September 28, 2020

American Receives $5.5 Billion Loan 

1 American Airlines announced that it received a loan of $5.5 billion from the federal government with the possibility of another $2 billion if the Treasury is willing to allocate additional funds that were reserved for other airlines that don’t need it.

Delta and Southwest have both said they would not take any loan money from the government as they navigate the eventual recovery from the virus pandemic, instead preferring to go on Pawn Stars and hawk some old airplanes to raise cash.

American, the most indebted major U.S. airline, said that borrowing from the government comes at about half the price of borrowing from the private sector. To that, millions of American taxpayers collectively nodded their heads and said “Yup.”


United, Pilots Officially Avoid Furloughs

2 United Airlines and its 13,000 pilots have officially agreed to a deal to avert layoffs and furloughs just before the clock strikes midnight on the CARES Act. The agreement will save the jobs of the 2,850 pilots who were at risk of being furloughed this week.

The current agreement prevents any United pilot from being furloughed until at least June. It also offers a second round of buyout options for all pilots who are aged 50 or above with 10 years of experience. The agreement will spread the remaining flying amongst all pilots, causing a reduction in pay for everyone but no job losses. 

Avoiding furloughs also saves United the future cost of rehiring and retraining the pilots when demand returns and the furloughed staff are brought back on-board. To celebrate the agreement, United is sending a slightly-used Polaris amenity kit to each pilot, plus a set of Continental wings pins it found in a storage room in Cleveland during quarantine.


Delta Plans to Unveil New Aircraft on November 10

3 Delta will be adding a new aircraft type into service in less than six weeks, as the airline plans to debut the A220-300, a slightly larger version of the A220-100 that airline has been operating since early 2019.

Delta will become the second customer to put the -300 into service, following Air Canada this past January. Delta’s version of the aircraft will feature 130 seats — including 12 in first and 30 in Comfort Plus — as opposed to 109 seats on the -100.

The first flight will be DL718, operating from Salt Lake City to Houston/Intercontinental at 1:35 p.m. on November 10. Pre-flight ceremonies are expected to include a mask and Biscoff party pack for all passengers and a ceremonial sanitizing of the big scissors before the ceremonial ribbon cutting.


Intelsat Tells Delta it Can Support Free Wifi

4 Intelsat, which is in the process of purchasing Gogo’s commercial aviation unit, told Delta that it can provide the bandwidth and revenue necessary to support free wifi aboard Delta flights.

Delta ran a limited test earlier in the year offering free wifi on select flights and found that the bandwith was so poor that the experience wasn’t worth offering to its passengers. But with Delta exploring options elsewhere, including options under a newly amended 2Ku agreement with Gogo, it will be on Intelsat to keep the wide swath of business Delta offers it.


Wizz Air, Hungarian Air Force Announce Agreement

5 Wizz Air and the Hungarian Air Force announced that the two will begin a common training program to the benefit of both organizations. Wizz Air will provide training for the Air Force’s A319 flight crew, both pilots and cabin crew, and will offer its two A320 simulators for Air Force pilots.

In exchange, the Air Force will allow Wizz to use Kecskemét Air Base for diversions. Previously, Wizz Air planes needing diversion in the southeastern part of Hungary were forced to divert to Vienna or Bratislava which led to logistical issues of diverting to a different country.

Further, Wizz will have the opportunity to swap out Airbus airplanes for Gripen fighters as long as only one passenger needs to travel. With demand down during the pandemic, this is just the size airplane Wizz needs.


Airline Potpourri

  • Air France will operate roughly half of its schedule from a year ago during November and December.
  • Air New Zealand has announced a second 12-month extension of elite status for all its members.
  • Delta plans to retire its entire fleet of Boeing 717 and 767-300ER aircraft by December 2025, with all of its CRJ-200’s retired by December 2023. We’ll be reporting back in 2025 to see if the airline followed through.
  • JetBlue will reportedly be operating from Boston and New York/JFK to London/Heathrow in 2021. The airline had announced its intention to fly to London, but had not announced an airport.
  • Mango was grounded on Sunday and will be indefinitely as its maintenance contractor walked off the job due to not being paid. Reportedly, the airline tried to make it up to them with thousands of mangos, but the contractor insisted on cash.
  • Peach, which is resisting merger talks with Mango, took delivery of its first A320 Neo. This was only possible because of Airbus’s willingness to accept thousands of peaches as payment.
  • Oman Air is returning to the air this Thursday, October 1.
  • Qantas has said it won’t return the A380 to service until at least 2023.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

I saw an article on the web last night about the best uses for leftover bacon. I’d never heard of such a thing.