Five US cities that deserve direct flights from the UK

Many transatlantic air links from the UK are being restored. Fort Lauderdale gets reconnected from London Gatwick on 26 May, when Norse Atlantic starts flights; Cincinnati will be reconnected with London Heathrow by British Airways from 5 June 2023.

Yet some key American locations remain unserved from the UK. These are the locations on our wishlists.

Memphis, Tennessee

Walking in Memphis is an excellent way to learn more about the civil rights struggle of the 20th century. On 4 April 1968, Dr Martin Luther King Jr was speaking from the balcony of the city’s Lorraine Motel when he was shot and killed.

The motel has been transformed into the National Civil Rights Museum, chronicling the harrowing history of slavery and segregation.

Memphis is also the birthplace of the Blues, making it a natural destination for Virgin Atlantic, given the airline’s rock’n’roll credentials. The home where Elvis lived and died, Graceland, is a combination of kitsch and sadness: the tropical-themed “Jungle Room” and the Meditation Garden where the Presley family are laid to rest.

The city’s location on the Mississippi makes it a good place to begin or end a trip following the mightiest American river.

San Antonio, Texas

With around 1.5 million inhabitants, San Antonio is easily the largest US city without a direct transatlantic connection. At its heart is a Spanish mission, the Alamo, that was the location of a battle in 1836 in which a band of 189 “Texas Volunteers” were besieged. Today the site is designated as a National Park – a patch of history plumb in the middle of a busy American metropolis.

You can start to explore the formidable food scene along the River Walk beside the San Antonio River. The city is the home of Tex-Mex cuisine – in large part thanks to the “Chili Queens”, who first created chili con carne as street food in San Antonio in the 19th century.

Jacksonville, Florida

The existing gateways to the Sunshine State – Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Melbourne – are all located in the south or centre of the Florida peninsula. Jacksonville, population 850,000, is set in the north-east corner of the state astride the broad St John’s River – Florida’s…