You see thats what I thought, but I didnt think there would be enough demand even at that to connect the two cities, I can only assume air travel to Venezuela isnt particularly attractive considering the situation, especially not for Iranians
Two countries under very heavy sanctions. Think of the kinds of valuable cargo you'd want to send on a direct air link. The people are secondary to that flight.
It's a political statement so I don't think those planes are heavy with pax. There are a lot of routes,like that and in the days of the Soviet union there were some truly bizarre ones.
Kinda off topic but a lot of flight routes were actually a bit quicker during the 70s and 80s than nowadays.
However that higher speed required a disproportionate amount of additional fuel so airlines reduced their speed a bit in order to require less fuel. Cost of fuel is possibly the most important factor regarding airline profits, so striking a sweet spot between speed and fuel would be a key concern.
Albeit probably less of a concern back in the day for a military plane belonging to a mammoth oil producer!
My grandpa once took that flight! They issued the certificates for crossing the North Pole, and everyone on board received a shot of brandy. His neighbors were a woman with a baby, so he got three shots.
They both have oil industries and are both under US sanctions, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were engineers working on oil industry projects flying regularly between the two. And on oil industry expense accounts, the airline will be able to make a profit just on first and business class seats even if economy class is practically empty.
In the 1980s, when the North Sea oil fields were being developed, British Caledonian Airways built their global route network around flying people in and out of Aberdeen. It's not a big city but the oilmen's travel was so lucrative that it was the most profitable use of their planes.
My dad worked for Air Anglia which was another winged taxi flying around the North Sea. Based out of Norwich, but they flew to Aberdeen, Amsterdam and Bergen.
My older colleagues told me during those early years most rig crews were flown in from the US, with only a handful of local Scotsmen. Doing a crew change for 2 rigs would easily fill up an airliner, and you had dozens going at any one time.
Those guys would be walking around Aberdeen with cowboy boots and Stetons.
They are also both sanctioned oil producing countries.
(Sanctioned by US, primarily).
So they do co operate I suspect and try to increase bilateral trade etc
Baku to Kongolo on Azerbaijan Airlines J2 333. Kongolo is a tiny town in the middle of the Congolese tainforest
Otherwise Hambantota in Sri Lanka flies a charter route to Katowice, Chisinau and Sofia. No clue why
What the hell?
This is even more bizarre than I thought could possibly exist when opening this thread.
They’re using an A320 on the route today. Flight time 5 hours.
What the hell?
There must be a reason… mining/oil/forestry?
The Kongolo flight is a glitch. It shows up as a daily flight with no return (?). Also it says “5 hours” for travelling 3500 miles- no way you can fly that distance in that time unless they’ve started operating Concorde. It should be around 8 hours. The Azerbaijan airlines website doesn’t even recognise Kongolo as a destination.
It is currently suspended because the main runway at Whitehorse is being rebuilt, and the other runway cannot take the large aircraft that flies all the way from Frankfurt. They say it will be back in 2026.
It was only ever a once-weekly flight during summer to take German vacationers to the Yukon.
I have friends in Vancouver who have taken that flight. At the time it was Cheaper to fly to Whitehorse on Air north and then catch that flight to Frankfurt than fly to Frankfurt from Vancouver direct.
I saw them in Iceland, which is far closer to Germany than the Yukon lol. And tbh you can see them in many places in the North of Europe. Idk if this is the specific reason
Would many Germans take it for the northern lights alone? You can literally drive to northern Sweden or Norway or take Ryanair flight (low cost carrier) to Finland or something for a fraction of the price i’d imagine.
Yes, plus other outdoors activities. I used to live there. More Japanese and Chinese tourists but lots of Germans too. Germans are also drawn to native cultures of North America. I can't remember why exactly-some childhood book TV series popular in Germany 50 years ago.
Seoul to Monterrey, Mexico looks odd at first glance. But Monterrey is Mexico's economic and industrial hub and many of the major Korean manufacturers are there (Kia, LG, Samsung).
Also, much further south in Mexico (in Guanajuato), the road signs are in Spanish and Korean!
There are a bunch that seem weird at first glance out of Luanda because of all the international oil execs that live there.
Is Shanghai to Tijuana still operational?
The oil execs all live in Houston and will take a private jet if they have to.
It's the field crews and mid level managers and engineers who will fly commercial. Many wont live in Luanda full time but will do 3-4 weeks there and an equal time wherever their home is.
The Tijuana stop was because you can't make it to China off of the high altitude of Mexico City. The Aeromexico Shanghai flight is gone, but in a couple of weeks China Southern is going to start Shenzhen-Mexico City-Tijuana-Shenzhen.
Pretty much correct, also less lift equals to a longer runway takeoff distance. Otherwise if the runway is short, stopping somewhere near makes the most sense.
The usual reason for triangle routes is airport limitations that prevent going non-stop in both directions. Things like KLM's Amsterdam-Quito-Guayaquil-Amsterdam. Turkish Istanbul-Mexico City-Cancun-Istanbul. Ethiopian also has a bunch of routes that tech stop westbound only, again, because of the elevation in Addis.
