June 15, 2020

Major U.S. Airlines Announce Enforcement of Face Covering Rule

1 Airlines for America (A4A), the industry trade group representing most U.S. airlines announced today that its member airlines will be enforcing mask and face covering policies far more vigorously than has been the case to date.

Alaska, American, Delta, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, and United will be implementing this new standard which includes announcements at the gate and onboard. Most notably, each airline will develop consequences for non-compliance. Prior to today, airlines simply “asked nicely” and had no policy for passengers who chose not to comply with the face covering guidelines.

A4A says that “Each carrier will determine the appropriate consequences for passengers who are found to be in noncompliance of the airline’s face covering policy up to and including suspension of flying privileges on that airline.”

United has been the first airline to announce its internal policy. The airline announced that, “starting on June 18, any passenger that does not comply when onboard a United flight will be placed on an internal travel restriction list. Customers on this list will lose their travel privileges on United for a duration of time to be determined pending a comprehensive incident review.” (Bolding is United’s).

While we wait on the other airlines to announce their policies as well, we would suggest that they could all be rounded up and forced to live in the old Terminal B headhouse at LaGuardia until they promised to never break the rule again.


Southwest Matches Delta with Empty Middle Seats All Summer

2 As a part of its Southwest Pinky Swear Promise, Southwest Airlines will guarantee passengers an empty middle seat aboard its flights through September 30 by artificially capping the number of seats sold.

With Southwest’s open seating policy, in reality, the airline is simply capping its loads at 66.7% aboard its aircraft so that no one needs to sit in a middle seat. But as with Delta’s similar policy, parties traveling together who want to sit together for some godforsaken reason can do so.

These announcements may seem smart since very few flights would have the demand to be booked beyond 67% now, but September is a long, long way away. Many airlines, including Delta, JetBlue, & Southwest, have been enjoying the PR boost by guaranteeing passengers an empty middle seat, but if traffic continues to grow, they may regret the move by the time September rolls around.


Delta Adds More Europe, Cuts Latin in the August Schedule

3 Delta, which has not been as aggressive as American in restoring its pre-virus service levels, loaded an August schedule that returns several destinations both domestically and across the pond to Europe according to data from Diio by Cirium.

From its Atlanta mega-hub, Delta will resume flying three times a week to Barcelona (BCN), Dublin (DUB), Rome/Fiumicino (FCO), and Madrid (MAD).

Meanwhile, with the virus ramping up in South America, Delta is pulling back on its service to that continent. Delta is stopping flights for the time being to Rio de Janeiro (GIG) and cutting Santiago (SCL) service back from daily to four times weekly.

Other Delta schedule updates include the return of seasonal flying from Aspen this winter, but service will be to Los Angeles and not Salt Lake City.


Temperature Screenings To Be Mandatory in Canada

4 Transport Canada will require all international passengers flying to Canada to have their temperatures checked prior to boarding for all flights into the nation effective June 30.

Temperature screening stations will be implemented for departing international passengers at Canada’s four busiest airports in July. Those four airports are: Calgary, Montréal, Toronto/Pearson and Vancouver.

Passengers who show a temperature higher than 37.4 degrees Celsius (99.3 Fahrenheit) will not be permitted to continue their journey. Instead, they will be signed to a 4-year deal with an NHL team and must remain in Canada for the duration of the contract. During the offseason passengers will work as the assistant manager of a suburban Winnipeg Tim Hortons.


Air France to Serve Close to 150 Destinations this Summer

5 With much of Europe remaining bullish on the return of demand for air travel, Air France will serve nearly 150 destinations this summer — equal to 80% of its pre-virus network.

By August, the airline expects to fly 40% of its schedule to the nearly 150 destinations. Air France will focus primarily on its domestic flights from its Paris/CDG hub, with its long-haul network to grow more slowly. It will serve nine North American destinations this summer: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago/O’Hare, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Montreal, New York/JFK, San Francisco, and Toronto/Pearson.

Air France will utilize 106 of the 224 aircraft during this schedule. It remains to be seen whether it will take this opportunity to actually wash the rest of the fleet.


Airline Potpourri

  • Air Transat will return to service on July 23.
  • Alitalia will resume its service to Amsterdam, London/Heathrow and Paris from Milan/Malpensa on July 1.
  • ANA flew its final 737-500 flight yesterday, June 14.
  • Avianca updated its summer schedule, and it suspended service to three destinations: Dallas/Ft Worth, Newark, & Houston/Intercontinental from its San Salvador (SAL) hub. Additionally, it’s suspending service from Guatemala City (GUA) to Los Angeles.
  • EasyJet resumed operations today, with its first flight leaving London/Gatwick at 6am heading for Glasgow.
  • Condor plans to cut up to 25% of its current workforce.
  • EgyptAir is looking for a loan of approximately $185 million.
  • Hawaiian will resume service to Portland (PDX) on July 1.
  • Qatar has loaded an updated summer schedule for service from its Doha hub.
  • South African has removed all A340’s from its fleet.
  • WestJet released its schedule for July that includes 45 destinations, 39 domestic and six international. Outside of Canada, it will serve Atlanta, Cancun, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York/La Guardia and Orlando.
  • YanAir plans to resume operations on July 1.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

Defibrillators rarely fail, but when they do fail, no one is shocked.