Help us determine our future!
Take this short, four-question survey
Please.
Delta Decimates Summer Seasonal Flying to Europe While United Trims Further
1 American already made its big summer cuts and United did as well, but now Delta has joined the game by scrubbing 28 European routes from the schedule for the rest of the year according to Diio by Cirium data. If you’re hoping to visit Europe this summer on Delta, get ready to spend some time in Amsterdam or Paris.
The cuts focus on four main areas.
- Atlanta (ATL) loses 6 routes to Barcelona (BCN), Dublin (DUB), Madrid (MAD), Milan/Malpensa (MXP), Venice (VCE), and Zurich (ZRH). Except for VCE, all of these will maintain service from New York/JFK to keep them in the network. DUB also has a Boston (BOS) flight.
- Boston (BOS) loses most of its routes including Edinburgh (EDI), Rome/Fiumicino (FCO), London/Gatwick (LGW), Lisbon (LIS), and Manchester (MAN). LGW and MAN will not see another Delta flight this year from anywhere while the rest continue to be served from JFK. FCO also keeps an ATL flight.
- New York/JFK will lose most of the leisure-focused, summer routes it has. That includes Berlin (TXL), Copenhagen (CPH), Glasgow (GLA), Keflavik (KEF), Lagos (LOS), Nice (NCE), Prague (PRG), Shannon (SNN), and Venice (VCE). With the exception of LOS which will continue to be served from ATL, these cities lose all Delta service for the rest of the year. This includes KEF which will also not see its Minneapolis/St Paul (MSP) flight operate.
- Secondary cities in the US that were connecting to partner hubs in Europe will lose service. This means no flying to Amsterdam (AMS) from Orlando (MCO) or Tampa (TPA), to London/Heathrow from Portland (PDX), or to Paris/CDG from Indianapolis (IND) or Salt Lake City (SLC).
Detroit sees minor cutting with FCO and Munich (MUC) disappearing in addition to the rest.
As for United, it will not operate from Newark (EWR) to Naples (NAP), Oporto (OPO), or Venice (VCE) this year. It will also cancel Washington/Dulles (IAD) to Lisbon (LIS). EWR to LIS flights will operate but on a shortened summer schedule.
JetBlue First to Require Masks for Passengers; Delta & American to Do Same for Staff
2 Beginning Monday, May 4, JetBlue will require all passengers to wear masks or face-coverings for their entire journey starting at check-in, with small children exempt. JetBlue is the first US carrier to do this since Virgin America’s controversial plan to require unattractive people to hide their face in shame.
JetBlue staff have been wearing masks since earlier this month, and this measure will look to continue to slow the spread of the virus on-board JetBlue aircraft. Look for other airlines to eventually follow.
In the meantime, Delta will join the list of carriers requiring its staff to wear masks when social distancing is not possible beginning Tuesday, April 28. The edict is in place through June 30. Delta also intends to make masks available for customers at ticket counters, gate areas and on-board if requested.
American is doing the same as Delta and will implement its policy beginning May 1. American will require flight attendants to wear masks and will distribute masks and sanitizing masks to passengers on an as-needed and as-available basis.
When asked for his thoughts on the idea of widespread face coverings, Wilson, who has been Tim “The Toolman” Taylor’s neighbor for years, had no comment.
A Spirited Plea to Drop Six Large Hubs
3 If at first you don’t succeed, ask DOT to reconsider. If at second you don’t succeed, ask DOT again but come armed with facts and precedent.
Spirit is back again asking for relief of service obligations to six so-called “large hubs” around the country, and it’s attempting to use DOT’s own logic to bolster its case. DOT relieved Cape Air of its service to New York/JFK when it stated that “both the carrier’s small marketshare (less than 10%) and that the airport was a large hub and therefore enjoyed ‘abundant service’ from larger operators.”
Spirit is making the point that DOT’s own thought process applies to itself at six major airports: Charlotte (CLT), Denver (DEN), Minneapolis (MSP), Phoenix (PHX), Portland (PDX), and Seattle (SEA). Spirit has less than 10% market share at each airport (and in some instances, significantly less than 10%), and each airport is a hub for at least one major airline. None of these airports would likely suffer from losing service from Spirit in the best of times, but there’s no doubt that’s the case today.
What DOT chooses to do is anyone’s guess, but Spirit has seemingly backed the department into a corner here using its own logic against it.
Lugano Airport to Be Liquidated
4 It’s not often you see an airport go under, but that’s what’s happening in Switzerland. Lugano-Agno Airport (LUG) will be closing and the assets of the company that owns it will be liquidated.
The airport is located in the southeast of Switzerland, approximately 40 miles north of Milan. It had one regularly-scheduled, year-round route, to Zurich on Adria Airlines on behalf of SWISS. That route went away last fall when Adria went into bankruptcy and ended operations. The airport currently has seasonal service on Czech-based Silver Air (not to be confused Florida-based Silver Airways) to two Czech cities, but both those routes are suspended indefinitely due to the virus outbreak.
This doesn’t mean the airport will go away. Instead, the locals will be looking for a new owner to step in. In the meantime, the airport will retain a skeleton staff in order to remain open for private air traffic.
The Bright Side: Kazakhstan and Fiji to Resume Domestic Operations
5 As air travel ever so slowly climbs out of hibernation around the world, two nations are ready to resume limited domestic service after having suspended all operations.
Air Astana, the national carrier for Kazakhstan will resume domestic operations this Friday, May 1 with 3x daily service from Almaty (ALA) and Nur-Sultan (TSE).
Fiji Link, a subsidiary of Fiji Airways will also be resuming domestic service in the next week. Flights will operate from Nadi (NAN) and Suva (SUV) to Taveuni (TVU) and Savusavu (SVU) 3x weekly, with one weekly flight from Nadi and Suva to Kadavu (KDV), Vanuabalavu (VBV), Cicia (ICI), Koro (KXF), and Lakeba (LKB).
Airline Operation Potpourri
- American moved up the time passengers need to be at the gate by 15 minutes — passengers need to be present 30 minutes prior to domestic flights and 45 minutes for international.
- Air New Zealand is slowly ramping its domestic operations back up, now serving seven routes, including four from its Auckland hub.
- Bamboo Airlines suspended international operations through September 30. The Hanoi-based airline will resume service to Kaohsiung, Taiwan (KHH) on October 1, with Prague (PRG) following on October 3 and Seoul/Incheon (ICN) on October 6.
- Fuji Dream Airlines will be suspending all flights through May 17.
- Japan Airlines will be blocking middle seats and requiring passengers to wear a mask on all flights for the indefinite future.
- Turkish has extended its flight suspension until May 28.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
As the quarantine rolls on towards its third month, I’ve taken up gardening as a stress reliever and a way to pass the time. I felt like it would be a chance to really brighten the yard, so I planted several bulbs.