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Think you’re ready for the changes coming to air travel in 2025? No, you aren’t.
We are firmly charging into a new era of travel, led by innovations and explorations that seemed impossible or, at best, highly unlikely only a few years ago. New planes, new routes, new partnerships and new strategies are the name of the game for the year ahead … not to mention that you’ll definitely be hearing more about Greenland than perhaps ever before.
Now, nearly five years out from the devastation that Covid wreaked on the airline industry, optimism has returned. With it comes full flights, yes, but 2025 is a steamroller of shifts that will further open up the world to travelers at the same time as charging them more for the privilege.
These are the trends in air travel you need to know about for the year ahead.
Brand-new routes connect the US and Europe like never before
In September, Delta Air Lines proclaimed that 2025 would see a record summer for the airline, with the most transatlantic routes in its history. At peak, the airline will operate 700 weekly flights across the ocean, to 33 European destinations.
A few of these new routes include Atlanta to Brussels and Naples, Italy; Boston to Barcelona and Milan; Minneapolis to Copenhagen and Rome; New York-JFK to Catania, Sicily; and Detroit to Dublin.
“More than one million people with Irish heritage call Michigan home,” said Wayne County Airport Authority CEO Chad Newton in the announcement. “We expect this first-ever DTW to Dublin route will be in high-demand.”
Additionally, Delta’s nonstop route between Tampa and Amsterdam, which was originally a seasonal offering scheduled to end in late spring 2025 will now operate year-round.
Not to be outdone, in October United Airlines listed out its 2025 route enhancements, also promising its largest-ever transatlantic schedule, with new flights to Spain, Italy, France, Greece and Croatia.
Once these routes commence from May 2025, United’s service across the Atlantic will number 760 weekly flights to over 40 destinations.
Completely new routes include Newark to Nuuk, Greenland; Palermo, Italy; Bilbao, Spain; Madeira Island, Portugal; and Faro, Portugal.
The airline is also adding three new nonstop routes from Dulles International in Washington D.C., to Dakar, Senegal; Nice, France; and Venice, Italy. The number of weekly direct flights between Newark and Palma de Mallorca, Spain; Dubrovnik, Croatia; and Athens, Greece will also increase.
Rounding out the big three US carriers with route announcements is American Airlines, with 70 daily departures to over 20 transatlantic destinations.
New routes include between Charlotte and Athens, Greece; Chicago and Madrid; Miami and Rome; and Philadelphia to both Edinburgh, Scotland, and Italy’s Milan-Malpensa Airport.
American will also bring back 2024’s seasonal Europe flights to Copenhagen, Naples and Nice, France, for summer 2025.
JetBlue Airways is another that’s set to boost transatlantic routes in 2025 with the May 22 introduction of flights between Boston and both Edinburgh and Madrid.
On the international scene, United Arab Emirates-based Etihad Airways announced 10 new destinations for 2025, including between Abu Dhabi and Atlanta, flying four times weekly beginning July 2, 2025.
For West Coasters hoping for a bite of the new route news, the Dutch airline KLM will begin flying between Amsterdam and San Diego, operating three times weekly from May 8, 2025.
Higher fees and new paperwork have travelers looking away from London
More options across the Atlantic couldn’t be arriving at a better time, easing London’s air travel chokehold on transatlantic connections at the same time as it gets more expensive than ever to fly via Britain.
The UK’s Air Passenger Duty (APD) was introduced in 1994 to improve national revenue, and it typically rises yearly with inflation. Rolled into the overall ticket price, it’s levied per passenger and based on both the flight length and the passenger’s cabin class.
For 2025, the UK government is planning an even larger adjustment to offset higher-than-normal inflation.
While economy travelers won’t see much of a difference — the APD on one economy class ticket from London to New York, for example, is £88 ($112) in 2024, only £1 more than 2023’s rate — flyers in classes with 40 inches of legroom or more should brace for a hike in ticket prices.
Beginning April 1, 2025, the APD on a premium seat ticket from London to New York or Los Angeles, for example, will jump by £22, to £216 ($275).
