Westchester Becomes First US Airport to Temporarily Shut Down Due to Virus
1 Westchester County Airport (HPN), located in White Plains, NY, will become the first US airport to shut its doors due to the Coronavirus.
The airport, which is used for private aircraft in far greater numbers than commercial service, will close on Monday to accelerate a runway repair project that had originally been scheduled for later in the year. At its peak pre-virus, HPN handled 40 flights a day from four airlines (American, Delta, JetBlue and United) to 11 destinations. It’s currently down to just one daily flight, a United Express CRJ-200 from Chicago/O’Hare that arrives late in the evening, spends the night, and returns to Chicago the next morning.
The work to repair the runway was originally going to be done only between midnight and 6 am to avoid impacting airport operations, so it was planned to take four months to complete. With the airport closed, the work will be performed during regular hours and will only take a month.
Improving an airport used to be described as doing open-heart surgery on a patient who was running a marathon. Now the patient is napping, so it’s time to get to work.
Delta’s A220s, MD-88s Still Flying as Rest of the Fleet is Partially Grounded
2 As Delta works towards grounding much of its mainline fleet — 650 of the 874 planes it has in its possession — its shiny new toy, the A220 is still flying full stop.
Delta has been forced to ground at least some of nearly every aircraft type in its fleet, including half of its 116 757s and 54 of its 77 767s. It detailed the current state of the airline in its 10-Q this week:
As you can see, it is continuing to fly all 18 of its workhorse MD-88s — aircraft it had planned to retire in the next five years — but those are now expected to be gone by July. Most notably, all 31 of its new A220s remain in service as Delta continues to fly the newest narrow-body in its fleet.
The A220 remains an important strategic decision for Delta going forward in a post-virus world. It currently has a firm order for 64 more from Airbus and will feature the airplane on more routes if it can pull off the swap with Boeing for its current fleet of 717s we discussed in yesterday’s newsletter.
Middle Seats or Bust
3 Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary made it clear the airline would not continue to fly if it were unable to book passengers in middle seats due to social distancing guidelines in the future. The airline’s ultra, ultra low-cost model relies heavily on load factors being high to turn a profit and says it cannot sustain itself by neglecting a third of the seats on its aircraft.
O’Leary told the Irish government that if it imposes a restriction on the sale of middle seats “either the government pays for the middle seat or we won’t fly.”
While no one would understand Ryanair’s business model than its CEO, this seems like a strange hill to die on today. When the world opens back up and Ryanair is flying again, demand isn’t going to magically return to pre Covid-19 levels. Ryanair, or any airline, is unlikely to have many, if any, flights full enough to sell middle seats for several months, if not longer.
Virgin Atlantic’s Search for Cash Infusion Won’t Come from Delta
4 Virgin Atlantic is currently on the prowl for a cash infusion as most of its operation is shuttered due to the virus outbreak. But its partner and 49% shareholder, Delta Air Lines, will not be the one providing the cash. Virgin Atlantic has requested a loan from the UK government and has not received an answer yet.
Delta is not in a position to grant the loan and has no intention to do so. Delta is currently running through more than $50 million per day through the current crisis. It also is maxed out in its investment in Virgin Atlantic at 49%, meaning any additional investment that is not matched by VS or another UK-based company would run it afoul of foreign ownership laws.
Lastly, there’s the pesky fact that Virgin Atlantic currently owes Delta $200 million dollars itself for a restructuring of its JV agreement with KLM and Air France. We can see why Virgin Atlantic is gun-shy about asking Delta for financial assistance. The last time we owed someone $200 million, we made the foolhardy decision to ask them for a small loan to help get through the weekend. Suffice to say, it did not end well for me or my thumbs.
The Bright Side: Laos, Thailand Expect to Resume Domestic Operations Next Month
5 After suspending operations on April 1, Lao Airlines, the national carrier for Laos, will resume domestic operations on May 8. Bookings will be available through Lao’s website or its local call centers beginning May 4.
Meanwhile, just south of Laos, Thailand expects to resume domestic operations as soon as May 1. Thai AirAsia and Thai Lion Air are expected to be the first to restart operations in Thailand. The Thai government has imposed conditions on airlines to resume flying, including putting a maximum of 49 passengers on 70-seat planes and having a requirement to leave the back two rows vacant on flights of 90 minutes or longer for passengers who might get sick en route from some wicked Pad Thai, or as they call it in Thailand — Pad.
Airline Operation Potpourri
- Aeroflot has eliminated all international operations from its schedule through July 31. Originally the airline had planned to restart international operations from its Moscow/Sheremetyevo (SVO) hub on July 2.
- American has chosen today to raise bag fees for passengers on international flights in Basic Economy. Passengers flying between the United States and Europe or Africa on a Basic Economy ticket will now be charged $75 per bag, up from $60… whenever there actually are passengers again.
- Etihad has loaded its schedule to restart operation beginning May 16. Interestingly, from May 16-May 31 the airline will only offer full fares booking in F (first) class, J (business) and Y (first) booking classes (RBDs).
- LATAM will fly two international routes in May, the airline announced in an email Thursday. It will fly from its Santiago (SCL) hub to Miami with six weekly flights, and from Sao Paulo (GRU) to Miami three times per week.
- United has swapped aircraft on its premium transcontinental routes from Newark to Los Angeles & San Francisco and Boston to San Francisco, replacing flat business class seats with a traditional domestic first class recliner seat.
- WestJet will join Air Canada in suspending flights to the United States from April 26 until June 4 due to the 30-day suspension of non-essential travel between the two nations.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
If the organizers of the College Football Playoff offered an automatic spot in next season’s playoff to the first college or university that discovered the vaccine, this entire pandemic would over within a week.