September 18, 2020

Emirates Plans Flights to Israel

1 As a part of the burgeoning diplomatic relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, Emirates Airline is planning on operating regular commercial service between Dubai and Tel Aviv.

Both El Al and Israir have announced plans to operate between the two nations, with Emirates now planning to join the fray as soon as January 2021.

Most notably for Emirates, the airline has plans to open a kosher catering facility in Dubai to cater the Israeli flights. Emirates already offered kosher meals aboard its flights, but the meals were outsourced. It now expects to have its kosher catering facility up in-time for its flights to Israel to commence. For the facility to be considered compliant, it will adhere to all standards set forth by Kosher dietary laws. That includes a jewish mother on every Emirates flight insisting that passengers “haven’t eaten enough” and bringing them second and third servings despite being completely full.


El Al Has a New Owner

2 Sticking with Israel for the moment… Eli Rozenberg is the new controlling owner of El Al after he purchased 42.85% of the company for $150 million.

The airline has been essentially shutdown since March and wasn’t anywhere near profitable prior to the shutdown. The Israeli government offered up a loan of $250 million with the condition that the airline put out a public share offering. Rozenberg took advantage, purchasing the controlling interest with the backing of his father, the CEO of New York-based nursing home chain Centers Health Care.

The state of Israel, committed to purchasing any unsold shares of the airline, has agreed to purchase between 12 and 15% of the airline at a price tag of about $30 million.

El Al flew 5.8 million passengers and 74,500 tons of cargo in 2019. 74,000 of the 74,500 tons of cargo were bagels and lox being shipped from New York back to Israel.


Delta & LATAM Receive JV Approval from Brazil

3 After a challenging couple weeks for Delta Air Lines, the airline finally received some good news: Brazil approved the proposed joint venture between the airline and LATAM without any conditions.

The approval was the first of many as for the JV to receive in order to be allowed to operate freely. Chile and the United States, the home of the two airlines are expected to be the most challenging regulatory approvals. 

The JV was announced a year ago, and has been marked by starts and stops, some of which were pandemic-related and some of which were not. Delta was forced to pay $62 million to LATAM earlier in the summer when it cancelled a deal to buy four A350 aircraft from the airline.

To celebrate the regulatory approval in Brazil, Delta invited LATAM officials to appetizers and cocktails at One Flew South located in Concourse E at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. The group enjoyed their hors d’oeuvres before the LATAM contingent flew home to Santiago via Miami on American.


Comair to Return to the South African Skies

4 Comair plans to return to the skies in South Africa after six months of being grounded due to the pandemic and an untenable economic situation.

The airline plans to resume flying as early as this December, ramping up over the winter and spring before returning to something resembling a full operation in June of 2021.  

The business will shrink from about 2,200 jobs to 1,800 through early retirement buyouts and unpaid leave offers. All 2,200 jobs were on the potential chopping block before the rescue plan that allowed the airline to re-emerge was able to save the bulk of the positions.

Comair also plans to maintain a fleet of 25 aircraft, including two Boeing 737 MAX, er 737-8, er, whatever… both of which can fly safely. Seriously, Boeing swears by it.


Thai Simulates Revenue Generation

5 Thai Airways is offering up time in its simulators in a desperation heave to create revenue during the pandemic.

The airline is marketing itself to the very small subset of people who both live in Bangkok and have an interest in paying to operate an airline’s aircraft simulator. Three packages are on offer, ranging from 30 to 90 minutes in the simulator and can be had for as little as 12,500 miles.

Customers can simulate flying on any Thai aircraft, including the A380, and will be supervised by Thai pilots. Once the session has been completed, each participant will be offered a Captain job flying for Pakistan International.


Airline Potpourri

  • Alitalia will fly two flights between Rome and Milan with passengers who are all proven to have negative COVID tests.
  • Air Canada may not be offering refunds to customers for canceled flights, but by God, they’ve got COVID travel insurance available.
  • Air India is reportedly losing money on 90% of its routes, to which Alitalia executives said “We need to figure out what they’re doing right!”
  • Copa has resumed service from its Panama City hub to Washington/Dulles.
  • Hong Kong Airlines offered pilots both unpaid leave and pay cuts in order to keep as many jobs as possible.
  • Norwegian has committed to cutting its CO2 admissions by 45% by 2030. Be sure and remain subscribed to Cranky Daily until 2030 to see how this turns out. We’re pretty confident the airline can get to 100% before then.
  • Pakistan International Airlines has announced that all passengers under two years old can fly their planes fly for free with a paying adult. If they aren’t flying with a paying adult, one might wonder why they’re flying in the first place, and how they’re going to get to the airport.
  • Ryanair hopes to take delivery of 30-40 737 MAX jets by summer of 2021. It’s also cutting capacity 20% in October because it was again annoyed by something the EU & Irish governments did – or didn’t do. Who can really keep up anymore?

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

A farmer counted 196 cows in the field. But when he rounded them up, he had 200.