Azores Airlines Adds Non-Stop Airbus A321LR Flights From Porto To North America
Summary
- Azores Airlines to launch Porto to Boston, New York JFK, and Toronto
- All have daytime flights back to Europe, a rare thing
- Boston and JFK are new destinations from Porto
Azores Airlines presently operates to North America from the Portuguese islands of the Azores (no surprise!) and Madeira. However, it will fly from the European mainland next summer, when three routes from Porto – Portugal’s second most populous city – will take off. The trio will use the pretty high-density 186-seat Airbus A321LR.
Three Porto long-haul routes
According to Azores Airlines’ schedule submission to Cirium on Saturday, it plans the following routes. Each will be served weekly, a low frequency but one with which the carrier is very experienced. Cirium says that the airline, which used to be called SATA, served Porto-Toronto non-stop for years using the A310, the last flight being in 2018.
|
Porto to… |
Starts from Porto* |
Flights |
Times out** |
Times back*** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Boston |
June 4th |
Weekly |
06:25-09:35 |
11:05-23:00 |
|
JFK |
June 6th |
Weekly |
06:00-09:35 |
11:05-23:35 |
|
Toronto |
June 1st |
Weekly |
06:00-09:35 |
11:05-23:50 |
|
* Dates vary from US/Canada |
** Local |
*** Local |
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(How I see changes, currently available to July 2024.) Image: Cirium.
Daytime flights are very rare
As with the low-frequency services, Azores Airlines is also used to daytime flights from North America to Europe. It is helped by the routes being relatively short, having fewer time zone changes than most of Europe, and being driven by point-to-point demand. From a passenger’s perspective, they should also help with jet lag.
Click here for Porto-Boston flights.
Still, eastbound daytime flights are rare, so it is a significant development. Aside from flight times, time zones, and P2P demand, it may result in less productive aircraft (most have to remain overnight at one end, as in Azores Airlines’ new routes), they could be lower-yielding from less premium demand, and so on.
Image: GCMap.
Looking at flights to North America, while June 2024 is a long way off and things may change, the 06:00 departures to JFK and Toronto will be the earliest in Europe for passengers across the North Atlantic after Turkish Airlines from Istanbul to Miami (01:10) and Mexico City (02:05).
Boston and JFK are new
Boston and JFK are new destinations from Porto. According to booking data, each market had just under 20,000 roundtrip point-to-point passengers in 2019. More passengers booked in the US than in Portugal, with both presumably mainly driven by the Portuguese diaspora.
Click here for Porto-JFK flights.
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In contrast, Azores Airlines will compete directly with Air Transat to Toronto, 3,515 miles (5,657 km) away. When writing on August 7th, it plans a four-weekly A330-200 service, leaving from Portugal in the more reasonable early afternoon.
Click here for Porto-Toronto flights.
The third airline to Greater NYC
To a very limited degree, it will compete indirectly with TAP Air Portugal and United Airlines on the Star Alliance-driven Newark market. The plan is for TAP to run daily with the A321LR, while United will also be daily using the 757-200ER. Porto will therefore have three airlines to Greater New York next summer and up to three daily departures.
What do you make of it all? Let us know in the comments.
Sources of information: Cirium, Google Flights, ch-aviation.com.