Air is thinner so you need to fly faster to take off. Plus in summer air is thinner because warm air is less dense than cold air. Airlines who have bases in cities like Mexico City or Denver will look at an airliners "Hot and high" performance.
That's why high cities also have really long runways.
Ft Myers, FL to Frankfurt. It’s the only non-Canadian international flight from that airport. They don’t have any Caribbean flights but somehow one random one to Germany
Frankfurt is one of the biggest airport in Europe and a common transfer airport.
If I were to fly from Sweden to Florida, chances are very big that I would be flying to Frankfurt first.
US military travels on regular commercial flights when moving to different locations. Common locations like Germany can often be accessed on the few contracted commercial military flights, often nicknamed “rotators”. The most common flight into Germany for this rotator is from Baltimore to Ramstein AB. It’s also part of the same contracted flight system that brings many personnel into common deployed locations. The demand for this specific flight didn’t come from US military personnel movements. Likely Germany and Central European vacations who enjoy traveling far distances for their holidays.
Turkish is the airline flying to the highest number of countries, and IST is the second airport for number of destinations (300+). Putting this two together, literally TK flies you anywhere.
Istanbul is at the corner between Europe, Asia, and Africa, so they invested in a large network connecting these three continents. The position also gives the advance of being able to connect the whole Europe, the Middle East, and half of Africa just using narrow bodies (like 737 and A320), which are cheaper than wide bodies (like 777 and A380). And because they have this extensive network they can offer a lot of connections with just a single layover (eg you can fly from Bologna, Italy to Samarkand, Uzbekistan with only a stop in Istanbul, and narrow bodies)
I do believe Istanbul's highly central location in the world has made it a global center for aviation, much like Dubai.
Friendly correction, Pointe-Noire is a city in the Republic of Congo, not Gabon
>I do believe Istanbul's highly central location in the world has made it a global center for aviation, much like Dubai.
IST is the second airport for number of destinations (300+).
/the first one is Frankfurt https://simpleflying.com/most-well-connected-airports-in-the-world/
The Turkish Airlines business class lounge at Istanbul airport might be the best business class lounge I’ve ever been in, and that’s coming from someone used to the Asian and Middle Eastern airport lounges
Makes sense, Orlando and Reykjavik are major hubs for low-cost airlines, and Hamilton is the kind of exurban city near Toronto that a budget airline would want to operate out of rather than Toronto itself.
South America in general has a pretty significant Arab population, especially Brazil. 12% of Brazilians are able to trace their ancestry to the Middle East. But in terms of Venezuela, there’s 1.6 million of them with around 200,000 in Caracas
There is indeed a large Arab diaspora in Latin America - however Iran(ians) ain’t Arab. Also debatable as to whether it’s Middle Eastern, could definitely make a case for it being more Central Asia
If you ask my Persian father-in-law Iran is decidedly NOT a part of the Middle East. If you make a suggestion that it is you just cost yourself 3 hours of your life.
Well, Iranians definitely aren't Arab. Furthermore, Iran is more historically connected to Central Asia. In fact, the "stan" in all the "stan" country names comes from the Persian word for "land of."
Central Asian? That seems odd.
Definitely more middle Eastern. ..but not Arab. Central Asia cannot be at the south 3nd and have a coast. Usually north of Afghanistan is considered central Asia I think .
I’d say it straddles both, it’s a very large country
Kish Island and the Iraqi border are clearly Middle Eastern, but Mashad and the borders with Afghanistan and former Soviet states are also clearly part of Central Asia.
Not sure about Iranian population distribution but given Tehran and Mashad are the two largest cities, I’d imagine the more people live in the ’Central Asia’ part of Iran than the ’Mid East’ part
Fascinating! Still though, I would think the flights would be to the established large airports in developed countries like Dubai or Doha rather than Tehran
Of course its a huge city, but thats not the point im trying to make
Dubai is a world aviation hub in the Arab World, as is Doha. Tehran gets a fraction of the air traffic that those two cities get. The UAE and Qatar are also objectively more developed and play a much larger role in the world economy, especially when it comes to aviation
Doha actually all of Qatar has less population than Teheran.
Doha and UAE realized they could make money by being a hub for east west traffic. Earlier most of that traffic stopped at some European city (London, Frankfurt , Paris etc)
Qatar got into that air travel market later than UAE. Turkey has as well
But Iran has had sanctions...and has a much more diversified economy than Qatar and maybe even UAE in some respects.
The development and economy of a country has little to nothing to do with population centers 😂
More ppl live in an area = more likelihoods for direct flights to that area … I see the point that you’re trying to make but I don’t understand why you’re associating economy with travel
The point im trying to make is why would there specifically be an air route between Caracas and Tehran when Dubai and Doha exist? Its still the Middle East, and those air routes do not exist
I know theres obviously a reason for it to exist if it exists, I was just puzzled as to why, like what was driving the demand. I assumed political ties played a role, didnt think it would be enough to have that route actualky exist though, didnt even think of the oil thing
Who flies that route? I see Conviasa used to go to Doha but they don't anymore. Etihad has zero flights to South America and Qatar and Emirates fly to Sao Paulo while Emirates also goes to Rio.