The UK is not alone in levying such taxes. France has an eco tax per passenger, although it is far lower, at between 2.63 euros and 63.07 euros per passenger (between about $2.75 and $65). In 2025, Denmark will also launch one of its own; the passagerafgift på flyrejser begins on January 1, 2025, charging between 30 DKK ($4) and 300 DKK ($42) to passengers on all commercial flights from Denmark (except to Greenland and the Faroe Islands).
The fees for UK travel don’t end with the APD, either. Starting January 8, an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) will be necessary for some foreign visitors who aren’t required to have a visa. This includes travelers from the United States. Visitors from Europe will pay from April 2.
Travelers must apply for an ETA and pay the associated £10 (about $13) fee before flying to the UK. The good news is that once a traveler has it, the ETA will apply for all of their UK travel for a period of two years.
Simply transiting through a UK airport won’t even save you from the ETA fee. Layover passengers, including those who stay “airside” at the airport between flights, will also need to secure an ETA ahead of their travel.
The fees keep on coming; seven of the UK airports that charge “drop-off” fees for private vehicles bringing passengers to the airport raised these by between 50p to £1 (about $1.25) in the last year, with future hikes expected in 2026. One of the most expensive, London’s Gatwick International Airport, now costs a vehicle £6 (about $7.50) for a stay of 10 minutes or less. Surprisingly, only three UK airports — London City, Inverness and Cardiff — still allow for free drop-offs.
UK airports aren’t alone in their fee hikes. On December 1, 2024, the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives raised departure fees for all non-Maldivian visitors. This departure tax, also typically rolled into the price of a ticket, is per passenger and based on the class of service.
Passengers in economy class leaving the Maldives will pay $50 (up from $30); business class $120 (from $60); first class $240 (from $90); and private jet travelers $480 per person (up from $120).
And to help fund over $2 billion in airport improvements, fees for departing Singapore’s Changi International Airport will steadily increase over the next five years, from $46 SGD (about $35) to $66 SGD (about $49) per passenger. Tack onto that the potential of higher airfares to Singapore overall, as airlines pass on the additional cost of landing and operational costs at Changi, set to rise from April 2025.
Greenland emerges as the destination du jour
With a modern terminal building and freshly opened 6,560-foot-long runway suitable for larger aircraft arriving from North America and Europe, Nuuk International Airport will be a destination newly added to a few airline route maps in 2025. Prior to the new runway, most international flights to Greenland have arrived in Kangerlussuaq, with passengers taking connecting flights to Nuuk.
On June 14, 2025, Nuuk will celebrate the arrival of the first non-stop route from the US, scheduled twice weekly from Newark on United Airlines.
The Danish territory’s own airline, Air Greenland, will naturally also seize the opportunity, increasing the frequency of already operating routes, as well as welcoming new flights to both Aalborg and Billund in Denmark.
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) is also set to begin flights between Nuuk and Copenhagen, and Icelandair will fly three times a week over summer 2025 between Keflavik and Nuuk.
Two additional airports, in Ilulissat in the west of the territory and Qaqortoq, farther south, both known for their scenic fjords and imposing icebergs, are expected to be operational by the end of 2026.
More creative long-haul routes arrive with a new airplane
New airplanes are always exciting, and 2025 will welcome a fresh bird to more skies, which brings with it increased opportunity to fly even more diverse routes, connecting cities that may have never been connected before.
Launched in 2019 at the Paris Air Show, Airbus’ A321XLR (“Extra Long Range”) is an update of the A321neo, with more fuel capacity, increased efficiency, and other incremental improvements towards longer-haul flying. This equates to lower costs to fly routes that weren’t economically feasible earlier, when only larger aircraft could make the distance.
“The first 707 flight from New York to Paris needed a fuel stop in Gander,” reflects Jon Ostrower, editor-in-chief of The Air Current, in the “A321XLR — Revolution or Replacement?” episode of the The Air Show podcast. “The XLR won’t break a sweat flying from Madrid to Boston and Dulles.”
As Ostrower alludes, one airline has already begun A321XLR flights; Iberia bid a ¡buen viaje! to the aircraft in November, beginning year-round service between Madrid and Boston. In January 2025, more A321XLR deliveries to the Spanish airline will allow them also to begin a route between Madrid and Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport.
