Southwest Adds Four New Routes; United Visits Two New Cities
1 In addition to announcing service to Steamboat Springs last week, Southwest Airlines is introducing a new route from four significant cities in its route network for this winter’s schedule. Southwest will add a new city into service from each of Denver, Nashville, San Diego, and Washington/National. Here are the details:
- Nashville and San Juan, PR – for the Spring Break crowd, flying weekend-only March 13 through April 11.
- San Diego and Norfolk begins January 5, 2021 – shuttling Village People cover bands between gigs.
- Denver and Charlotte starting December 18 – because somehow they hadn’t done this before.
- Washington/National to West Palm Beach (PBI) starting January 5 – relocating newly out-of-work politicians into retirement.
For more information on Southwest’s most-recent schedule extension, check out today’s post on crankyflier.com.
Meanwhile, United Airlines is adding two new cities to its route network, via United Express and its partner SkyWest. The airline will begin daily service to both to Cheyenne, WY (CYS) from Denver, and Tallahassee, FL (TLH) from Houston/Bush (IAH). Both flights will be operated by 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 jets.
Alitalia May Simplify Operation & Save Money… With Expensive Airplanes
2 Alitalia is currently working on a reorganization courtesy of the Italian government which has bailed the airline out for the millionth time yet again. As it re-emerges once the pandemic is over, the airline plans to be leaner, meaner, and focused on long-haul. It wants to do so by flying just two aircraft types – the A320 and B787.
On the surface, the plan makes perfectly good sense. Except for one small detail – Alitalia doesn’t own any 787s. Personally, I want to consolidate my car fleet to just Teslas and Porsches, but I don’t own either, so I’ll be rolling with what I’ve got. Alitalia, however, isn’t letting the lack of 787s get in its way. It plans to purchase a bunch of 787s while retiring its fleet of 14 A330s and 12 B777s. Ok then.
Alitalia believes it can introduce great cost savings with the purchase of the 787s, seemingly forgetting the enormous upfront cost to actually purchase the airplanes. When asked its opinion of the deal, Boeing, which only delivered four airplanes in July, said that it was a stroke of genius from Alitalia and that the company fully supports the decision.
EasyJet to Close Three UK Bases
3 London/Luton-based easyJet will be closing three UK crew bases as a part of the airline consolidating its employee numbers through redundancy (fancy British term for layoffs).
The airline will be shuttering two bases in London, at both London/Stansted & London/Southend and also at Newcastle by August 31. The next step for easyJet will be to work with its pilots union to encourage voluntary layoffs and buyouts before it begins the ugly process of doing so involuntarily.
To reduce the number of involuntary layoffs, the airline is looking at moving full-time crew members to part-time or seasonal contracts, base transfers, and unpaid leave.
EasyJet currently serves nine year-round destinations from Southend with another 12 cities receiving seasonal service. Flights to all 21 locations will end on August 31 while Stansted and Newcastle will remain a part of easyJet’s route network.
Air India Lays off 48 Pilots — One Continues to Fly
4 Air India laid off 48 pilots last week in an effort to save costs and right-size its operation with the shrunken demand in air travel. The 48 pilots had resigned previously, but withdrew their resignations as permitted by Indian labor law. But when the airline needed to make cuts, the 48 who had resigned were the first on the chopping block.
Only Air India forgot to let their scheduling staff know about the layoffs, leading to one pilot still operating a roundtrip turn to Bangalore from Delhi despite no longer being employed by the company. The pilot operated AI804 and AI506 on Friday despite being laid off on Thursday.
When asked to comment, Air India officials may have glanced at a map and cast a side-eye at their Pakistani neighbors before saying “yeah, it’s true, he didn’t work for us anymore…but at least he’s a real pilot.”
Qurantine Roundup
5 ‘Twas a busy weekend for countries updating their quarantine guidelines and lists all over the world.
Staying close to home, the U.S. Virgin Islands shut back down to tourism due to a new outbreak of the virus in the territory. A stay-at-home order is in place for residents effective today, August 17, while the islands will not accept tourists effective this Wednesday, August 19. Hotels are not permitted to check-in new guests beginning Wednesday, and the order will be in place for at least a month.
The United Kingdom has added four new counties to its quarantine list: France, Malta, Morocco and the Netherlands.
Lastly, Iceland is not only going to test for the virus – it’s going to double test, showing that they really mean business. All arriving passengers must then choose between a 14-day quarantine or a double testing procedure along with a quarantine for 5-6 days. Those who choose the latter option will be allowed to leave quarantine if both tests return negative. No word if there is a double-secret quarantine because, well, it’s a secret.
Airline Potpourri
- Blue Air is expanding its Turin (TRN) base, adding three new destinations and adding frequencies on its current routes.
- Copa is resuming flights to the United States — to Miami and New York/JFK — after a five-month hiatus.
- Fiji Airways will be keeping its A350s, as it was unable to break its lease agreements on the aircraft.
- Hawaiian has once again requested an extension to its Pago Pago service exemption — this time through September.
- KLM is adding service to Poznan (POZ), making it the airline’s fifth destination in Poland.
- Israir has applied for a landing permit in the UAE.
- Turkish Airlines, Iraqi Airways, Fly Baghdad, and UR Airlines have all suspended service between Turkey and Iraq as the Iraq Civil Aviation Authority has halted flights between the two countries.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
Arial, Times New Roman and Comic Sans all walked into a bar. Before they could even sit down, the bartender said “No! Get out! Don’t even think about it! We don’t serve your type!”