US Airways suspending three Europe routes in fall

US Airways told employees in a weekly newsletter that it will  suspend its daily roundtrips between PHL and three European cities, Milan, Brussels and Zurich, this fall, but is planning to resume the service next spring. US Airways already follows this type of schedule on several other PHL-Europe routes, suspending flights with lighter traffic over the winter, and then restarting them as the vacation season begins in the spring.

The "About US" newsletter lead this week with a celebratory piece on the arrival of new Airbus A330-200 model widebodied jets for use, primarily, on its Europe routes. The airplanes have a longer range than the A330-300 models US Airways already has in its fleet. The big jets have been used so far for service between PHL and Paris, and PHL and San Juan, P.R.

The new planes were needed specifically for the PHL-Tel Aviv, Israel, service scheduled to start July 1, which will be the airline's longest route. The A330-300 model has a range of 6,700 nautical miles.