Around 25 airlines have the A321XLR on order, including JetBlue, Delta, United, American, Air Canada and Aer Lingus, with the Irish airline hoping to use it to begin nonstop flights between Dublin and Nashville from April 2025.
Shake-ups in airline alliances shift major players
Shifts in alliances and partnership in the air travel industry happen regularly, but 2025 will be a year of watching some more shocking ones play out as flyers learn how their travel plans and loyalties may be affected.
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), an original founding member of Star Alliance, departed the alliance on August 31, 2024, to join SkyTeam, following Air France-KLM Group’s acquisition of 19.9% of the airline. With SAS, SkyTeam can now claim the distinction of serving the southernmost (Ushuaia, Argentina) and northernmost (Svalbard, Norway) commercial airports in the world.
The year ahead will see the airline’s flyers and those of other SkyTeam member airlines coming to understand how this new member’s network enhances their travels and opens up more possibilities for points redemption, such as redeeming Air France-KLM FlyingBlue miles for seats on SAS routes.
Revenge is coming in 2025, however; ITA Airways, the airline that took over Alitalia, has announced that it will depart SkyTeam for Star Alliance. Although no exact date has yet been set, the shift follows Lufthansa’s 49% investment in ITA. With the German airline being a founding member of the Star Alliance, it will want to welcome ITA into the fold sooner rather than later.
SkyTeam’s shake-ups continue into central Europe, as the world’s fifth oldest operating airline, Czech Airlines, ceased operations and was folded into budget carrier Smart Wings, leaving the SkyTeam alliance on October 26, 2024, after more than 20 years.
For members of Czech Airlines’ loyalty program, who had their accounts (and associated earned miles) terminated without the ability to transfer to another airline, 2025 will be a period of rebuilding loyalty, although with other airlines entirely.
Oneworld Alliance will also have its moment in 2025, with the expected addition of Oman Air in June 2025, one year after the 2024 addition of Fiji Airways, and the Alaska Airlines acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines.
Hawaiian Airlines will also now benefit from Alaska’s membership in the Oneworld Alliance. Both historic, beloved brands will continue to exist and operate, a first for an US airline acquisition. They are expected to combine loyalty programs in 2025, however.
Finally, Southwest Airlines, a free agent in the world of alliances, has inked a new partnership with Icelandair set to begin in 2025. This link-up will allow travelers to easily connect between the two airlines’ networks.
It remains to be seen how this partnership will (or will not) stretch to frequent flyer miles earning and award redemptions, but the possibility of spending Southwest Rapid Rewards to reach distant destinations like Istanbul (a new Icelandair route from Iceland’s Keflavik airport, beginning September 5, 2025), or flying non-stop from Nashville to Iceland (a new Icelandair route, beginning May 16, 2025) is closer than ever.
Flying becomes the worst way to earn frequent flyer status
When American Airlines changed its AAdvantage loyalty program model in 2022, the focus shifted away from earning frequent flyer status through, well, frequently flying, towards earning “Loyalty Points” through a combination of flying and spending money across an entire field of American’s partners.
Incredibly, one can now reach top status without flying even a single mile on an American Airlines plane.
“Most frequent flyers loyal to the airline were only familiar with the traditional approach of earning status through butt-in-seat flying,” explains Norbert Krupa, the Chicago-based founder who launched the Loyalty Point Hunters website and online community to demystify the new system.
“If someone is starting from scratch, they need $6,000 of spending through flying to achieve American’s [lowest] Gold status. Or they could earn Gold by spending about $600 through new avenues and methods with the help of Loyalty Point Hunters.”
“Most travelers travel once or twice a year and are unlikely to pay attention or come to the realization that status can be easily available to them.”
Krupa now holds the top-tier published statuses of two airlines, Executive Platinum on American Airlines and Premier 1K on United, following his site’s advice to maintain them. “Only 20% of my Loyalty Points are through flying, while 75% are through the shopping portal.”
As partnerships between airlines and retailers, hotels, experience providers and even gas stations grow — American’s link-up with Shell delivers three loyalty points towards status as well as three redeemable award miles with every gallon of fuel purchased and pumped — they pad an airline’s bottom line with easy revenue.
