Would be nice to see IAH to BCN on UA, I would assume lot of connection traffic would come from Mexico/Latina/South America as well.

With Japan announcing the re-opening of borders to massive tourism, a much-awaited Tokyo-Barcelona route could be on the table.

Avianca request to Colombian authorities flight from Medellin (MDE) and Cali to Barcelona. Source in spanish

https://www.aviacionline.com/2022/09/av ... ominicana/

Has this ever been figured out? Maybe AA for DFW-BCN?

DFWandOMA wrote:

Has this ever been figured out? Maybe AA for DFW-BCN?

It was ORD-BCN on UA.

DFWandOMA wrote:

Has this ever been figured out? Maybe AA for DFW-BCN?

Nothing yet - I also thought that might be it but folks over at the AA thread said it was impossible due to long haul aircraft shortages. I'm rooting for YYC now on WS.

LAXdude1023 wrote:

DFWandOMA wrote:

Has this ever been figured out? Maybe AA for DFW-BCN?

It was ORD-BCN on UA.

It wasn't ORD because as per the description that was given the route has never been served before. AA has already been doing ORD for some years.

Thenoflyzone wrote:

The way some people are answering, I could have sworn the title of the thread reads "your ideas of wackiest long haul route out of BCN".

LOL

dcajet wrote:

It wouldn't be Latin America. Every major city in the region has or had in the past air service to BCN.

Currently: Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Santiago and Mexico City have service to BCN

Lima had in the past. Caracas? Super ultra highly unlikely. Rio and Panama City... Unlikely.

Well, no, cause I don't think Tijuana nor Guadalajara has been served from BCN.

aviator2000 wrote:

DFWandOMA wrote:

Has this ever been figured out? Maybe AA for DFW-BCN?

Nothing yet - I also thought that might be it but folks over at the AA thread said it was impossible due to long haul aircraft shortages. I'm rooting for YYC now on WS.

Isn't AA getting a bunch of 787s now?

YYC-BCN

DL BOS-BCN has been on the rumor mill for a while now from people in both BOS and BCN. How true it is though? Who knows.

N1120A wrote:

Thenoflyzone wrote:

The way some people are answering, I could have sworn the title of the thread reads "your ideas of wackiest long haul route out of BCN".

LOL

dcajet wrote:

It wouldn't be Latin America. Every major city in the region has or had in the past air service to BCN.

Currently: Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Bogota, Santiago and Mexico City have service to BCN

Lima had in the past. Caracas? Super ultra highly unlikely. Rio and Panama City... Unlikely.

Well, no, cause I don't think Tijuana nor Guadalajara has been served from BCN.

aviator2000 wrote:

DFWandOMA wrote:

Has this ever been figured out? Maybe AA for DFW-BCN?

Nothing yet - I also thought that might be it but folks over at the AA thread said it was impossible due to long haul aircraft shortages. I'm rooting for YYC now on WS.

Isn't AA getting a bunch of 787s now?

They have gotten 7 so far, taking 8th soon. This batch of 788’s should have 5 (or 4 ?) more coming by next summer. Of this batch none of these 787’s were on property during summer 2022.

WS has not made any additions at all for S23 yet even with one extra plane and the removal of the 12x weekly TATL ops from YYZ. So it could still be WS to YYC.

BOS-BCN on DL is being talked about heavily in both Boston, and among operations in BCN. Of course no one knows for sure until an official announcement.

I think it will be DFW-BCN on AA

IceCream wrote:

WS has not made any additions at all for S23 yet even with one extra plane and the removal of the 12x weekly TATL ops from YYZ. So it could still be WS to YYC.

Announcement next Monday….new routes for the 787!

Wasn't Avianca's MDE/CLO-BCN announcement from last September the answer to the original question? There is even a link further up on the thread about it.

N1120A wrote:

Well, no, cause I don't think Tijuana nor Guadalajara has been served from BCN.

While these may be top cities within Mexico, I am not sure that neither counts as a global city as most of the region's capitals do.

Fuling wrote:

QF PER-BCN to complement the seasonal PER-FCO

A senior Qantas 787 pilot recently had a photo from BCN on their instagram. Likely means nothing of course…

dcajet wrote:

Wasn't Avianca's MDE/CLO-BCN announcement from last September the answer to the original question? There is even a link further up on the thread about it.

