[TominScotland]

Hi everyone

I know it is early but this is the time of the year when we generally look back on our travels. This evening, I have what should be my last flights of the year (HAN-HKG-LHR-GLA) and, barring some unforeseen incident, should not add to my list of new airports, airlines or aircraft types.

That said, 2019 has been incredibly productive for me in this regard as I have added 11, 9 and 3 respectively to my collection!!

New Airports 2019

Minsk
Savanakhet
Seoul Gimpo
Jeju Island
Riyadh
Dar es Salaam
Cape Town
Eldoret
Berlin Schönefeld
Warsaw Chopin
Vilnius

New Airlines 2019

LOT Nordica, Poland
Belavia, Belarus
Comair (BA), South Africa
Premier Air, Tanzania
Jambojet, Kenya
Fly540, Kenya
Kulula, South Africa
Lao Skyway

New Aircraft 2019

A220-300 (Air Baltic)
Xian MA-60 (brave or foolish??) (Lao Skyway)
A350-1000 (Qatar)

[travelsforfun]

Hi Tom (et al),

No harm in starting the thread already! I have two more trips before the year’s out, but I don’t think they’ll add anything new either. So, these are my new airports, airlines and aircraft types in 2019 (there are a few trends, notably visiting a number of European islands for the first time, which was great fun):

New airports 2019

TPA Tampa
LCA Lanarca
SIR Sion
COR Cordoba (AR)
EZE Buenos Aires Ezeiza
SLA Salta
TUC Tucuman
LIM Lima
PMO Palermo
FAE Vagar Faroe Islands
KIV Chisinau
VLC Valencia
BIA Bastia
AJA Ajaccio
KCH Kuching
MHQ Mariehamn Åland Islands
ASE Aspen
GJT Grand Junction (Co)
HUY Humberside
OKA Naha Okinawa
TSN Tianjin
PKX Beijing Daxing

New airlines 2019

Air Malta
Emirates
easyJet Europe
LATAM Brasil
LATAM Argentina
LATAM Peru
Laudamotion
Atlantic Airways
Air Corsica
Eurowings Europe
Air Antwerp
JSX
Smartwings
Nordica
Norwegian Air Sweden

New Aircraft 2019

A321-200 Neo (British Airways)
A350-1000 (Qatar Airways, British Airways)
747-8 (Lufthansa)

[stevescoots]

Been an uneventual year as far as new carriers and ports are concerned. lots of sectors from UK to HKG and SGN but nothing new to add to the list

[Bath_VIP]

Dusseldorf was the only new airport for me this year. Otherwise I’ve been flying well worn routes this year,

Instead it’s been a year of the sea for me having taken the Belfast-Liverpool ferry for the 1st time (recommended!) and a 12-day cruise of Norway and the Artic Circle in June. That was my first time to Norway as well.

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travelsforfun

[capetonianm]

A lot of travelling this year but not much new :

Barbados which I’d like to go back to.

A cruise round the British Isles took me to Kirkwall and Tobermory, both new, as well as other destinations I’d visited before. It ended in Tilbury, which I had never visited before and is very forgettable!

Two old favourites from long ago revisited, Botswana and Zambia. Thoroughly recommended.

A new Greek Island, Amorgos which was delightful.

A motoring holiday around a little known part of Cataluña, Priorat which unbeknown to many produces some of Europe’s best wines. The area deserves more tourism but sssshhh …. not too much!

No new airlines, I am very conservative and limited in my choices (= boring?)

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AFlyingDutchman

[capetonianm]

I should probably add that the travel highlight of my year was crossing the Zambezi at Kazangula and then driving from Chobe via a few game lodges to Maun, in an old rattly Toyota Hilux, windows open, no a/c, across dirt and sand roads in very poor condition. I’m afraid my wife, who is very much a city girl, didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. I’d rather drive across Botswana than across London.

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Cali2CPT

[Nogbad01]

Sounds like heaven captonianm. We stopped at Chobe Chilwero lodge in 1992 and then spent a few days travelling between lodges in the Okavango.
Loved every minute, and was so impressed by the Hilux I bought one myself.

As for new airports, like many here its been a year of travelling the same old routes, but can add Ho Chi Minh, Phnom Penh, Bari and Larnaca to the list.
Aircraft A318, A220 and 747-8

[huwgoslavia]

I have just booked a flight with Belavia to Minsk for August 2020, how was your experience with them?

[canucklad]

Nothing new as far as business travel, in fact feeling a bit of a charlatan contributing to a business travel site, as my business travel this year has halved again , so its pretty much rail, rail and a little less shuttling .

