August 12, 2020

United Heads to Florida

1 United Airlines announced 28 new daily nonstop flights to Florida this fall with service beginning on November 6 — just in-time to go visit your grandparents.

The first flights to launch on November 6 will be Boston, Cleveland and New York/LaGuardia to four destinations in the sunshine state: Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando and Tampa. Then, in December, United will add in service from Columbus, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh to both Fort Myers and Tampa.

The new routes are expected to last about as long as most family’s holiday decorations are up — United plans to end all of them on Jan. 10, 2021, meaning they’ll operate only for the holiday season.


Hong Kong Plans to Reopen for Mainland China Transit… For Now

2 After Coronavirus-related closures, Hong Kong is planning to temporarily resume transit flights to mainland China beginning this Saturday, August 15.

Prior to the pandemic, Cathay Pacific operated 360 weekly flights to 23 airports in mainland China — the most airports served of any foreign airline. As of today, the airline is operating just 11 flights to four different locations. That’s probably partially due to the pandemic but really we assume it’s due to the fear of competing with mighty new entrant Greater Bay.

While Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific resumed allowing passengers to transit Hong Kong months ago, they have not been able to resume transiting passengers for the purpose of returning to the enormous mainland China market. The ban that was put in place at the outset of the pandemic is likely being lifted — albeit temporarily — to allow for repatriation as well as for international students a chance to resume overseas studying.


American Bans Masks with Valves or Vents

3 American Airlines is joining the rest of the Big 3 — Delta & United — in banning masks that have valves or vents, closing a loophole that allowed some passengers to claim they were in compliance with the spirit of the face covering rule when they clearly were not.

The new rule will be effective on August 19 and any customer not in compliance runs the risk of being kicked off the flight and being banned from future travel on American — which isn’t necessarily a deal breaker for everyone.


Singapore Becomes Latest Airline to Offer Early Retirement

4 Singapore Airlines is offering unpaid leave and early retirement options to the 27,000 employees of both Singapore and Silk Air. Employees will have until the end of the month to make a decision, at which point layoffs and furloughs will likely begin for the airline.

Prior to this offer, approximately 6,000 employees have agreed to take unpaid leave from the airline, but with international travel being hit the hardest, Singapore has a long way to go on the path to break even. The airline posted a record loss of $816 million in the first half of 2020, and is hopeful of operating 50% of its pre-pandemic schedule by the end of this year — at best.

In the meantime, Singapore and its union have agreed to 10% salary cuts across the board for those whose jobs survive the layoffs. The buyout offers aren’t as generous as some of what we’ve seen from U.S. airlines, ranging from one month’s salary for probationary cabin crew, to three months salary for confirmed crew.


Mesa Ekes out $3 Million Profit

5 For the quarter ending June 30, Mesa Air Group posted a $3.4 million profit, making it the only publicly-traded U.S. airline to post a profit for the quarter.

The airline benefitted from its agreements with American and United, because it is compensated at a fixed rate regardless of the number of seats that are sold per flight. The airline also managed to reduce its expenses by 65% down to just $58 million for the quarter.

Mesa executives will be holding a seminar for other U.S. airline execs titled “How to turn a profit during COVID.” Breakout sessions include: “Have other airlines be responsible for most of your costs,” and “Don’t actually be responsible for finding passengers — pass that off to someone else.”

The airline plans to take delivery of 20 new Embraer 175’s beginning this September and continuing through June on behalf of United Express. Mesa ends the quarter with $65 million in unrestricted cash and as the only airline in the country moving forward with plans for a holiday party.


Airline Potpourri

  • Air New Zealand is now requiring masks for all flights to or from Auckland.
  • Azul and LATAM are beginning a codeshare on 64 domestic routes in Brazil today.
  • Eastern Airlines plans to operate 2x weekly service from New York/JFK to Los Cabos (SJD) beginning August 29.
  • Emirates is adding three more destinations back to its network — Cebu (CEB) on August 20, Houston/Bush on August 23, and Birmingham, England (BHX) on September 1.
  • Etihad has been slapped with a one-week ban from operating to China after six passengers tested positive on a flight to Shanghai last week.
  • Fiji extended its suspension of service through the end of September.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

My roommate and I purchased a world map and decided we’d throw a dart and wherever it landed is the first place we’d travel to after the pandemic. Whelp, looks like we’re spending two weeks behind the fridge.