N1120A wrote:

Well, no, cause I don't think Tijuana nor Guadalajara has been served from BCN.

While these may be top cities within Mexico, I am not sure that neither counts as a global city as most of the region's capitals do.

Actually CLO/MDE was just Avianca requesting permits to operate those routes, never anything officially announced. Nonetheless, I've seen so many times permits being requested and then routes never being operated, I'll wait until I see an announcement before believing in those routes.

What about Fly Norse or LEVEL to FLL?

UA announced ORD-BCN a month ago or so, that may have been it

rjbesikof wrote:

I think it will be DFW-BCN on AA

I would assume AA would bring back CLT-BCN before starting a DFW flight.

aviator2000 wrote:

LAXdude1023 wrote:

DFWandOMA wrote:

Has this ever been figured out? Maybe AA for DFW-BCN?

It was ORD-BCN on UA.

It wasn't ORD because as per the description that was given the route has never been served before. AA has already been doing ORD for some years.

The way I read the announcement in my poor Spanish, it's the first time a specific airlines operates the route.

One possibility that has not been discussed is BCN-SJO on UX or IB (perhaps Level?). Costa Rica offers a lot to tourists, and there may be sufficient demand on the BCN side. People in Costa Rica have higher incomes than some others in Central America, so it's possible there is demand from CR to BCN for tourism as well.

cybergus wrote:

What about Fly Norse or LEVEL to FLL?

That's not a bad idea, though AA already flies BCN-MIA. People in Barcelona have a panoply of beach destinations available to them in the summer that are far more pleasant, and they also have the Canaries in the shoulder seasons. That would leave the winter. On the US side, I could see FLL-BCN working May-Sep when FLL becomes swelteringly hot. The city itself has been growing for some time, so offering more service to Europe might be wise.

Whiteguy wrote:

IceCream wrote:

WS has not made any additions at all for S23 yet even with one extra plane and the removal of the 12x weekly TATL ops from YYZ. So it could still be WS to YYC.

Announcement next Monday….new routes for the 787!

Norse Atlantic Airways? It would fit their business model and they have the 787

LV or AA BCN-CLT.

cybergus wrote:

What about Fly Norse or LEVEL to FLL?

IMO it is highly unlikely Norse sets a base in Barcelona anytime soon. They have hinted a few European destinations as new bases throughout their existence and Barcelona has never been one of them. Plus, FLL was already served by Norwegian from BCN in the past, so can't be it.

Jalap wrote:

aviator2000 wrote:

LAXdude1023 wrote:

It was ORD-BCN on UA.

It wasn't ORD because as per the description that was given the route has never been served before. AA has already been doing ORD for some years.

The way I read the announcement in my poor Spanish, it's the first time a specific airlines operates the route.

I see how this might be confusing but the account has specified in other occasions that this is indeed a destination that has NEVER before been served from Barcelona. This excludes, ORD, FLL, CLT and other suggestions I've seen in this thread.

Any idea when the announcement might be made?

Pm3207 wrote:

Any idea when the announcement might be made?

If it's indeed Westjet then it'll be tomorrow. Otherwise it would have to be within the next two weeks since the source said the announcement is expected to be made before year's end.

It's Westjet YYC-BCN starting in May 2023
https://twitter.com/SeanM1997/status/15 ... 8404036610

BA744PHX wrote:

It's Westjet YYC-BCN starting in May 2023
https://twitter.com/SeanM1997/status/15 ... 8404036610

Congrats to WestJet and Barcelona! Here's to profitability and long service on the route, and connecting to/two great cities! Here's to hoping to see more for/from Calgary to follow, in a profitable and great way.

Very happy for BCN! Not many European airports can boast service to Calgary!

If WestJet has their way, it'll be YYC to every airport on planet Earth at this rate

Barcelona is general is such a seasonal market it seems, with very few North American routes even operating year round.

I believe that AA/DL flies JFK year round, UA to EWR year round, and AA to MIA is all that the North American carriers fly year round to BCN. Along with LEVEL to BOS, LAX, and JFK.