And it’s hardly just the US airlines playing this game. At the end of November FlyingBlue, the loyalty program of Air France and KLM, announced “Subscribe to Miles,” a program that offers exactly what it sounds like.
For a set payment each month, the scheme will deposit frequent flyer miles into a traveler’s account, no flying necessary. Plans start from 28 euros ($29.39) for 2,000 miles monthly, and reach 187 euros for 17,000 miles monthly.
Considering how it would take a flyer many international economy roundtrips to earn that many miles, and that a one-way from New York to Paris can be found for 15,000 points in economy class, it’s a deal that may meet with quick success.
Frequent flyer programs have become a crucial part of the airline industry’s profitability, and there’s no end in sight for the billions of dollars and trillions or quadrillions, potentially quintillions-plus of points that drive it all forward.
Upgrades will be even more rare (and less complimentary)
Airline status isn’t the only thing getting harder to attain and maintain. Upgrades to premium seats, one of the biggest motivations for aiming for status in the first place, are increasingly rare.
While corporate travel numbers are trending up and the glut of consumers reaching status by means other than flying does bloat the ranks of frequent flyer tiers and create more competition for what few seats may be available for upgrading on a flight, the greater cause lies with the airlines themselves.
They’re simply getting better about selling all of the seats in those premium cabins.
During Delta Air Lines’ November 2024 Investor Day, the airline’s president Glen Hauenstein noted that, 15 years ago, only 12% of the seats in the domestic first class cabin were purchased, with the rest given to upgraded members with Medallion status. Today it has flipped, and 12% is now the number of first class seats given to upgrades. What changed?
“We were charging 13 times more than the average coach seat at the time of booking,” stated Hauenstein. “So we brought that separation way down, we’ve made them much more affordable. And guess what? When you make something affordable, people want to buy it.”
More affordable premium seats is also part of American Airlines’ current strategy, as the airline rolled out paid upgrade offers to those already holding economy class tickets.
Now you may go into the AA app to check your booking, and find an offer to upgrade to a confirmed first-class seat on a flight from Chicago to Dallas. On such a popular route between two hubs, with countless elite frequent flyers also vying for an upgrade, a lower tier flyer might not have stood a chance on the upgrade list. But now, for a dynamic sum that changes with demand and, sometimes, by the minute, you can secure that premium seat (and earn points for the price paid to upgrade).
On the international scene, airlines continue the trend of shrinking or even eliminating first class in favor of expanding and improving business class cabins. That may be a boon to travelers hoping to upgrade from economy, but for those already in business class eager to taste the caviar service of hallowed international first class, the opportunity is rapidly dwindling.
Oman Air discontinued its first class cabin in September 2024, rebranding the private suites instead as “Business Studio” seats and selling them at a premium above business class, but below previous first-class ticket prices.
American Airlines is eliminating first class on its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, increasing the number of business and premium seats by more than 45% by 2026. It’ll also phase out first class on the previously three-class A321Ts that fly cross-country premium routes in the United States. For its A321XLRs yet to be delivered, first class has been replaced by a beefed-up business class, complete with privacy doors.
Lost luggage becomes a thing of the past
Finally, a trend that only just barely began in 2024 is set to go mainstream in 2025, and that’s the growing partnership between airlines and Apple over the use of AirTags for locating lost luggage.
In early December 2024, with the release of iOS 18.2 for models iPhone X and newer, Apple introduced “Share Item Location,” a new feature to help users locate and recover misplaced items by easily sharing a secure link to the location of an AirTag (or “Find My” network accessory — that means AirPods, Macbooks and more Apple products) with third parties, such as airlines.
More than 15 airlines serving millions of people globally — including Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Brussels Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Eurowings, Iberia, KLM, Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Swiss International Air Lines, Turkish Airlines, United, Virgin Atlantic and Vueling — will begin accepting Find My item locations as part of their customer service process for locating mishandled or delayed bags.
More are expected, too, as SITA, provider of IT and telecommunications services to the worldwide aviation industry, will build support for Share Item Location into WorldTracer, the baggage-tracing system used by over 500 airlines and ground handlers at more than 2,800 airports.