American & United Suspend Flying to Hong Kong
1 American & United have temporarily suspended flights to Hong Kong after the Hong Kong government imposed new coronavirus testing requirements for airline crews.
Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection said that as of Wednesday, incoming crews will be subject to the collection of “deep throat saliva specimens,” and any person refusing to be tested will be subject to a fine and imprisonment. If a crew member tests positive, “hospital admission will be arranged as soon as possible.”
A “deep throat saliva specimen” sounds positively awful. We imagine a low cost carrier is preparing a “deep throat saliva specimen avoidance fee” as we write this.
American has suspended its flight to Hong Kong from Dallas/Ft. Worth through at least August 5, while United’s flight from San Francisco is suspended through tomorrow, July 10. United has plans to resume service from Newark on September 8, but that is certainly in question for now.
JetBlue Leaving Long Beach on October 7
2 After years of death by a thousand cuts, JetBlue has finally pulled the cord on Long Beach and will move that operation 25 miles up the road to LAX.
JetBlue planned to operate to 15 cities this summer out of Long Beach prior to the pandemic, including daily service to Boston and 13x weekly to New York/JFK.
With the change, seven of the routes moving from Long Beach to Los Angeles will be new for the airline at LAX. Those seven are:
- Austin
- Bozeman (BZN)
- Las Vegas
- Reno
- Salt Lake City
- San Francisco
- Seattle
JetBlue’s service to Portland (PDX) will not be transitioned to LAX because of the airline’s blinding hatred of Oregon. Just kidding. JetBlue will continue to serve PDX for cross-country flights from Boston, Fort Lauderdale (launching in October) and New York/JFK.
We’ll have more on this on crankyflier.com next week.
LATAM Secures $1.3 Billion in Financing; Brazil Unit Files for Bankruptcy
3 When LATAM filed for bankruptcy protection in May to reorganize $18 billion of debt, it held LATAM Brasil out of the filing, but the airline today added its unit in Brazil to the debt restructuring process.
LATAM Brasil joins its fellow LATAM subsidiaries in Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador in the process, and the airline will continue to operate as normal during the process. This move leaves only the mighty LATAM Paraguay and its powerful five aircraft fleet not in bankruptcy amongst LATAM’s various units.
In brighter news for LATAM, the airline group received $1.3 billion in funding, enough to keep it afloat while awaiting the return of international air travel following the global pandemic. LATAM already secured $900 million from shareholders Cueto Group and Qatar Airways. “Combined … it is hoped that financial support will not be required from governments,” the airline said in a statement early on Thursday.
Pakistan International Airlines Fires Fake Pilots
4 Amazingly, it took over a week for Pakistan International Airlines to fire its fake pilots, but on July 3 the airline finally made the move.
Fifty two employees were fired, including 25 for having fake degrees and pilots licenses. Twenty two were let go for simply deciding not to show up to work anymore. One other guy was laid off five years ago, but due to a paperwork issue, he kept getting his paycheck. That glitch has now been fixed, so it’ll work itself out naturally.
In a far more exciting development, the airline is also pleading with EU and UK lawmakers to rescind the the six month ban placed on PIA for operating in European airspace.
Pakistani Foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi called EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on July 1 hoping for a review of the decision, assuring that steps the government had been taking were aimed at ensuring the highest level of safety in PIA’s operations.
“We know we had fake pilots, but we got rid of them. Well, we think we did. Most of them at least. Probably.” Qureshi was possibly quoted as saying.
What’s That Buzzing Sound? Wizz Air Takes Ryanair to Court
5 Wizz Air received an injunction in a Hungarian Court blocking Ryanair from operating its Polish subsidiary Buzz.
Wizz Air argues that the name Buzz is too similar to Wizz and would create confusion in the market. As shocking as the claim by Wizz Air is, the fact that it was granted by the Hungarian Court — even temporarily — might be more shocking. Later this week, Wizz Air is expected to file another claim that no airline in Hungary can operate planes with Business Class because the first syllable of Business sounds to close to Wizz.
In a real quote that’s pure gold, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said, “We look forward to overturning this silly injunction on appeal, and we will continue to focus on Buzz’s expansion in Hungary, as the lowest fare, industry-leading service winner across Central and Eastern Europe, even while Wizz are cutting aircraft and capacity in Budapest. Those that can, compete, and those that can’t – like Wizz- run to Court seeking injunctions to protect them.”
Naturally, Ryanair is appealing the decision and hopes to have its planes wizzing buzzing around Hungary and central Europe again very soon.
Airline Potpourri
- Blue Islands, the airline of the Channel Islands, plans to resume flying on August 31.
- Etihad Guest mileage balances will no longer expire provided the account holder has activity in the account every 18 months.
- Garuda Indonesia is considering launching nonstop service from Bali to the U.S. West Coast.
- JAL expects its domestic demand to have fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels by October.
- Pegasus will resume flights to Tel Aviv from London/Stansted (STN) on July 15.
- Qantas plans to resume codesharing with Emirates in the near future.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
Got really annoyed last night when my upstairs neighbor rang my doorbell and banged on my door at 3am. I just wanted to have a drum session in peace. Neighbors…