Icelandair Picks St. Louis, Wizz Air Scraps Its Winter UAE Return and JetBlue Pulls Its Caracas Schedule: Route News for October 8, 2026

October 8, 2026

Icelandair is headed to the U.S. Midwest for the first time: the carrier will connect Reykjavík Keflavík with St. Louis from May 14, 2027, and bring back Madrid for the summer as well. The other big stories of the past 24 hours are cuts. Wizz Air has cancelled its entire winter return to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, JetBlue’s planned Fort Lauderdale–Caracas launch has dropped out of the first-quarter 2027 schedule, and Philippine Airlines has halted Manila–Riyadh flights after attacks on Saudi airports disrupted operations at Riyadh.

Today’s tally: six new or resumed routes and five discontinued or suspended entries. Any detail an airline has not published is marked TBA.

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New Routes

United States

• Icelandair — Reykjavík Keflavík (KEF) → St. Louis (STL). Start date: May 14, 2027. Frequency: three to four times weekly (Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays), seasonal through Oct. 24, 2027. Aircraft: Boeing 737 MAX 8 with 16 business-class and 144 economy seats. St. Louis becomes Icelandair’s 16th U.S. city and its first in the Midwest, and the airline is pitching connections with Southwest, the largest carrier at STL. Source conflict: InsideFlyer reports a flat four flights a week; The Points Guy, Airline Geeks, Iceland Review and Aviation Week all report three to four. We could not open Icelandair’s own release, so the majority figure is used here.

International

• Icelandair — Reykjavík Keflavík (KEF) → Madrid (MAD), returning. Start date: April 9, 2027. Frequency: two to three times weekly, seasonal through Oct. 25, 2027. Aircraft: TBA.
• Avianca — Guayaquil (GYE) → Cuenca (CUE). Start date: Nov. 1, 2026. Frequency: daily. Aircraft: Airbus A320 family, 180 seats. Tickets are already on sale. Aviation Week describes the launch as subject to government approval; the Ecuadorian reports we read do not mention a pending approval.
• China Eastern — Nanjing (NKG) → Hanoi (HAN). Start date: Nov. 20, 2026. Frequency: daily. Aircraft: Airbus A320.
• SCAT Airlines — Almaty (ALA) → Uralsk (URA). Start date: Oct. 25, 2026. Frequency: daily. Aircraft: Boeing 737-800.
• Nouvelair Tunisie — Tunis (TUN) → Stockholm Arlanda (ARN), resumes. Start date: April 3, 2027. Frequency: twice weekly, seasonal through Aug. 28, 2027. Aircraft: Airbus A320. The airline last flew the route in summer 2024.

Also noted: United will take Newark–Palma de Mallorca from four flights a week to daily from June 21, 2027, on the Boeing 767-400ER (end date for the daily schedule TBA), and its seasonal Newark–Santiago de Compostela start moves from May 28 to June 6, 2027. LOT Polish Airlines began flying Warsaw–Bangkok nonstop on Oct. 7 with the Boeing 787, three times weekly, rising to six weekly from Nov. 2. Singapore Airlines has pushed its Singapore–Riyadh launch from Dec. 1, 2026 to March 28, 2027, at three flights a week on the Airbus A350-900.