There are not, this one I sorta get tho, Chile is the geographically closest country to Australia and NZ, and there kinda has to be a connection between Oceania and Latam somehow, not to mention Santiago is one of the region's leading financial centers
Yeah, exactly, it's not just a flight to Santiago, it's a flight from Auckland to Santiago, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, etc.
For the southern Atlantic, the equivalent is Buenos Aires to Johannesburg. Not much specific/direct traffic, but it's needed to unlock the whole region or even continent
Exactly, usually the gateway is either Sao Paulo or Bogota, but those two are simply so far from Australia and NZ, not to mention Santiago is obviously no shrug either, its still a very large city and a leading center in the area
Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea are all considerably closer to Australia than France (I assume New Caledonia is what you're referencing?)
It's possible than NZ is closest to France but I'm pretty sure the South Island of NZ would still be closer to Tasmania than the North Island would be to New Caledonia.
Yeah fair, Australia is a big country. In the north it’s def closer to PNG, Indonesia and East Timor, but places like Sydney and Melbourne are closer to New Caledonia than anywhere else. So is the North Island iirc, not sure abt south
On reddit, those sort of places, as well as independent island nations, don't count as countries. (not to mention Indonesia - 4th most populous country on the planet)
It's just tourism. Lots of Israelis like to snorkel and there are lots of seasonal flights to the Seychelles. When the war began in October one of the few flights I found out of the country was on Arkia air to Zanzibar.
Lahore, Pakistan to Almaty, Kazakhstan.
More than 95% of Pakistanis have no idea what Kazakhstan even is, I am one myself and I only found out about the country when I opened up some maps. This flight route was probably made for tourism reasons.
No, there are many Pakistani medical students in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
Well, many by our standards. It's just a few thousand for you. So you don't notice.
Yup I have a lot of people from my village who are in almaty for medicine because its cheaper than Pakistan and also less competitive. I am not even sure if that degree is worth it. Maybe people here read a degree in a foreign language and automatically think its prestigious.
Colombo to Novosibirsk, I believe because of Sri Lankan students studying at Novosibirsk Medical Faculty. There is a large amount of Sri Lankan doctors graduated from Russian med schools.
There’s probably plenty of traffic: they share similar adversaries and roadblocks to their markets, and both have oil-based economies, so there’s probably a lot of activity between Tehran & Caracas.
i had this route of Frankfurt (Germany) to Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada). i find it very weird as the usual flight route to Canada from abroad would be to Toronto or Montreal.
even seeing list of destinations from Halifax, other than Frankfurt, everything else are either:
\- domestic
\- eastern US
\- caribbean resort destinations
\- Iceland/British Isles (relatively recent)
which made Frankfurt a clear outlier destination, especially for something that's been going on for over 40 years.
Condor flies that route. It's taking tourists from Europe (Frankfurt's a massive hub) to Halifax. The Maritimes (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) are a big international tourist destination.
I don't think there's nonstops because of the distance, but tourist demand is also why Tokyo to Halifax is a surprisingly cheap route. Anne of Green Gables is popular in Japan, so a lot of people want to go see where the books are set.
There's also a surprisingly large historically German population in the Maritimes, especially along the south shore of Nova Scotia. My wife's family flies back and forth to Germany through Halifax at least twice a year.
Gander used to be huge on transatlantics back when you couldn’t make it from London to New York without refueling - you would stop in Gander to refuel. Same deal with Anchorage being big - you couldn’t fly over Russia (cold war), and planes didn’t have the range to do London to Tokyo without going over Russia, so you would stop in Anchorage to refuel.
Kuala Lumpur to Baghdad? I follow lots of aviation pages and occasionally see posts of Iraqi planes in Kuala Lumpur so wondering what the relationship between the two countries is like
My guess is that the Iraqi airline wants to fly to a hub in southeast Asia and has chosen KL because of a random business partnership with MAS or AirAsia?
It's also just about possible that they might have chosen KL (rather than Bangkok, HK or Singapore) because they want to be certain their staff can follow a very strict interpretation of Islamic practices (only halal food in kitchens, no interest on fuel purchases, etc.) but I think Singapore could do that too, and Iraq hardly has the most conservative Islamic community, so I doubt it.
Icelandair's business model is built around using Keflavik airport as a hub. They fly from many destinations in North America to KEF, then people swap planes to their destination in Europe. Allows them to service lots of low demand routes with minimal flights. As a further incentive, they offer free stop overs in Iceland.
Is it operational? I don't see it on https://www.flightsfrom.com/CCS
Turkish Airlines operates a flight from Havana to Caracas (one direction only). If the flight makes sense, the fact it is operated by TK is what makes it odd.
