November 2, 2020

New York State Doles Out Shorter Quarantines… But It’s Now for Everyone

1 New York State announced new guidelines for visitors to the state, eliminating the 14-day quarantine for people arriving from states and territories that were on New York’s “Bad List,” and instead implementing a four-day quarantine for everyone.

Those visiting New York, or residents returning to the state after being away for more than 24 hours, are required to take a COVID-19 test within three days before returning to New York. That will be followed by three days of quarantine and then a second test on day four. Assuming both tests come back negative, no further quarantine is necessary. Anyone who does not want to take the virus test can still quarantine for 14 days upon returning to the state, which, depending on where you are in New York, isn’t a dealbreaker.

Those exempted from these new requirements include travelers from states adjacent to New York as well as essential workers and any rodents which are living or working at either LaGuardia or JFK.

The new guidelines are effective this Wednesday, November 4.


Dutch Government Pulls Plug on KLM Bailout Payments

2 The Dutch government has halted payments to KLM that the airline says are crucial for it to continue operating. KLM is the oldest airline in the world and has been in operation since 1919, or almost how long it takes to change terminals at CDG. The stopped payments are due to a disagreement between the airline and its pilots on revised employment terms due to the pandemic. 

KLM has requested its pilots accept a pay freeze until 2025 to help the airline survive the downturn in demand, but its pilots union refused the offer. One condition of the €3.4 billion bailout package from the government required the airline to renegotiate pay freezes with each segment of its workforce. Ground staff, cabin crew, and pilots would need to agree to new contracts with givebacks in place for the length of the loan period — through mid 2025.

Discussions with ground and cabin staff and their unions has progressed far enough, but conversations with the pilots are stalled, forcing the government choosing to call their bluff and threaten to pull funding altogether.  The pilots suggested they take the balance of the pay increases they would not receive and put them on red for one spin of the roulette wheel at the casino at Schiphol Airport, but both the airline and government declined the offer.

Air France/KLM reported a €1.7 billion loss for Q3 2019 and is expected to cut at least 12,000 jobs in the coming weeks. The funding from the government is crucial to ensure the airline continues to operate uninterrupted in 2021 and beyond. 


Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport Finally Opens

3 Just 10 years behind schedule, Berlin’s Brandenburg Airport (BER) finally opened — albeit in the midst of a global pandemic that has driven air travel demand to its lowest point in history.

Berlin has had plans for a centralized airport for 30 years, since German reunification, but it only becomes reality next week when all traffic is condolidated at BER. The old primary West German airport, Tegel — which was once designed as a temporary stopgap similar to United’s temporary Concourses C & D at Dulles — will continue to operate until next week when it will shut down following, we assume, a blowout David Hasselhoff concert.

BER sits on top of the same footprint as the old East German airport, Schönefeld. That terminal has now become BER’s Terminal 5. While the airport will not have a high-speed rail connection like most airports in Berlin, it does have commuter and regional rail trains that offer service into Berlin’s main train station to connect to Duetsche Bahn rail service all over Europe.


Qantas Halts Ticket Sales to US & UK 

4 Qantas has stopped selling tickets on its own flights to both the United States and the United Kingdom for the next calendar year, with nothing available for purchase through October 2021.

The airline had previously stopped selling long-haul flights to destinations beyond the South Pacific through March, but this extension keeps the flights off sale for another six months entirely. In addition to pulling flights to the United States and United Kingdom, the airline has also stopped selling its service to both Johannesburg and Santiago.

Despite the lack of positive news on the US and UK, Qantas does expect to operate some international service sooner rather than later. Travel bubbles in Southeast Asia and Oceania are possible, with Qantas considering opening up service to new cities including Seoul and and Taipei. Both cities said they would welcome the new service from Qantas, provided the airline comes up with a pre-flight testing program — not for COVID — but to ensure no Vegemite was flown into their cities.


UK Startup flypop Receives Investment from UK Government

5 flypop, a UK startup airline that plans to begin flying in 2021 announced that it is receiving funding from the UK Government’s Future Fund. The airline is also completing its final funding round and is beginning to negotiate low-cost airport deals in both the UK and India. 

flypop calls itself the UK’s only long-haul, low-cost airline, which is generous because it hasn’t started flying yet. More accurately, it hopes to be the UK’s only long-haul, low-cost airline when it launches service between the UK and India next year. But considering that the airline has less than 1,000 followers on Twitter and gasp — doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page yet — calling itself an airline is premature. It’s an idea, not an airline, and it’ll probably lose less money if it stays that way.


Airline Potpourri

  • Blue Air will move its flights from its Bucharest hub to London/Heathrow effective December 1. The airline has been operating to London/Luton.
  • easyJet says it will require aid from the UK government in order to continue operating and it plans to dramatically cut its number of flights in and out of London/Gatwick as the UK’s new travel lockdown looms.
  • InterJet canceled all of its flights for Sunday and Monday while it tried to scrounge up enough cash between the couch cushions to pay for fuel for its aircraft.
  • ITA, the new Italian carrier that will succeed Alitalia as Italy’s flag carrier was formally founded on Friday. Alitalia will be selling all of its assets — which includes aircraft, a Twitter handle, 18 minis of wine, and some parmesan cheese which expires soon — to the new airline.
  • Ryanair reported losses of €197 million for the six months ending September 30.
  • SkyWest received two new EAS contracts — it will inaugurate service from Houston/Intercontinental to Victoria, TX (VCT) on November 10. On December 2, it will begin 12 weekly flights from Johnstown, PA (JST) to both Washington/Dulles and Chicago/O’Hare. The airline is taking over for Boutique Air on both routes.
  • Vistara plans to increase its fleet from 43 to 70 aircraft by 2023.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

My computer says that my software update will be auto-installed tonight, but I’ve never seen a car that can do that sort of thing.