United Pumps Up Its Thanksgiving Schedule
1 United Airlines will add as many as 1,400 flights to its schedule for Thanksgiving this year, making sure Americans can assert their right to visit family and argue over the results of the Presidential election with their relatives while stuffing their faces with turkey and ignoring the worsening pandemic.
In addition to the increased flight schedule, United will also swap larger aircraft as needed to accommodate the expected last-minute demand. UA believes as many as half of its Thanksgiving passengers will book now through Thanksgiving, compared to less than 40% who booked with less than 30 days before the holiday in 2019.
United also intends to increase flying in December for the holiday season, operating 52% of its December schedule from a year ago, a 3% increase from November. Internationally, UA will fly 43% of its schedule in December compared to last year, up 4% from November, with the bulk of the new flights being service to warm-weather beach destinations in Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
Air Canada Q3 Losses Force More Cutbacks
2 Air Canada’s Q3 earnings report showed an 83% drop in revenue, causing the airline to consider further cost reductions for 2021 and beyond. The airline posted just C$757 million in gross revenue for Q3 on a net loss of C$685 million.
Q3 cash burn was C$818 million, or C$9 million per day, which beat the airline’s expectation of closer to C$1.5 billion.
AC ended service to eight cities in Canada and suspended service to 30 others earlier this summer to contain costs and is now considering ending service to nine of the thirty suspended destinations indefinitely. The airline also will defer and cancel orders for 10 737 MAX and 12 Airbus A220 aircraft it currently has on order.
Moving forward, Air Canada expects to reduce its Q4 capacity 75% from Q4 in 2019. It expects a cash burn between C$1.1 and C$1.3 billion for the quarter, which amounts to $C12-14 million per day, or roughly what the average resident of Saskatchewan spends on Tim Horton’s coffee in a month.
Norway Tells Norwegian Air the Government Pocketbook is Tapped Out
3 Norway’s government announced it will no longer provide financial support for Norwegian Air, despite the airline making it clear that it would need the assistance to remain operating. The Norwegian government put $300 million into the airline in its first bailout agreement this past May, but that money has since run out.
As a result of the financial spigot turning off, the airline’s immediate first step is to furlough 1,600 employees and park 15 of its 21 aircraft that have been operating during the pandemic. With travel restrictions returning across much of Europe, the airline is not optimistic that it will recover from this setback.
Iselin Nybø, Norway’s minister for trade and industry, said that Norwegian had asked for billions of krone of support and that the government considered it wasn’t a “sound use” of community funds. Norwegian defiantly responded that there’s nothing wrong with an “unsound use” if “it feels good” to do it.
Norwegian employed more than 10,000 people prior to March, but will see that figure whittled down to about 600 active staff when this current round of furloughs is completed. The airline will continue to operate domestically within Norway on 11 routes from its Oslo hub and one more from Tromosø to Longyearbyen…. until it runs out of cash completely.
Starlux Shoots For the Moon on U.S. Expansion Plans
4 Taiwan-based Starlux Airlines, which began service earlier this year, announced the 15 U.S. cities to which it has requested operating rights in order to begin planned service in the summer of 2022. The airline is unlikely to end up serving all 15 cities, but it’s beginning the process to receive permission so that it can select those that make the most sense economically.
We’ve listed the gateways that the airline requested from the Taiwanese aviation authority below, but just because we like to mess with you, we added one that wasn’t actually on the list.
- Boston
- Chicago/O’Hare
- Dallas/Fort Worth
- Guam (GUM)
- Honolulu
- Houston/Intercontinental
- Los Angeles
- Miami
- New York/JFK
- Newark
- Ontario (ONT)
- San Francisco
- San Jose
- Seattle
- Waco
- Washington/Dulles
Starlux currently operates to five destinations in Southeast Asia from its Taipei hub, and will launch three new destinations — two in Japan and one in Thailand next month.
Lufthansa Begins Virus Testing Trial
5 Lufthansa is launching a pilot program of pre-flight antigen rapid virus testing on two of its daily flights between Munich and Hamburg with the goal of having 100% negative-testing passengers and crew onboard. If successful, it will expand the testing to more flights and destinations throughout its network.
Beginning November 12, the airline will test passengers on the two daily flights, one in each direction, two hours prior to departure. During the trial, there is no cost to the passenger. Results will be returned within 30-60 minutes and only those who return a negative result will be permitted to board.
Passengers who prefer not to take the test can change to another one of Lufthansa’s flights between Munich and Hamburg at no charge.
The program from Lufthansa comes after Alitalia tried a similar testing program on flights from Rome to Milan earlier this year. Alitalia’s program was less successful because the airline mistakenly ordered pregnancy tests instead of Covid tests and many passengers were not willing to consent to take the pregnancy test.
Airline Potpourri
- Alaska announced that CEO Brad Tilden is retiring in March, and that Ben Minicucci will take over the role of CEO.
- British Airways has suspended its flights from London/Heathrow to Inverness (INV) due to the current lockdown in the U.K.
- Delta and Air France have been given permission by the Indian government to codeshare between each other on flights to India.
- Miami Air, which ceased operations in May plans to relaunch in December, having acquired a single Boeing 737-800.
- Porter Airways has delayed its restart for the sixth time, now aiming for February 11 as the date it resumes service. Somewhere Lucy is holding a football near her friend Charlie Brown and laughing while she reads the announcement from Porter.
- Singapore posted a record loss on its Q3 earnings report of SG$1.7 billion (~US$1.3 billion).
- United is reopening four United Clubs in time for the holidays. The airline is opening second clubs at three hubs: Denver, Houston/Intercontinental, and Washington/Dulles along with the Honolulu club.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
Two hats were chatting on a hat rack when both said they were ready to go home for the day. The one hat said to the other, you stay here, I’ll go on ahead.