Having said that leisure travel has taken me to 2 new places, over and above my usual haunts ……

Malaga – Highly recommended
Seville – Back yesterday and even more highly recommended than Malaga

So a bit green with envy looking at the some of the places I’ve not been, particularly capetonianms adventures . And bringing back some great memories , especially Eldoret & Minsk

[alainboy56]

Interesting reading from all of you.
My travel has also been rather standard this year.
I was going to write boring, but that is not the case at all, as travelling in a ‘flying mosque’ (SAUDIA B773 LHR-RUH) is most definitely ‘different’ and hardly boring. I was able to sit there the whole flight with some lovely red wine watching the continuous toos/fros to the carpeted and curtained(for the ladies) area.

However this year its the usual airlines and airports, apart from a 1st to Gothenburg. From there, flew for 1st time with B.R.A. from GOT into Stockholm Bromma City Centre airport. I still have a return flight booked ALN to KWI over the festive season with Alaingirl on Jazeera Airways, and furthermore I have a flight back from here, the most exciting city in the world (and that’s a new thread in itself), at the end of next week.

New aircraft are also rather limited, and like others here on the Forum consisted of just the A320neo of BA and a QR A350-1000

New airlines include FlyDubai (what a load of rubbish – up there with FR on the comfort scale and a 6 hour plus flight too (HEL-DXB), will not try them again in a hurry, and if I had been an EK Rewards member or had unknowingly booked a full EK ticket HEL-DXB, I would have been very upset at that fare dished up!- Below average at all levels), and as mentioned above B.R.A., and will include Jazeera Airways for the first time in a couple of weeks.

2019, will be 65 No individual sector flights (difficult to count return flights as my itineraries are always convoluted ‘all around the houses’ kind of trips).

Good health and success in 2020 for all BT Forum readers

P.S. I was actually joking about the red wine —– Festive greetings to all.

[DavidSmith2]

Our move to West Africa (Ghana) at the end of last year means that this year has seen a major increase in new airports, cities, countries and airlines after a few years of relative stagnation in the Eastern European region.

This year has included, for the first time:

Airports/cities: Accra, Lome, Cotonou, Abuja, Niamey, Abidjan, Freetown, Monrovia, Banjul, Dakar, Praia and Lisbon.

Airlines: Asky, AWA, Kenyan, Ethiopian, Haan and Binter.

It has also provided the chance to travel with TAP, KLM, Turkish and BA on flights back to Europe, including the upper deck of the BA 747 which we did last week for the first time.

Plenty of experiences to relate. Although the actual flights were pretty straightforward, some of the airports were pretty chaotic, unpredictable and sometimes concerning in terms of security controls, demands for money and offers to ‘facilitate’ customs clearance etc.

[LuganoPirate]

Life has been very busy, but not a lot of new destinations.
The only one was Chisinau, Moldavia
And the only new airline experience was Austrian Business Class to JFK. Though I’ve travelled many time on Austrian European flights.

[fatbear]

Also a dull year for me, no new destinations and only Windward Island Express as a new airline. I will be going to Tel Aviv in the new year, which will be a first

[NorskSaint]

Whilst it’s been a dull year destination wise, returning to the same haunts, I did finally manage to travel on various Qatar A350’s back and forth to Asia and Australia.

Product wise I also managed to recently fly Swiss first class which is a notch above anything I’ve flown previously.

Having emigrated to Northern Norway last year, this was my first full year and I have more segments flown than I care to contemplate.

More importantly having been a lurker on this forum for a number of years, I finally signed up and try to contribute to this fascinating resource.

Have a great Christmas and festive period.

NS

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LuganoPirate

[GreenScot]

A busy year for me with travel mostly back and forth to the US East Coast with a sprinkling of APAC. Hit BA GGL for the first time, much to my boss’ horror as he clocked how much I must have been spending. I also managed to go from Blue to Silver to Gold, and then renew Gold through 2021 on A3 Miles and Bonus, all in the space of 2 weeks somehow. I’ve been away from home for more than half the year, as my partner keeps reminding me, but I am expecting to reduce time away (or at least time in the air) as I will likely be working out of Poland rather than the US for a lot of 2020.

New airports 2019

INV Inverness
SFO San Francisco
PHX Phoenix
LAS Las Vegas
USM Koh Samui
EWR Newark
MEX Mexico City
GVA Geneva
ATH Athens
SKG Thessaloniki
AKL Auckland
CHC Christchurch
WLG Wellington
LAX Los Angeles (where I currently find myself typing this from)

New airlines 2019

Silk Air
Bangkok Airways
United
Air Canada
Swiss
Aegean Airlines
Air New Zealand

New Aircraft 2019

737-800 (American)
737-900 (United)
A220-300 (Swiss)

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