lufthansa's long haul flight from Newark, USA - Malta what do we know?

30th July 2021, a German carrier Lufthansa has launched flights for the first time between New York Newark in the United States to Malta. But before we look at more information during my plane spotting their, let's take a look back at the beginning of Transatlantic flights between Malta and the US.

Although Malta did fly to the US by PPE during the Pandemic once in a while by Hi Fly Malta. And in the past we had US Air Force planes directly from the US or US Air Force base in Europe. We didn't had any passenger service since the 2011 Libyan Cilvil War with Canadian citizens evacuated from Libya to Malta then cross the Atlantic to Canada. 

Let's talk about two airliner that did travel to Malta from the US. Balkan Bulgarian Airlines used their Boeing 767 aircraft directly from New York JFK in Summer of 1996. In 2000, ATA "American Trans Airlines" used their Boeing 757-200 registered N516AT however, it wasn't direct. The Boeing 757-200 can travel at least upto 3,900 nautical miles it can fly to Ireland and the UK without re-fueling. N516AT aircraft flew out of JFK with a re-fuel stop in Shannon, Ireland before heading to Malta. Both Balkan Bulgarian & ATA was wet chartered by Air Malta.

In 2021, Lufthansa has operated this service until October 2021 as LH488/489. The reason for this is because of tourism for Viking Cruises either Viking Sea or Viking Venues in Valletta Grand Harbour.

D-AIXL Airbus A350-900 delivered in 2018 taken 22nd September 2021.

From start to finish of the Viking Cruises program, Lufthansa operated Airbus A350-900. After Lufthansa finished it's second route back to New York, Lufthansa returned to Germany. While it was good to see we had long haul flights to Malta, this is going well for Malta's tourism post-Covid. We just wait & see in the future if Malta is up for another long haul travel in the future.  

Farewell Alitalia

 

As we say our goodbye to one of Italian's biggest airliner, Alitalia has now come to & end at midnight on 15th October 2021. Over the years of the airline's financial crisis & from the Covid Pandemic, it's time for a fresh new start. 

Italia Trasporto Aereo is Italy's brand new airliner replaces all of Alitalia's routes and fleets. So for now, ITA currently has by the time of making, it has two Airbus A320's and one Airbus A330-200 which all are ex Alitalia. However, ITA is not operating all of it's Alitalia's slot straight away. By 2022, ITA will start growing more of it's destinations within Europe, Africa and North America while more to come by 2025.

Final photo of Alitalia EI-DSG Airbus A320 taken 23rd September 2021.

It's a real shame Italy has lost it's icon, I like to thank Alitalia throughout the years. And also for me as a spotter seeing fleets of the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 family, Airbus A320 family, Airbus A330, Boeing 777 and Embrear family by Alitalia CityLiner throughout the world. 

Southampton, UK travel information 5th February 2021

 Welcome to another travel update & new blog for 2021. It's been a bit late since my last blog was before Christmas 2020 I just needed a break while we're on Covid restrictions so for good news as UK is currently stated it's vaccination and what is the news on travel for one airport I live near. 

So the news came in after the New Year that Southampton Airport is introducing more flights with reasons on taking over slots from Flybe but their is brand new destinations will be included this Summer with hopes on UK traveling might go ahead so hear is the list of airliners at their new destinations.

     Blue Islands  

•  Dublin, Ireland 
• Manchester, UK 

British regional carrier from the Channel Islands will begin with flights from Southampton to Manchester within the UK. And flights also operate directly from Southampton to Dublin in Republic of Ireland.

     British Airways

• Bergerac, France 
• Berlin Brandenburg, Germany 
• Edinburgh, Scotland (UK)
  
• Faro, Portugal 
• Florence, Italy
• Ibiza, Spain 
• Limoges, France
• Malaga, Spain 
• Mykonos, Greece 
• Nice, France 
• Palma de Mallorca, Spain
  

British Airways will finally be returning to Southampton since 2007 after Flybe tookover BA's franchise. It'll operate by BA CityFlyer withing Embraer ERJ-190 starting in the beginning of May 2021 throughout the Summer period till October.

     Eastern Airways 

• Dublin, Ireland 
• Gibraltar 
• Leeds/Bradford, England (UK)
• Manchester, England (UK)
• Nantes, France 
• Rennes, France
• Teeside, England (UK)

Eastern Airways had already started it's domestic flights to Teeside and Leeds however, it was temporary stopped due to the pandemic. Eastern Airways will resume these two English destinations later this month if UK Government advice on travel remains suspended. For the first time, Eastern Airways will be heading to Gibraltar a British Overseas Territory at the Mediterranean directly from Southampton starting in May. All other destinations will start in March, and April. 

      Loganair

•  Isle of Man  

Scottish regional carrier will be expanding to other UK destinations from the Isle of Man. For the first time from decades Southampton Airport will begin connections to the Isle of Man a UK Crown Dependency country. 

                                                             Other Airliners 

KLM to Amsterdam, The Netherlands has temporarily suspended due to the strain of the pandemic where it first spotted in the UK. KLM has already placed a ban on all UK airports so we hopefully with vaccines, KLM might resume in the Spring or Summer. 

Swiss low-cost carrier Easyjet Switzerland will not resume Southampton to Geneva, Switzerland as of February 2021 onwards. However, you can book Easyjet Switzerland for December 2021. We've spotted Easyjet's website flights are also available from Bournemouth to Geneva next month until the end of March with Winter Seasonal flights will end. That could change from UK Government travel advice.