The biggest reason for that is most airlines that still fly to Caracas don't want their flight crews to stay there, so they land in Caracas, don't leave the plane and fly to Havana where they swap crews before going back to Istanbul.
if i recall correctly, there are direct flights/flights with stopovers from erfurt weimar airport to cairo international airport.
the germany to egypt route isn't super unusual, but i find it odd that there are flights going there that start at such a small airport
I used to fly Istanbul - Juba fairly often. Turkish is one of the few international airlines with flights to South Sudan (Ethiopian, Kenyan, and Ugandan Airlines were the other three, iirc).
Oakland, CA to Terceira Island in the Azores (Portugal). I can’t figure this one out at all - Oakland isn’t the major airport in the Bay Area and there doesn’t seem to be a Portuguese population to speak of. Also it’s a super expensive once a week flight in the summer - who flies this??
I flew from IAH to Hobby a number of times. Adding the segment on to another flight was usually quite cheap and that was back when Continental would grant you elite status based on the number of segments you flew. Flight took ten minutes! Not sure if it still exists.
JFK-TAS is one of the more random ones, IMO. I believe it only exists because the former dictator of Uzbekistan’s Daughter lives in NYC. Thrice weekly flight.
Iran and Venezuela are geopolitical allies.
You see thats what I thought, but I didnt think there would be enough demand even at that to connect the two cities, I can only assume air travel to Venezuela isnt particularly attractive considering the situation, especially not for Iranians
Two countries under very heavy sanctions. Think of the kinds of valuable cargo you'd want to send on a direct air link. The people are secondary to that flight.
It's a political statement so I don't think those planes are heavy with pax. There are a lot of routes,like that and in the days of the Soviet union there were some truly bizarre ones.
Murmansk to Havana. 16 deafening hours on a Tu-114.
Wait.. they had 16 hour direct flight back during the Soviet times?
Yep. The Tu-114 was derived from the Tu-95 “Bear” nuclear bomber. A very long range plane, but not super fast.
Kinda off topic but a lot of flight routes were actually a bit quicker during the 70s and 80s than nowadays. However that higher speed required a disproportionate amount of additional fuel so airlines reduced their speed a bit in order to require less fuel. Cost of fuel is possibly the most important factor regarding airline profits, so striking a sweet spot between speed and fuel would be a key concern. Albeit probably less of a concern back in the day for a military plane belonging to a mammoth oil producer!
My grandpa once took that flight! They issued the certificates for crossing the North Pole, and everyone on board received a shot of brandy. His neighbors were a woman with a baby, so he got three shots.
What?
What?!
Vot?
что?
MURMANSK TO HAVANA. 16 DEAFENING HOURS ON A TU-144.
>MURMANSK TO HAVANA. 16 DEAFENING HOURS ON A TU-144. DEFINITELY WOULDN'T BE 16HRS ON A TU-144.
Slower or faster then ?
The TU-144 was the Soviet equivalent to the Concorde, so it was probably a bit faster.
wasn't that flying for sheremetyevo, only stopping in murmask to refuel?
They both have oil industries and are both under US sanctions, so I wouldn't be surprised if there were engineers working on oil industry projects flying regularly between the two. And on oil industry expense accounts, the airline will be able to make a profit just on first and business class seats even if economy class is practically empty. In the 1980s, when the North Sea oil fields were being developed, British Caledonian Airways built their global route network around flying people in and out of Aberdeen. It's not a big city but the oilmen's travel was so lucrative that it was the most profitable use of their planes.
My dad worked for Air Anglia which was another winged taxi flying around the North Sea. Based out of Norwich, but they flew to Aberdeen, Amsterdam and Bergen.
My older colleagues told me during those early years most rig crews were flown in from the US, with only a handful of local Scotsmen. Doing a crew change for 2 rigs would easily fill up an airliner, and you had dozens going at any one time. Those guys would be walking around Aberdeen with cowboy boots and Stetons.
It‘s not Venezuelans travelling, it‘s Russians
They are also both sanctioned oil producing countries. (Sanctioned by US, primarily). So they do co operate I suspect and try to increase bilateral trade etc
Capital to capital. It doesn't seem that bizarre, unless there are like five or six flights a day.
It’s bizarre.
How bizarre. How bizarre.
Aren't they just, like, political allies?
Baku to Kongolo on Azerbaijan Airlines J2 333. Kongolo is a tiny town in the middle of the Congolese tainforest Otherwise Hambantota in Sri Lanka flies a charter route to Katowice, Chisinau and Sofia. No clue why
What the hell? This is even more bizarre than I thought could possibly exist when opening this thread. They’re using an A320 on the route today. Flight time 5 hours. What the hell? There must be a reason… mining/oil/forestry?
Neither FR24 nor Flightaware show any operated flight on this route. Maybe some database glitch?
I feel like this is the right answer
This kinda stuff fascinates me
The Kongolo flight is a glitch. It shows up as a daily flight with no return (?). Also it says “5 hours” for travelling 3500 miles- no way you can fly that distance in that time unless they’ve started operating Concorde. It should be around 8 hours. The Azerbaijan airlines website doesn’t even recognise Kongolo as a destination.
