Boxtruffles

Cleveland air travel enters the Iceland age; Wow Air launches this week, Icelandair to follow ~~~ CLEVELAND, Ohio - It's been nearly 10 years since a commercial passenger airline last flew across the Atlantic Ocean to and from Cleveland. That changes this week, as air travel in Northeast Ohio enters the Iceland age, with two Reykjavik-based airlines set to start service from Cleveland. First up is Wow Air , with its signature bright purple airplanes and super-low fares, due to land in Cleveland for the first time at 11:30 p.m. Thursday. It will turn around and fly its maiden voyage from Cleveland Hopkins an hour later, departing at 12:30 a.m. Friday. Less than two weeks later, on May 16, Icelandair launches service from Cleveland, with five flights per week to Keflavik International Airport, about 30 miles west of Reykjavik. ~~~ Frequent flyer Ingrida Bublys, president of Cleveland's International Business Network, is among those who are eager to connect through Reykjavik instead. "I think it will be more enjoyable, more relaxed," she said, noting that going through Cleveland's recently renovated U.S. Customs facility should be far less stressful than the bigger airports. Her organization recently invited executives from Icelandair to make a pitch to local business leaders with European ties, an event that filled the ballroom at the Embassy Suites hotel in Independence last week. Bublys encouraged the crowd: "Everyone in this room should try Icelandair at some point.".... https://www.google.com/amp/s/articles.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2018/04/cleveland_air_travel_enters_th.amp

Yes, that is correct. T-minus 2 weeks until WOW Air’s inaugural!

I know this was a while ago but they confirmed that it will be primarily 737MAX with occasional 757 or even 767s, likely during the winter schedule which is already including 757s.

Absolutely! Don't forget that we are only 6 days from two more Frontier red eyes from SEA and PDX, some of Cleveland's most underserved markets...Despite seasonal service from Frontier to the Pacific Northwest, Alaska or Delta to SEA year-round is what we've really been waiting for! Here's a recent shot of an American A319 from CLT reflecting the runway markings...this route has been seeing more upgrades to A320s and even the occasional A321 recently. Update: The 10pm arrival from CLT is being operated on only their 150-seat A320 for the foreseeable future (versus their 128-seat A319).

As of now, United operates 4 E145XRs and a mainline 737. About 330-360 daily seats. With that expansion we would see a number around 492-582 seats per day. Pretty healthy growth! I’m guessing the 6th flight would be a 10:00 am arrival.

More expansion by United... :-\ #stillafocuscity Starting June 1st: A second daily flight from LAX and from SFO, both red eyes, in addition to their existing evening arrivals from Los Angeles and San Francisco. Frontier and Spirit already fly redeyes from LAS and LAX, respectively. Starting in November: United increases service to Houston (IAH) from 5x daily to 6x daily while adding a second Saturday flight to MCO.

Definitely, and since Frontier cut CLT and PHL, American’s prices are ridiculous—often $500 to $600—to their nearby hubs from CLE (Other than Chicago, which has healthy competition from United and Southwest).

After SWA pushed United to drop CLE-STL, their fares are still in the $100-$300 range. It’s worse on the routes where a budget airline cuts a route, leaving the legacy carrier (American, I’m looking at you) free to overprice

Another UAX route stolen by Southwest...not necessarily bad, and Allegiant is increasing operations seasonally in May, going from 2 to 4 weekly flights CLE-SAV and from 2 to 3 weekly for CLE-PIE and CLE-AUS.

Icelandair is 5x weekly with the 737MAX and 4x weekly in the winter with the 757-200, while WOW Air is seasonal and operates 4 weekly flights from May 4 through October 26

Not possible. They are offering year round flights. Only says seasonal because the number of flights per week is reduced. Those flights, even in the winter, will be crucial for business travel to Europe.

Just inspected closely and it seems that it will cover the whole Fifth Third Tower except for the top of its antennae/spires!

Plus one of the country's biggest St. Patrick's Day parties

I'll never understand the airlines. The low-cost carriers, that is.

Were they ExpressJet? ExpressJet has a maintenance facility at CLE and they regularly ferry planes in and out. No, neither was...one was a Delta CRJ7 from PIT (probably diverted last night) and a mainline United 737 from SAV. As far as I know, United has seasonal service there but this is unrelated.

^ CLE-SLC will also be year-round, and I believe the inaugural flight is July 8 to CLE. Each flight arrives at 10:50pm and departs 8:30 the next morning. Oh,and the prices aren’t crazy-expensive.

Updated master plan in the works as well. May include plans for terminal expansion to the south and further renovations on the customs facility. http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2018/02/cleveland_hopkins_to_update_ma.html

Another way in which CLE will have “record growth” in 2018 is the aircraft that airlines, namely American, Delta, and United, are using. Frontier has been using only their 230 seat A321s on all routes, an upgrade over A319s and 320s. The legacy carriers have also upgraded many flights from CRJ2s (50 seats) to E170s (70 seats), E175s (75 seats) to E190s (100 seats), and 717s (110 seats) to A319/A320s (126-160 seats), while maintaining the same number of daily flights. Small equipment upgrades will add up this year. And the new transatlantic destination(s) will add to all of this, and will certainly attract those who would rather not endure the transport nightmare of New York airports, and would rather connect in Europe.

Yeah, the 50-seat ExpressJet ERJ-145s wil most likely be the aircraft operating this route.

No more major visible progress as of yesterday...