe. This makes it accessible for the first time.”
The two weekly flights, on Tuesdays and Saturdays beginning June 14, are possible thanks to a new international airport in Nuuk, Greenland's capital, that opened in November.
- - -
Delta: Copenhagen
If the Nordics interest you, Delta Air Lines has a new option to Copenhagen. For the first time, Delta - or any airline, for that matter - will fly to the Danish capital nonstop from Minnesota’s Twin Cities starting in May.
The route is notable given that 19 percent of Minnesota’s 5.7 million residents claim Nordic ancestry - one of the highest concentrations in the United States - according to Census Bureau estimates for 2023. (Only about 2.5 percent of the U.S. population as a whole claims the same.)
“There are embedded very strong cultural ties between Minnesota and the Nordics,” said Brian Peters, director of air service development at the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which runs Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. He described the new route as huge for the region and the state.
Delta will link Minneapolis-St. Paul and Copenhagen three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays through the summer beginning May 22.
- - -
Aer Lingus: Indianapolis and Nashville
Irish airline Aer Lingus will offer two new outside-the-box nonstops to the United States from its Dublin home this summer: Indianapolis and Nashville. Neither are cities you might think of as gateways to Europe, but thanks to a new generation of smaller, single-aisle planes that can fly longer distances than their predecessors, that perception should begin changing. (Most transatlantic and intercontinental flights today are on large, twin-aisle aircraft.)
Aer Lingus is among the first airlines to fly the Airbus A321XLR, the latest in new, long-range planes, with Indianapolis and Nashville as its debut destinations.
“If the A321XLR is successful here, it could be successful in a lot of other markets as well,” said Howard Mann, a vice president at Campbell-Hill Aviation, which helps airports land new flights. That would mean more nonstop options to Europe for travelers from midsize U.S. cities.
Aer Lingus will offer four weekly flights on both routes, with Nashville on April 12 and Indianapolis on May 3. The airline offers connections beyond Dublin to more than 20 cities in the United Kingdom and Europe.
- - -
JetBlue: Madrid
Madrid is the latest addition for JetBlue Airways in Europe this summer, four years after the New York-based carrier first hopped the pond to London. The new flight opens not only Madrid, but also much of the Iberian Peninsula, because high-speed trains link the Spanish capital to most major cities.
And JetBlue will offer some of the only real competition to Madrid from the United States as the only unaligned airline - one that isn’t a member of the Oneworld, SkyTeam or Star alliances - serving the market.
“Another competitor in the mix can only help with keeping those cheap European flights coming,” said Katy Nastro, a spokeswoman for the Going travel app, which helps users get flight deals.
JetBlue begins its daily flights to Madrid from Boston on May 22. Olé!
- - -
Alaska: Tokyo and Seoul
One of the more exciting recent changes at U.S. airlines is the merger of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. One of the first benefits travelers will see is Alaska’s new intercontinental nonstops from its hub at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Tokyo and Seoul.
That means new nonstop options to two of Asia’s most dynamic cities. And travelers across the United States will have easy connections to Alaska Airlines’ new flights via Seattle.
“Tokyo and Seoul [are] actually 10 percent closer than traveling from San Francisco or Los Angeles,” Andrew Harrison, Alaska’s chief commercial officer, said in December.
The new daily flight to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport takes off May 12, with service to Seoul’s Incheon International Airport beginning in October. Both routes will be operated by planes still wearing the Hawaiian Airlines logo.
- - -
Washington, D.C.: 5 new cross-country nonstops
Reagan National Airport in Northern Virginia is gaining five longer flights this spring as part of last year’s Federal Aviation Administration funding bill. Alaska, American Airlines, Delta, Southwest and United are set to launch flights to Las Vegas, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle from National Airport this spring.
The additions are noteworthy thanks to a quirk in the rules governing airlines at National: No flights longer than 1,250 miles, or about as far as Dallas or Minneapolis from National, are allowed, with 27 exemptions. The five new flights are the latest exemptions authorized by Congress.
The new nonstop to Las Vegas on Southwest begins Feb. 13; San Francisco on United, Feb. 14; San Antonio on American, March 2; Seattle on Delta, March 9; and San Diego on Alaska, March 18.
Related Content
David Lynch’s deep influence on video games, from Alan Wake to Zelda
It’s not dumb luck: The Commanders mastered the walk-off win
