July 20, 2020

Better late than never: As you might have noticed, Friday’s Cranky Daily was mistakenly delivered to your inbox Sunday evening. We hope the delivery issue is fixed going forward. While we were happy to help you end your weekend with a bang, remember you may access the newsletter anytime at crankydaily.com.

American Airlines Changes Meal Guidelines

1 American Airlines is cutting back the number of hot meals it serves in first class aboard its aircraft as the airline navigates its financial recovery from the pandemic.

As recently as a few weeks ago, American was serving a fruit & cheese plate in first on domestic flights between 500 and 2,199 miles with a hot meal in first on domestic flights of 2,200 miles and more. On flights under 500 miles, passengers were fed with just an angry glare.

Going forward, the fruit and cheese plate will be the only offering on flights of 2,200 miles or more — with a few exceptions. AA’s premium transcon service (New York/JFK to Los Angeles and San Francisco) along with its Dallas/Ft. Worth to Honolulu flight will still receive the hot meal up front. Otherwise, aboard AA it’s BYOHM.

In other catering news, Air France is gradually returning in-flight catering to pre-pandemic levels. Catering will resume this week on flights 2.5 hours in length or less, and fresh fruit is being returned to flights of 10.5 hours or more.


Hawaiian Airlines Extends Flight Suspensions

2 With the state of Hawai’i delaying its reopening to tourists for another month beyond its previous August 1 data, Hawaiian Airlines is extending its suspension of service to seven mainland destinations. Strangely, the airline has decided that if nobody is going to fly it, then it shouldn’t be operating a lot of flights. The airline will not yet resume its service to:

  • Boston
  • Las Vegas
  • Long Beach
  • New York City
  • Oakland
  • Phoenix
  • San Jose

In the meantime, Hawaiian continues to fly from its Honolulu hub to six West Coast destinations, using cargo as a crutch: Los Angeles, Portland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle. The airline continues to cross its fingers and hope that someday tourists will again be welcome in the islands, but at this point, it’s unclear when that might be.

Hawaiian’s service to Pago Pago (PPG) in American Samoa is currently suspended through August 5, but the airline has requested an extension to its service exemption from the DOT through August 31. The extension is likely to be granted as the governor of American Samoa has asked Hawaiian to hold off on resuming service through the end of August.


United Plans to Maximize Ventilation During Boarding and Deplaning

3 United Airlines, in an attempt to further reduce the spread of this coronavirus, will now maximize the airflow volume for all its aircraft’s HEPA filters during the entire boarding and deplaning process beginning July 27. File this one under “news that we never thought anyone could possibly care about… six months ago.”

The combination of the HEPA filters, the air conditioning that pushes airflow down, and the pressurization system onboard United’s planes is meant to convey safety to travelers. Those systems recirculate the air every 2-3 minutes and remove 99.97% of particles — including viruses, bacteria, and leftover stroopwafel crumbs — now during both air and ground operations.

The announcement from United is another salvo in the battle between major U.S. airlines to increase consumer confidence to push new bookings for the second-half of the year. Unlike Delta and Southwest which are not booking planes beyond 60% capacity, United will inform passengers when their flight is booked at 70% capacity or greater; in those cases offering the chance to rebook for no additional fee.


Icelandair Reaches Agreement with Flight Attendants

4 After dramatically firing all of its flight attendants last week and announcing that its pilots would serve in the role, Icelandair and its flight attendants have come to terms on a new collective bargaining agreement.

Icelandair says that the agreement will allow the airline to better streamline its operations without cutting the pay of flight attendants. The new agreement is almost identical to the one that FFI members refused to accept earlier this month but with changes made to a clause that concerns an extra day off for older members of the cabin crew.

The new CBA will be in place through 2025 and will allow pilots to remain in the cockpit and not serving beverages in the cabin. In other news, I’m going to keep writing the Daily since my new job opportunity in Iceland mysteriously fell through.


Another Day, Another New Airline

5 When everyone zigs, some people zag. When air travel demand is lower than its ever been by enormous margins with passenger numbers not seen since the ’50s, some people start new airlines. We’re back with another as Giuseppe Gentile, who founded both Air Europe & Air Italy, has filed papers to launch his newest airline, Italian Airways.

The new airline would be based at Bergamo Airport (BGY), 30 miles northeast of Milan. For those thinking, “man, Air Italy was such a great idea; it just needed a less convenient base of operations,” this is the airline for you. Gentile plans to operate his airline with 100-seat Embraer aircraft to serve Sardinia and other smaller airports.

The crowded domestic market in Italy currently has six airlines operating including Italy’s flag carrier Alitalia which sometimes sees its flights operate on-time.


Airline Potpourri

  • Emirates filed extensive schedule reductions, including eliminating its non-stop flight from Dubai to Newark indefinitely.
  • Finnair is resuming weekly service to Shanghai/Pudong on July 23.
  • Global Crossing, which is now calling itself GLOBALX, has signed a letter of intent to acquire its first airplane, an A320.
  • Helvetic Airways is introducing a new “pop-up” network where it will add one-off flights to unique destinations where it feels there is adequate demand. Its first destination is Tivat, Montenegro (TIV) from its Zurich hub.
  • Pakistan International Airlines is considering hiring a charter company to help Pakistani nationals in the U.S., EU and Canada return home. As you know, PIA cannot operate the flights itself, because…fake pilots.
  • Ryanair extended its change fee waiver through September.
  • Tropic Air will resume service on August 15 with its domestic and international operations completely separate from each other.
  • Vietnam Airlines is seeking a $518 million buyout from its government

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

I’ve never seen the inside of my ears. But I’ve heard good things.