Meanwhile, YUL, YYZ, YYC (upcoming on WestJet), PHL, IAD, ATL, and ORD (upcoming on UA) are seasonal.

Some routes may be seasonal, but I am suprised that a major tourist market like BCN can't make more year round North America work. AC, AA, DL, and UA aren't making all their routes year round. Is it a lack of demand, or a decision to focus on more premium markets? Gaining new air service is always a good thing, but it would be interesting to see more than just seasonal service.

3D101CA wrote:

Barcelona is general is such a seasonal market it seems, with very few North American routes even operating year round.

I believe that AA/DL flies JFK year round, UA to EWR year round, and AA to MIA is all that the North American carriers fly year round to BCN. Along with LEVEL to BOS, LAX, and JFK.

Meanwhile, YUL, YYZ, YYC (upcoming on WestJet), PHL, IAD, ATL, and ORD (upcoming on UA) are seasonal.

Some routes may be seasonal, but I am suprised that a major tourist market like BCN can't make more year round North America work. AC, AA, DL, and UA aren't making all their routes year round. Is it a lack of demand, or a decision to focus on more premium markets? Gaining new air service is always a good thing, but it would be interesting to see more than just seasonal service.

I do also wonder how having a strong IB (at MAD, and the group at BCN via Level/Vueling et al) affects things as well.
I mean, AA makes BCN work, with IB/IAG's help and decent O/D. I do wonder how fleet planning at IAG helps affects these flows and keeps an albeit potentially artificial, flows of traffic in operation (such as favoring assets/flows/connections at MAD et al). As neither DL (admittedly, Air Europa is a SkyTeam member - but AF/KLM offer well developed services to their hubs), nor UA have strong partners in Spain, I wonder how the arrival of A321NEO(X/LR) will allow DL and UA to make inroads (into not only BCN, but more of secondary Europe as a whole) on their own, or with partners in future.

3D101CA wrote:

Some routes may be seasonal, but I am suprised that a major tourist market like BCN can't make more year round North America work. AC, AA, DL, and UA aren't making all their routes year round. Is it a lack of demand, or a decision to focus on more premium markets? Gaining new air service is always a good thing, but it would be interesting to see more than just seasonal service.

BCN is currently my home airport, and my observation is a lack of demand in winter. While Barcelona has a reasonably mild winter, the coast of Catalonia isn't a sun-and-sand destination in the winter months and tourism and conference traffic (with the notable exception of the Mobile World Congress at the end of Feb) drops significantly from Dec - Mar. Contrast this with some days in summer when there can be as many as fourteen daily widebody departures for North America (4x AA, 2x UA, 2x DL, 2x AC, 3x Level(IB) and 1x EK) together with the odd Caribbean flight. Back in the summer of 2019 there were so many North America flights leaving around the same time that some airlines (AA if I recall correctly) were forced to use the B (Schengen) gates which have no exit immigration, so passengers were asked to have their passports stamped at a standalone booth in the corner of the terminal before boarding.

It's also surprising there aren't more flights to South America. With the exception of BOG which Avianca flies 10x weekly, the other destinations are less than daily - EZE (slightly less than daily when looked at a year-round basis), SCL (3x weekly), GRU (4x weekly). Both IB and TP pick up a lot of connecting traffic from South America to/from BCN which probably has an impact on the viability of long haul routes.

I feel like people in this thread are overestimating barcelona a bit. Despite being amongst Europe's 10 busiest airports, bcn has gained most of its intercontinental flights in the past decade (in the 00s, BCN only had about 4 transatlantic flights). As such its not weird that it only holds JFK, EWR, MIA, LAX, MEX and BOS as year-round flights.

I do however believe its a matter of time before some of this routes start becoming less seasonal. Before covid, Air Transat extended its YYZ flight untill January in 2019, and American was planning on extending ORD until November in 2020 (which didn't happen for obvious reasons). Everything will come in due time.

guillermohs wrote:

With Japan announcing the re-opening of borders to massive tourism, a much-awaited Tokyo-Barcelona route could be on the table.

JL also has the JL-IB partnership to support JL BCN-NRT nonstop service. There would also be some connecting opportunities available onto YW flights out of BCN from NRT if JL BCN-NRT nonstop service is added.