Routes Being Discontinued

• JetBlue — Fort Lauderdale (FLL) → Caracas (CCS). Effective date: AeroRoutes reported on Oct. 7 that JetBlue has removed its Caracas schedule for the first quarter of 2027. The flight had been filed as a daily Airbus A320 service starting Feb. 4, 2027, and was never confirmed in a JetBlue release. New start date: TBA. Note: the AeroRoutes article itself would not load for us today, so only its headline is confirmed; treat any replacement date as unannounced until JetBlue says otherwise.
• Wizz Air — Abu Dhabi (AUH) and Dubai (DXB), all routes. Effective date: the whole winter season, Oct. 25, 2026 to March 27, 2027. Resumption: TBA. The airline says longer routings forced by airspace restrictions extended on Sept. 30 make its A321neo and A321XLR flights “commercially unviable under current conditions.” Flights to Amman are also affected after a European safety bulletin advised against Jordanian airspace. Source conflict: The National describes the scrapped restart as 12 routes and 49 weekly flights across the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan; Gulf Business counts eight UAE routes from six European cities. Neither lists the city pairs, and the status of Wizz Air’s Saudi routes is TBA.
• Philippine Airlines — Manila (MNL) → Riyadh (RUH). Effective date: flights PR654 and PR655 were cancelled on Oct. 8, 2026, and Gulf News reports the cancellations run through at least Oct. 11. Resumption: TBA. The move follows attacks on Saudi airports that led to dozens of cancellations at Riyadh by Saudia, Flynas, Flyadeal, Turkish Airlines and others on Oct. 8.
• Thai Lion Air — Bangkok Don Mueang (DMK) → India. Effective date: all India flying has been suspended since mid-September 2026 (exact last day TBA). Tentative return, subject to change: Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kochi and Mumbai on Dec. 17; Bengaluru and Delhi on Dec. 18; Kolkata on Dec. 19, on Boeing 737-800 and 737-900ER aircraft. Amritsar has been suspended since May 26, 2026, with no return date filed (TBA).

Sources

• The Points Guy — “Icelandair adds new St. Louis flights in 2027”: thepointsguy.com
• Airline Geeks — “Icelandair Adds New U.S. Destination”: airlinegeeks.com
• Iceland Review — “Icelandair Adds St. Louis and Returns to Madrid in 2027”: icelandreview.com
• InsideFlyer — “Icelandair adds St. Louis as 16th US destination”: insideflyer.com
• First Alert 4 (KMOV) — “Nonstop flights from St. Louis to Iceland starting in 2027”: firstalert4.com
• Aviation Week — “Routes & Networks Latest: Rolling Daily Updates (W/C October 5, 2026)”: aviationweek.com
• Aviación al Día — “Avianca Strengthens Its Domestic Network in Ecuador: Opens Ticket Sales for Nonstop Guayaquil–Cuenca Route”: aviacionaldia.com
• Diario El Mercurio — “Vuelo aéreo Cuenca-Guayaquil se ofertará diariamente desde el 1 de noviembre”: elmercurio.com.ec
• AeroRoutes — “China Eastern Adds Nanjing – Hanoi From Nov 2026”: aeroroutes.com
• AeroRoutes — “Scat Airlines Adds Almaty – Uralsk in NW26”: aeroroutes.com
• AeroRoutes — “Nouvelair Tunisie Resumes Tunis – Stockholm in NS27”: aeroroutes.com
• AeroRoutes — “United Expands Newark – Palma de Mallorca Service in NS27”: aeroroutes.com
• AeroRoutes — “Singapore Airlines Moves Riyadh Service Resumption to late-1Q27”: aeroroutes.com
• AeroRoutes — “JetBlue Removed Caracas Schedule in 1Q27” (headline only; article would not load): aeroroutes.com
• NonRev Travel News — “Delta Adds Flagstaff, JetBlue Files a Caracas Start Date and WestJet Drops Three Europe Routes: Route News for October 2, 2026”: nonrevtravelnews.com
• The National — “Wizz Air cancels winter season flights to Abu Dhabi and Dubai”: thenationalnews.com
• The National — “Middle East flights: Singapore Airlines, Scoot and Wizz Air extend suspensions”: thenationalnews.com
• Gulf Business — “Wizz Air’s UAE comeback grounded again as airline scraps…”: gulfbusiness.com
• Gulf News — “Airlines Suspend Flights to Riyadh Following Houthi Airport Attack”: gulfnews.com
• Aviation Updates Philippines — “Philippine Airlines cancels Manila-Riyadh flights amid developing regional situation”: aviationupdatesph.com
• AeroRoutes — “Thai Lion Air Suspends India Service Sep – Dec 2026”: aeroroutes.com