Delta Expects No Flight Attendant Furloughs
1 Good news for the airline industry following the holiday weekend, as Delta Air Lines announced it received enough volunteers for unpaid leave & retirement buyouts that it will not have to furlough any flight attendants at this time.
Delta had 17,000 total employees agree to early retirement or voluntary unpaid leave to help the airline improve its footing with employees, and flight attendants were big participants. Most that accepted a buyout package were compensated with a combination of cash payouts, flight privileges, medical benefits, and biscoff cookies.
Flight attendants at Delta are part of one of the only non-unionized flight attendant groups in the US industry, and this move is clearly an effort by Delta to keep it that way. Of course, this doesn’t guarantee there will be no furloughs in the future, but for now, it’s good news.
Delta & Virgin Australia Pause Transpac Partnership
2 Delta Air Lines and its joint venture partner Virgin Australia have agreed to put a temporary pause on the agreement shared by the two airlines for flights across the Pacific Ocean.
With Virgin Australia going through bankruptcy and having been recently sold to Bain Capital, the airline has decided to return all of its long-haul airplanes and stop flying to the US. Delta has been flying less-than-daily between LA and Sydney since July. Joint ventures don’t work well when only one airline does the flying, so it’s no surprise to see this suspended.
Both airlines plan to resume their JV partnership when Virgin Australia resumes flying to the United States… if that ever actually happens.
American Returns Down Under
3 American Airlines is returning to Sydney earlier than planned, with the airline relaunching flights from Los Angeles to Sydney on November 12.
American had originally planned to keep its LAX-Sydney flight suspended into 2021 but has moved up the resumption of service. The flight will operate daily — but only four of the weekly flights will carry passengers. The other three flights each week will be cargo only, loaded mostly with imported eucalyptus for koalas and food from Outback Steakhouse for those Australians who have never had authentic local food.
Passenger service on the flight will operate westbound on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, with eastbound flights operating Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. AA is upgrading the aircraft it uses on the route, operating the flagship 777-300ER instead of the 787-9 it previously flew. The flight will return to a daily operation for both people and cargo sometime in 2021.
Aeromexico on the Upswing
4 Aeromexico is moving toward a recovery as the airline is adding 14 domestic destinations back into service for a total of 39 Mexican cities. With the increase in cities, Aeromexico will operate as much as 75% of its September 2019 operation this month.
The airline is up to nearly 150 daily departures to more than 60 destinations in September. Internationally, Aeromexico will serve 22 cities throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe & Asia. U.S. flights continue to operate amidst the pandemic since Mexico is one of the only countries in the world still willing to allow Americans to enter.
Aeromexico also reopened its Premier lounge at Mérida-Rejón Airport, the 4th lounge the airline has reopened since the pandemic.
British Airways & Heathrow Argue over £500 Million
5 British Airways and its parent group IAG are locked eye-to-eye with Heathrow airport in a battle over who should be stuck with a £500 million bill from LHR’s stalled third runway project.
Plans for Heathrow’s third runway were foiled in the courtroom this past February, and the airport is billing the airlines that operate at Heathrow for costs incurred by the airport on the runway project. This seems like a very clever way for the airport to not pay for anything. Shockingly, the airlines, led by BA, aren’t thrilled.
Outgoing IAG CEO Willie Walsh said that the airport spent recklessly knowing it planned to pass costs on to the airlines. An IAG spokesperson said that the airport should be responsible for its own sunk costs, just as any business would be. The airport responded, stating that billing airlines for expansion-related costs was agreed by the airlines and that the status quo should remain.
One would think that a compromise could exist and the two parties could meet over tea and make a decision that benefits them both. For example, instead of cash, BA could offer up a couple dozen 747s that LHR could position at gates to make it look like people are still flying.
Airline Potpourri
- Aeroflot is resuming three international routes this week: Moscow to Dubai, Cairo and Male.
- Aerolineas Argentinas rolled out an 80s retro livery to celebrate its 70th anniversary. Maybe they shoulda considered waiting to see if they make their 71st anniversary for this one.
- airBaltic resumed serving nine cities today from its Riga hub: Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Gothenburg, Lisbon, Prague, Reykjavik, Vienna, and Zurich.
- American is launching a new route, once-daily service between Appleton, WI (ATW) and its Charlotte hub.
- ANA is suspending service on five flights to three destinations — Phnom Penh (PNH), Yangon (RGN), and Manila. One Manila flight will still operate with 5x-weekly service.
- BA CityFlyer has resumed 5x-weekly service between London/City and Belfast.
- Etihad has begun offering complimentary Covid-19 insurance when flying with the airline.
- Israir tentatively plans to begin flights in October from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
- Lauda Europe completed its Maltese certification.
- Porter has again pushed back its relaunch date — this time to November 12.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
I asked an electrician to please come fix an electrical issue at my house.
Luckily, he refused.