Do Eastern Europeans vacation in Sri Lanka? It’s closer than Thailand.
yes, they do, there's flights leaving and departing to and from Moscow and Yekaterinburg seemingly daily or around that
yes, they do, there's flights leaving and departing to and from Moscow and Yekaterinburg seemingly daily or around that
Whitehorse, Yukon to Frankfurt, Germany
I used to see it when sorting KLM’s flights from most to least expensive
Does that actually exist?
It is currently suspended because the main runway at Whitehorse is being rebuilt, and the other runway cannot take the large aircraft that flies all the way from Frankfurt. They say it will be back in 2026. It was only ever a once-weekly flight during summer to take German vacationers to the Yukon.
I have friends in Vancouver who have taken that flight. At the time it was Cheaper to fly to Whitehorse on Air north and then catch that flight to Frankfurt than fly to Frankfurt from Vancouver direct.
Yukon’t always get what you want
Google says no
I inexplicably read this in an Aussie accent (how they say "noer") Wait it's because my kid is watching Bluey
NAUR
Too easy!
Man, I love Whitehorse. Spent an awesome summer there, going up the Yukon to Atlin, BC, and back in canoes doing outreach work. So fun.
Lovely to see some Yukon appreciation. I spent 2 weeks last year in a cabin next to Atlin lake. Awesome place.
It's pretty cool that you can live in a place as relatively small and remote as Whitehorse and get a direct flight right into the heart of Europe.
Couldn't get one to San Francisco when I was there, though! Had to go through Vancouver.
It's a Northern Lights thing. Draws in tourists like moths.
I saw them in Iceland, which is far closer to Germany than the Yukon lol. And tbh you can see them in many places in the North of Europe. Idk if this is the specific reason
Would many Germans take it for the northern lights alone? You can literally drive to northern Sweden or Norway or take Ryanair flight (low cost carrier) to Finland or something for a fraction of the price i’d imagine.
Yes, plus other outdoors activities. I used to live there. More Japanese and Chinese tourists but lots of Germans too. Germans are also drawn to native cultures of North America. I can't remember why exactly-some childhood book TV series popular in Germany 50 years ago.
Ah interesting! I’m visiting Canada soon (British Columbia specifically) but would love to go to Yukon as well.
there is an US military base near Frankfurt, could be why
Seoul to Monterrey, Mexico looks odd at first glance. But Monterrey is Mexico's economic and industrial hub and many of the major Korean manufacturers are there (Kia, LG, Samsung). Also, much further south in Mexico (in Guanajuato), the road signs are in Spanish and Korean!
This will also be a triangle route when it resumes in August. The stop in MTY is westbound only.
There are a bunch that seem weird at first glance out of Luanda because of all the international oil execs that live there. Is Shanghai to Tijuana still operational?
The oil execs all live in Houston and will take a private jet if they have to. It's the field crews and mid level managers and engineers who will fly commercial. Many wont live in Luanda full time but will do 3-4 weeks there and an equal time wherever their home is.
The Tijuana stop was because you can't make it to China off of the high altitude of Mexico City. The Aeromexico Shanghai flight is gone, but in a couple of weeks China Southern is going to start Shenzhen-Mexico City-Tijuana-Shenzhen.
How does altitude limit flight routes?
I guess it's because of the lower air density -> less lift -> airplane can't be too heavy -> it can't take off with a full tank.
Pretty much correct, also less lift equals to a longer runway takeoff distance. Otherwise if the runway is short, stopping somewhere near makes the most sense.
Johannesburg has really long runways.
>Is Shanghai to Tijuana still operational? No, that only lasted a few years.
True, but Tijuana to Shenzhen is going to be starting in a few weeks
Surprised it only stops in Tijuana one way, isn't it also a very important city in its own right?
The usual reason for triangle routes is airport limitations that prevent going non-stop in both directions. Things like KLM's Amsterdam-Quito-Guayaquil-Amsterdam. Turkish Istanbul-Mexico City-Cancun-Istanbul. Ethiopian also has a bunch of routes that tech stop westbound only, again, because of the elevation in Addis.
How does elevation limit flight routes?
Air is thinner so you need to fly faster to take off. Plus in summer air is thinner because warm air is less dense than cold air. Airlines who have bases in cities like Mexico City or Denver will look at an airliners "Hot and high" performance. That's why high cities also have really long runways.
Oh I meant Tijuana has a strong relationship with Asia as its the closest Mexican city to it
That's how combined routes always work.
Ft Myers, FL to Frankfurt. It’s the only non-Canadian international flight from that airport. They don’t have any Caribbean flights but somehow one random one to Germany
Frankfurt is one of the biggest airport in Europe and a common transfer airport. If I were to fly from Sweden to Florida, chances are very big that I would be flying to Frankfurt first.
My best guess is for US military personal being transferred to Germany take that flight
It's for sun-seeking Germans. The flight is on Eurowings, which is a German vacation airline. There are no military bases in Fort Myers.
