New Yorkers Who Travel to High-Covid States Will Lose Sick Leave Benefits
1 For those wondering if New York’s efforts to prevent COVID-19 spread had any teeth… they do now. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order that any resident New York State who travels to a state with high coronavirus infection rates will lose their COVID-19 paid sick leave benefits.
With New York cases & hospitalizations as low as they’ve been since the start of the pandemic, residents of the state are strongly discouraged from visiting any state with rising cases, but especially the nine with 10% or more positive tests: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina, Utah, and Texas. It is expected that some civil rights group somewhere will file for relief since denying New Yorkers the ability to travel to Florida is like denying them oxygen.
As mentioned last week, in addition to New Yorkers losing these COVID-19 paid sick leave benefits after visiting high-risk states, any travelers arriving from states where the virus is surging have been ordered to self-quarantine for two weeks.
Delta Warns 2,500 Pilots About Possible Furloughs
2 With the October 1 expiration of the CARES Act ban on furloughs and layoffs looming, Delta warned its pilots over the weekend that 2,500 jobs are potentially on the chopping block.
While Delta is planning on sending WARN Act memos, the airline also reached an agreement with its pilots union on early retirement packages. Delta pilots can apply for the voluntary early retirement package in early July, and those accepted will be informed no later than Aug. 4. Nearly 7,900 pilots will be eligible to take early retirement.
Pilots who choose door #1 and the early retirement option would receive pay for 58 hours per month until their 65th birthday, or for 36 months, whichever comes first. Delta will also cover up to two years of health insurance premiums and a year of travel benefits. Those who choose door #2 get… well, they either get to keep working or they get furloughed.
Canadian Airlines Resume Selling Middle Seats; Italy Bans Overhead Bin Use
3 Air Canada and WestJet will resume the selling of seats on their aircraft to up to 100% capacity, including middle seats, beginning July 1. The two airlines, based on recommendations from Transport Canada, had discontinued the selling of middle seats in April in an attempt to encourage onboard social distancing.
Both Air Canada & WestJet conduct pre-boarding temperature checks and require passengers to wear masks on board. Both airlines still extensively clean aircraft between flights and have scaled back in-flight services.
Meanwhile in Italy, use of overhead bins is being banned for the indefinite future to discourage passenger interaction and activity in-flight. The Italian Civil Aviation Authority ensured passengers that they would not be charged to check their bags that would otherwise go in the overhead bin. The news came as a relief to Alitalia which had misplaced the keys to its overhead bins while the airline was shut down due to the virus. This gives officials more time to see if the current owner — whoever that may be today — has the keys somewhere.
Sun Country Really, Really Doesn’t Want to Fly to Austin & San Antonio
4 Sun Country is back with another request of the DOT, this time asking to compromise on its failed attempt to end service to Austin & San Antonio for the remainder of the summer. Instead, Sun Country is asking the DOT to meet it halfway and allow the airline to reduce service from 3x weekly to just one single flight per week.
If that won’t work, Sun Country has Plan C for the government. Remember earlier in the month when the DOT allowed each airline to exempt itself from five additional cities and still receive CARES Act funding? Sun Country is looking to pull a switcheroo and swap St. Louis and Portland for Austin and San Antonio. The airline would resume service to STL and PDX in exchange for the government allowing it to end service to the two Texas airports.
Sun Country’s last-ditch effort, if both of these plans fail is to challenge the DOT to a game of, naturally, Texas Hold ’em. If Sun Country wins, it will suspend service to Austin & San Antonio. If the DOT wins, Sun Country will be required to serve every airport the DOT exempted from service from every U.S. passenger airline. High risk, high reward.
British Airways Lays off 350 Pilots, Puts 300 in Rehire Pool
5 British Airways has laid off another 350 pilots as it attempts to deviously navigate its post-outbreak financial footing.
The airline plans to place another 300 pilots in the pool to be rehired once demand returns. Captains and first officers placed in the rehire pool receive half their pay while waiting to be rehired. Once brought back to fly, they will get 7.5% of their pay cut back, but the rest will not be returned.
In the meantime, while waiting for their jobs to be returned, the pilots are reportedly waiting in an actual pool for the news. They appear to be tanned and a little wrinkly after wading all this time.
Airline Potpourri
- AirAsia sold 41,000 seats last Tuesday, the most it’s sold in any one day since the virus outbreak began.
- Breeze Airways delayed its launch to at least 2021.
- British Airways took delivery of its first 787-10 today.
- Emirates will resume service to Glasgow in July.
- flydubai will resume operations on July 7.
- Garuda Indonesia and six other Indonesian airlines were found to be guilty of price collusion in 2019.
- JSX announced the addition/resumption of four new routes, effective next month, including Burbank and Orange County to Monterey.
- Porter has again delayed its relaunch until July 29.
- Wizz Air will launch 11 new routes out of Bucharest (OTP) in early August.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
I was feeling really down about the future, but then I updated my Office. It really improved my Outlook.