United Previews Anemic November Schedule
1 United will be filing its November schedule plans this weekend, and it has given a sneak preview of what will be rolled out. There is only modest growth compared to October, but that growth comes primarily in sun destinations as the US heads toward a long, cold winter.
The November schedule will see United operate 49% of its domestic schedule and 38% of its international schedule leading to a combined total of 44% versus last year. That is a slight increase over the 40% operated in October.
Look for a lot more Florida flying along with hot spots Redmond/Bend (OR), Boise, and Palm Springs. (This is likely the first time in recorded history that Boise has been called a hot spot.) There will also be limited international growth including a return to Santiago and Rio de Janeiro.
For more, visit crankyflier.com on Monday morning.
Delta Grounds A220s Due to Crew Shortage
2 Delta has sent nine of its fleet of A220s into storage, because it doesn’t have enough trained crew to fly the airplanes. Previously, Delta had been flying all of its A220s, seeing the small, efficient aircraft as ideal for the lowered demand during the pandemic.
Reports that the entire fleet was grounded have proven untrue. Delta spokesperson and perfectly-named future soap opera star Drake Castañeda explained in an email:
Based on adjustments we’ve made to our network and pilot staffing plan due to the impact of the pandemic and the time it takes to retrain pilots to new fleet types, we will temporarily park a portion of our Airbus A220-100 aircraft. There will be no impact to customers or changes to our current network schedule as we will shift A220 flying to other aircraft.
What Drake didn’t say is that Delta will reactivate some old DC-3s it found in the corner of the Monroe airport, so passengers may see a slightly degraded level of service until A220 pilot training is completed.
ExpressJet Flies for the Last Time
3 Wednesday marked the last day of operations for ExpressJet. The airline had most recently been flying solely as United Express, but United opted to consolidate its Embraer regional jet flying with Commutair, leaving ExpressJet as the odd man out.
ExpressJet began life in the 1990s when smaller regionals were bound together as Continental Express. Later in life, Continental spun off ExpressJet and it even flew under its own brand as a small-scale Southwest-style operation for a time. ExpressJet merged with Atlantic Southeast under SkyWest’s ownership until it was sold to a company partially-owned by United in recent years. Perfectly clear, right?
ExpressJet’s last flights all descended on Houston in two waves on Wednesday. The larger first wave arrived early in the morning with barely a half dozen in the final wave getting to Houston in the early afternoon. The final flight to land, ExpressJet 4001, arrived from Memphis at 1:24pm.
Over the last couple weeks, ExpressJet has been sending airplanes primarily to Knoxville and Kingman (AZ) to be turned into beer cans for storage.
Emirates Fined $400,000 for Flying Over Iran
4 Emirates has been slapped with a $400,000 fine for flying between the US and Dubai over Iranian airspace. Though Emirates says this punishment is unwarranted, it agreed to pay the fine.
It seems odd that the US government would be able to dictate flight paths, but thanks to a loophole in the Fly America Act, it had jurisdiction. Fly America requires those traveling on government business to fly on an American airline unless there is no option to do so. With no US airlines serving Dubai, JetBlue partnered with Emirates to sell seats under the JetBlue code on an Emirates flight so it could get the government contract.
When the US government banned overflights of Iran due to safety concerns, Emirates kept on chugging along. Now it has to pay.
Ryanair May Be Looking to Buy More MAX Aircraft… Or Not
5 A report out of Ireland suggests that Ryanair is looking at adding to its existing order of Boeing 737 MAX aircraft with an additional 150 to 200 airframes, but not everyone agrees.
Ryanair CEO Eddie Wilson told Reuters that the airline’s priority now is simply to get its existing order for 135 aircraft flying. It also has options for 75 further aircraft on the books. That being said, Ryanair has always been one for a good deal.
The list price of a 737 MAX 200 (the high-density version of the 737 MAX 8) hovers around $125 million, but no airline ever pays list price. Things are so bad for Boeing right now that Ryanair must be salivating at the idea of knocking the price down to previously-unheard of levels.
Airline Potpourri
- American has expanded its testing program for flights to Costa Rica… for those people Costa Rica will allow in.
- Berlin Brandenburg Airport has received its operating permit, meaning it may actually open later this month after a decade of delays.
- Green Africa, a Nigerian start-up, has delayed launch until early 2021.
- Oman Air and Salam Air — both from Oman — have signed a codeshare agreement.
- Philippine Airlines will cut 35% of its workforce.
- ProFlight Zambia has begun regular international operations again with flights from Lusaka to Johannesburg.
- Ukraine International will resume flying nonstop to New York next spring.
David’s Moment of Levity
When life gives you melons, you’re dyslexic.