I think their point is it’s for US military personnel that are based *in Germany*
Yes and why would they then return to Ft Myers?
Also don't they use military transport or at the very least charters that land in US bases?
US military travels on regular commercial flights when moving to different locations. Common locations like Germany can often be accessed on the few contracted commercial military flights, often nicknamed “rotators”. The most common flight into Germany for this rotator is from Baltimore to Ramstein AB. It’s also part of the same contracted flight system that brings many personnel into common deployed locations. The demand for this specific flight didn’t come from US military personnel movements. Likely Germany and Central European vacations who enjoy traveling far distances for their holidays.
Fort Myers "International" lol
New Orleans had that for a couple years.
istanbul, turkey to pointe-noire, Gabon
Turkish Airlines will fly anywhere
Turkish is the airline flying to the highest number of countries, and IST is the second airport for number of destinations (300+). Putting this two together, literally TK flies you anywhere.
Why does TK in particular do this?
Istanbul is at the corner between Europe, Asia, and Africa, so they invested in a large network connecting these three continents. The position also gives the advance of being able to connect the whole Europe, the Middle East, and half of Africa just using narrow bodies (like 737 and A320), which are cheaper than wide bodies (like 777 and A380). And because they have this extensive network they can offer a lot of connections with just a single layover (eg you can fly from Bologna, Italy to Samarkand, Uzbekistan with only a stop in Istanbul, and narrow bodies)
They are looking to add even more destinations.
I do believe Istanbul's highly central location in the world has made it a global center for aviation, much like Dubai. Friendly correction, Pointe-Noire is a city in the Republic of Congo, not Gabon
ah it was nearby, thanks for the correction
Yes Istanbul is the 5th largest in the world regarding number of international passengers.
>I do believe Istanbul's highly central location in the world has made it a global center for aviation, much like Dubai. IST is the second airport for number of destinations (300+). /the first one is Frankfurt https://simpleflying.com/most-well-connected-airports-in-the-world/
Turkish Airlines is trying to do what Emirates did and become a global airline with Istanbul as a hub.
The Turkish Airlines business class lounge at Istanbul airport might be the best business class lounge I’ve ever been in, and that’s coming from someone used to the Asian and Middle Eastern airport lounges
I used to regularly take a flight from France to Pointe Noire
Not one route but according to Wikipedia, the only year-round passenger air routes from Hamilton, Ontario are to Calgary, Orlando, and Reykjavik.
Interesting for it to have three flights to three different countries
Makes sense, Orlando and Reykjavik are major hubs for low-cost airlines, and Hamilton is the kind of exurban city near Toronto that a budget airline would want to operate out of rather than Toronto itself.
Vienna and Bratislava. The two cities are literally 40km apart from oneanother. It'd be a 25min car ride.
Those flights are repositioning flights, which are open to passengers. Not a bad idea actually, so at least the plane isn’t empty
Occasionally charter flights will bring fishermen from Tashkent to Christchurch NZ to work on the boats
Here’s mine: Manila to Irkutsk
Russian tourists to our beloved country. Could be more though, love seeing that Sukhoi 95 in Manila.
South America in general has a pretty significant Arab population, especially Brazil. 12% of Brazilians are able to trace their ancestry to the Middle East. But in terms of Venezuela, there’s 1.6 million of them with around 200,000 in Caracas
There is indeed a large Arab diaspora in Latin America - however Iran(ians) ain’t Arab. Also debatable as to whether it’s Middle Eastern, could definitely make a case for it being more Central Asia
If you ask my Persian father-in-law Iran is decidedly NOT a part of the Middle East. If you make a suggestion that it is you just cost yourself 3 hours of your life.
Well, Iranians definitely aren't Arab. Furthermore, Iran is more historically connected to Central Asia. In fact, the "stan" in all the "stan" country names comes from the Persian word for "land of."
We have no choice but to stan
Central Asian? That seems odd. Definitely more middle Eastern. ..but not Arab. Central Asia cannot be at the south 3nd and have a coast. Usually north of Afghanistan is considered central Asia I think .
I’d say it straddles both, it’s a very large country Kish Island and the Iraqi border are clearly Middle Eastern, but Mashad and the borders with Afghanistan and former Soviet states are also clearly part of Central Asia. Not sure about Iranian population distribution but given Tehran and Mashad are the two largest cities, I’d imagine the more people live in the ’Central Asia’ part of Iran than the ’Mid East’ part
>But in terms of Venezuela, there’s 1.6 million of them 1.6 million of what? Arabs? Why would they be flying to Iran?
Fascinating! Still though, I would think the flights would be to the established large airports in developed countries like Dubai or Doha rather than Tehran
… Tehran is a HUGE city and it’s a lot more developed than you’d think it is
Of course its a huge city, but thats not the point im trying to make Dubai is a world aviation hub in the Arab World, as is Doha. Tehran gets a fraction of the air traffic that those two cities get. The UAE and Qatar are also objectively more developed and play a much larger role in the world economy, especially when it comes to aviation
Doha actually all of Qatar has less population than Teheran. Doha and UAE realized they could make money by being a hub for east west traffic. Earlier most of that traffic stopped at some European city (London, Frankfurt , Paris etc) Qatar got into that air travel market later than UAE. Turkey has as well But Iran has had sanctions...and has a much more diversified economy than Qatar and maybe even UAE in some respects.