Had a few thoughts:

Is BCN-JFK that dominant for the US? Right now there are 3 daily flights (AA + LV + DL) and I believe this is consistent year round. Outside of JFK the only 2 cities with daily BCN flights are EWR and MIA.

I’m a bit surprised AA doesn’t fly PHL-BCN year round. I’m assuming they’re sending connections via JFK (and B6 if needed)? DL doesn’t have an equivalent to PHL/EWR on the east coast so JFK is their best option.

voxkel wrote:

Had a few thoughts:

Is BCN-JFK that dominant for the US? Right now there are 3 daily flights (AA + LV + DL) and I believe this is consistent year round. Outside of JFK the only 2 cities with daily BCN flights are EWR and MIA.

I’m a bit surprised AA doesn’t fly PHL-BCN year round. I’m assuming they’re sending connections via JFK (and B6 if needed)? DL doesn’t have an equivalent to PHL/EWR on the east coast so JFK is their best option.

A large chunk of AA's traffic from Barcelona comes from cruises. The cruise season starts in late-march and ends in late-october, which is also when most US flights operate (ATL, PHL...)

NYC is the city in the US with the highest tourism and international demand and Miami and Spain have lots of ties, hence why they are operated daily and year-round. Atlanta had also been operated year-round in the past, so I wonder if that might come back.

voxkel wrote:

Had a few thoughts:

Is BCN-JFK that dominant for the US? Right now there are 3 daily flights (AA + LV + DL) and I believe this is consistent year round. Outside of JFK the only 2 cities with daily BCN flights are EWR and MIA.

I’m a bit surprised AA doesn’t fly PHL-BCN year round. I’m assuming they’re sending connections via JFK (and B6 if needed)? DL doesn’t have an equivalent to PHL/EWR on the east coast so JFK is their best option.

If memory serves me right, pre-Covid when AA still had its A330s and B767s, PHL-BCN extended through December and returned in early March so the season was cut only for Jan-Feb.

Apparently the same Twitter account is reporting a new long haul route.

https://twitter.com/AeroinfoBCN/status/1602314094178091008?s=20&t=lFqmED4bWIakeK78bPjH_w

Your thoughts?

Still waiting for that announcement of BOS-BCN on DL that’s been talked about a lot in both BOS and BCN for a while now.

AviationScorpio wrote:

Still waiting for that announcement of BOS-BCN on DL that’s been talked about a lot in both BOS and BCN for a while now.

Not sure how it would do tho as LEVEL already flies there.. Maybe DL would drive LEVEL out of the route? Not sure really if this route can have 2 carriers

It’s supposed to be a seasonal route, perhaps in high season it can either handle 2 carriers, or as you said it could drive Level away.

AviationScorpio wrote:

It’s supposed to be a seasonal route, perhaps in high season it can either handle 2 carriers, or as you said it could drive Level away.

How you got any idea on how many weekly flights it would operate?

aviator2000 wrote:

AviationScorpio wrote:

It’s supposed to be a seasonal route, perhaps in high season it can either handle 2 carriers, or as you said it could drive Level away.

How you got any idea on how many weekly flights it would operate?

I dont know the answer but DL did start ATH and TLV at 3/4x weekly ex-BOS last summer.

LEVEL to base a 5th A330 in Barcelona, and expects to launch new route out from BCN.

https://twitter.com/AeroinfoBCN/status/1605611728787542016?s=20&t=N1V4yMfawBL3MOd1ws2BNA

nascar1 wrote:

LEVEL to base a 5th A330 in Barcelona, and expects to launch new route out from BCN.

https://twitter.com/AeroinfoBCN/status/1605611728787542016?s=20&t=N1V4yMfawBL3MOd1ws2BNA

Maybe you are referencing another source, but the the tweet quoted does not mention the launching of a new route but adding capacity to their American routes (meaning N&S America, not just the US).

Very good news to see LEVEL grow again. They had remained stagnated ever since the pandemic began. For instance San Francisco SFO only operates during the summer months and SCL only operates during the winter months bc they dont have enough aircraft ATM.

I believe the new aircraft will help solve this problem, although I don't know if there will really be any new routes added