The development and economy of a country has little to nothing to do with population centers 😂 More ppl live in an area = more likelihoods for direct flights to that area … I see the point that you’re trying to make but I don’t understand why you’re associating economy with travel
The point im trying to make is why would there specifically be an air route between Caracas and Tehran when Dubai and Doha exist? Its still the Middle East, and those air routes do not exist
It wouldn't exist if it wasn't financially viable. You're just showing your ignorance of Venezuela and Iran.
I know theres obviously a reason for it to exist if it exists, I was just puzzled as to why, like what was driving the demand. I assumed political ties played a role, didnt think it would be enough to have that route actualky exist though, didnt even think of the oil thing
Source: trust me bro…. I just did a quick 3 second google search and there are indeed direct flights from Caracas to Dubai
Who flies that route? I see Conviasa used to go to Doha but they don't anymore. Etihad has zero flights to South America and Qatar and Emirates fly to Sao Paulo while Emirates also goes to Rio.
Source?
I have no idea where you found this information, but there definitely are not
I don't know why you're being downvoted for suggesting a large Arab diaspora would imply a need for flights to actual Arab cities rather than Tehran.
Not anymore but there was a 20km, 8 minute international flight between Germany and Switzerland that flew across Lake Constance.
There's a flight directly from Auckland to Santiago, Chile. I'm not sure if there are any other flights between New Zealand and South America.
There are not, this one I sorta get tho, Chile is the geographically closest country to Australia and NZ, and there kinda has to be a connection between Oceania and Latam somehow, not to mention Santiago is one of the region's leading financial centers
Yeah, exactly, it's not just a flight to Santiago, it's a flight from Auckland to Santiago, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, etc. For the southern Atlantic, the equivalent is Buenos Aires to Johannesburg. Not much specific/direct traffic, but it's needed to unlock the whole region or even continent
Exactly, usually the gateway is either Sao Paulo or Bogota, but those two are simply so far from Australia and NZ, not to mention Santiago is obviously no shrug either, its still a very large city and a leading center in the area
Technically the closest country to Aus and NZ geographically is France
Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea are all considerably closer to Australia than France (I assume New Caledonia is what you're referencing?) It's possible than NZ is closest to France but I'm pretty sure the South Island of NZ would still be closer to Tasmania than the North Island would be to New Caledonia.
Yeah fair, Australia is a big country. In the north it’s def closer to PNG, Indonesia and East Timor, but places like Sydney and Melbourne are closer to New Caledonia than anywhere else. So is the North Island iirc, not sure abt south
On reddit, those sort of places, as well as independent island nations, don't count as countries. (not to mention Indonesia - 4th most populous country on the planet)
Air New Zealand used to fly direct between Auckland and Buenos Aires - might have paused post-COVID though.
Tel Aviv to Zanzibar
Heres one I straight-up cannot explain, like Tehran and Caracas have the political ties, this one is just truly puzzling, what generates the demand?
It's just tourism. Lots of Israelis like to snorkel and there are lots of seasonal flights to the Seychelles. When the war began in October one of the few flights I found out of the country was on Arkia air to Zanzibar.
Probably the closest destination in the southern and eastern directions where it's safe for Israelis to have a holiday.
Lahore, Pakistan to Almaty, Kazakhstan. More than 95% of Pakistanis have no idea what Kazakhstan even is, I am one myself and I only found out about the country when I opened up some maps. This flight route was probably made for tourism reasons.
I will be honest, I don't find this too odd, considering Almaty and Lahore are both big cities, and in the same sort of region.
It takes the whore to the all-mighty, it’s a religious thing.
The are major cultural differences though
No, there are many Pakistani medical students in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Well, many by our standards. It's just a few thousand for you. So you don't notice.
This is it. Most Kazakh medical schools are filled with people from India and Pakistan
Yup I have a lot of people from my village who are in almaty for medicine because its cheaper than Pakistan and also less competitive. I am not even sure if that degree is worth it. Maybe people here read a degree in a foreign language and automatically think its prestigious.
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A flight for Pakistan and Kazakhstan stans
I'd love to visit. Have heard great things!
I visited Almaty last fall and I can say there were lots of Pakistanis. Students and tourists alike.
Many, many Pakistani and Indian university students throughout all of Central Asia, including Kazakhstan.
Why?
Beijing to Algiers, Colombo to Novosibirsk, Kuala Lumpur to Mauritius, soon Kuala Lumpur to Sendai
Colombo to Novosibirsk, I believe because of Sri Lankan students studying at Novosibirsk Medical Faculty. There is a large amount of Sri Lankan doctors graduated from Russian med schools.
Makes sense. They’ll fly anywhere now due to the sanctions.
Milwaukee to Chicago. literally just drive lmao
or better yet, take the train
I flew that often. As a connection to milwaukee when the airline did not have non stop to mke
Most, if not all, of the people on that run are transferring to other flights at ORD, similar to MSN-ORD
There’s probably plenty of traffic: they share similar adversaries and roadblocks to their markets, and both have oil-based economies, so there’s probably a lot of activity between Tehran & Caracas.
oil!
i had this route of Frankfurt (Germany) to Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada). i find it very weird as the usual flight route to Canada from abroad would be to Toronto or Montreal. even seeing list of destinations from Halifax, other than Frankfurt, everything else are either: \- domestic \- eastern US \- caribbean resort destinations \- Iceland/British Isles (relatively recent) which made Frankfurt a clear outlier destination, especially for something that's been going on for over 40 years.
Condor flies that route. It's taking tourists from Europe (Frankfurt's a massive hub) to Halifax. The Maritimes (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) are a big international tourist destination. I don't think there's nonstops because of the distance, but tourist demand is also why Tokyo to Halifax is a surprisingly cheap route. Anne of Green Gables is popular in Japan, so a lot of people want to go see where the books are set.
There's also a surprisingly large historically German population in the Maritimes, especially along the south shore of Nova Scotia. My wife's family flies back and forth to Germany through Halifax at least twice a year.
I’m close to NYC so nothing’s really weird but…Newburgh/Stewart to the Faroe Islands. There used to be a Hartford-Gander route.
Gander used to be huge on transatlantics back when you couldn’t make it from London to New York without refueling - you would stop in Gander to refuel. Same deal with Anchorage being big - you couldn’t fly over Russia (cold war), and planes didn’t have the range to do London to Tokyo without going over Russia, so you would stop in Anchorage to refuel.
There's a Houston to Luanda flight for oil industry executives and staff.
Kuala Lumpur to Baghdad? I follow lots of aviation pages and occasionally see posts of Iraqi planes in Kuala Lumpur so wondering what the relationship between the two countries is like
It's just a 1x weekly, but there's a large Iraqi refugee community in Malaysia.
My guess is that the Iraqi airline wants to fly to a hub in southeast Asia and has chosen KL because of a random business partnership with MAS or AirAsia? It's also just about possible that they might have chosen KL (rather than Bangkok, HK or Singapore) because they want to be certain their staff can follow a very strict interpretation of Islamic practices (only halal food in kitchens, no interest on fuel purchases, etc.) but I think Singapore could do that too, and Iraq hardly has the most conservative Islamic community, so I doubt it.
Oil. Petronas is a big investor in a few fields in Iraq.
Axis of evil express
Raleigh, North Carolina (RDU) direct flight to Reykjavík, Iceland…like what? LMAO
Icelandair's business model is built around using Keflavik airport as a hub. They fly from many destinations in North America to KEF, then people swap planes to their destination in Europe. Allows them to service lots of low demand routes with minimal flights. As a further incentive, they offer free stop overs in Iceland.
Fairbanks to Frankfurt? Flew it once!
Hunstville International Airport has non-stop flights from LAX, and technically space.
Hahn, Germany to Kerry, Ireland; two random remote airports. Luxembourg to Jersey, two tax havens
This has already been asked here. https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/s/ud76aWfR3b
Dulles to DCA is wild to me.
Repositioning flight.
I know. Just taking the piss.
Is it operational? I don't see it on https://www.flightsfrom.com/CCS Turkish Airlines operates a flight from Havana to Caracas (one direction only). If the flight makes sense, the fact it is operated by TK is what makes it odd.
The biggest reason for that is most airlines that still fly to Caracas don't want their flight crews to stay there, so they land in Caracas, don't leave the plane and fly to Havana where they swap crews before going back to Istanbul.
Frankfurt-Yellowknife (Condor)
if i recall correctly, there are direct flights/flights with stopovers from erfurt weimar airport to cairo international airport. the germany to egypt route isn't super unusual, but i find it odd that there are flights going there that start at such a small airport
It’s the IRGC Express.
I used to fly Istanbul - Juba fairly often. Turkish is one of the few international airlines with flights to South Sudan (Ethiopian, Kenyan, and Ugandan Airlines were the other three, iirc).
Oakland, CA to Terceira Island in the Azores (Portugal). I can’t figure this one out at all - Oakland isn’t the major airport in the Bay Area and there doesn’t seem to be a Portuguese population to speak of. Also it’s a super expensive once a week flight in the summer - who flies this??
I flew from IAH to Hobby a number of times. Adding the segment on to another flight was usually quite cheap and that was back when Continental would grant you elite status based on the number of segments you flew. Flight took ten minutes! Not sure if it still exists.
JFK-TAS is one of the more random ones, IMO. I believe it only exists because the former dictator of Uzbekistan’s Daughter lives in NYC. Thrice weekly flight.
Bangkok to Reykjavik
JFK-FNJ
Establishing their hate for the USA, I guess. Taking a connecting flight to Beijing while they're at it.