December 15, 2020

Pete Buttigieg to be Nominated for Transportation Secretary

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg to lead the Department of Transportation as Transportation Secretary in his administration when it begins on January 20.

Buttigieg is expected to play a central role in Biden’s push for a bipartisan infrastructure package. He will be charged with spearheading the effort to rebuild America’s aviation industry which has been pummeled by the pandemic even though he has little to no experience in this area.

Under Buttigieg’s leadership, the DOT is expected to also set three secondary priorities that are rather controversial: 1) the removal of the community of rodents that live in New York’s LaGuardia airport, 2) making a federal standard for whether or not first class passengers are entitled to a pre-departure beverage on regional jets, and 3) mandating all airlines serve South Bend with widebody aircraft.

Assuming he’s confirmed, Buttigieg will become the first cabinet secretary to openly be a member of the LGBTQ community. He will also be the most famous person to be known nationwide from South Bend since Rudy.


Air Transat Finally Approves Merger with Air Canada

After numerous stops and starts, shareholders at Air Transat approved their merger with Air Canada with an overwhelming 91% of the vote. Shareholders will receive C$5 per share of Air Transat or an equivalent value in AC shares.

Just before the vote, Air Transat received an 11th hour offer of $6 per share from an unknown third party. Sources tell Cranky that the mystery bid came from a group of disgraced former Pakistani pilots who lost their jobs with PIA for not being pilots and saw a takeover as Air Transat as their way back into the skies.

Air Transat’s preliminary agreement with Air Canada only allowed it to entertain competing offers for C$6 per share, and while this third-party offer did meet that criteria, the airline board chose to decline it, believing it fell short in other areas, such as timing, financing, and related conditions.


Venezuela Bans Panamanian Airlines and Halts Service to Panama and Dominican Republic

Venezuelan Dictator President Nicolas Maduro announced in a televised address that his country would be banning flights to and from Panama and the Dominican Republic. According to the Panamanian government, the action is a result of a disagreement regarding the number of weekly frequencies allowed between the two countries.

When service between the two nations resumed after being on hold due to the pandemic, Copa flew three weekly flights into Venezuela with Venezuela granted nine weekly flights into Panama. The Venezuelan government asked Panama for an increase in weekly flights, and Panama asked for the same in exchange. The Maduro government rationally reacted to Panama’s request by unilaterally canceling all flights on Panamanian carriers. It then went further by also banning flights to the Dominican Republic after Maduro was kicked out of the Nickelodeon Resort for hogging all the green slime.

The ban precludes Copa from operating in Venezuela, connecting Venezuelans to the world through its hub in Panama City. The only countries left with air service to connect Venezuelans are Mexico, Turkey, and Iran, a group of three countries that have possibly never been together in a list before. In the meantime, Venezuelans can enjoy their flight to London via Tehran. 


Virgin Australia to Offer Status Match to (Almost) Everyone 

As Virgin Australia 2.0 returns to the Australian domestic market, the airline is attempting to acquire frequent fliers from Qantas and its oneworld partners, along with any airline that a Qantas aircraft has parked next to at an airport in the last 10 years.

Last week, Virgin Australia launched a “Discover Gold” program, offering a status match for all Qantas gold and platinum members to elite status on Virgin Australia. Today, the airline not only extended the deadline for Qantas status matches to January 4, but it opened up the status match to all oneworld airlines. But it didn’t stop there — also offering a status match to Qantas’s non-oneworld partners Emirates and Air New Zealand plus oneworld Connect member Fiji Airways and future world-dominating startup Avatar Airlines.

Those that match to gold will receive status for three months, with very easily-attainable thresholds to earn a full year’s worth of elite status. Customers who match to gold and do not achieve the requirements to earn status for a full year will have their gold status dropped and Virgin Australia has the right to require the passenger to wear a kangaroo suit when flying on Qantas for the following 12 months.


JSX Files Suit Against Orange County Airport

JSX filed a lawsuit in United States District Court to stop Orange County Airport (SNA) from banning JSX from operating at the airport. JSX has served Orange County since June of 2018, currently offering service to three destinations: Las Vegas, Oakland, and Reno.

The airline alleges that SNA prohibited the two fixed based operators from working with JSX or negotiating a lease agreement… which is entirely true. The airport says JSX has to use passenger terminals like everyone else, but that is not JSX’s model. JSX offered to arm wrestle over it, but the airport declined so now… lawsuits.

The airport informed JSX it would be forced to leave the airport on January 1 as far back as September. JSX has double-down by adding new service and hoping it would be able to stay.


Airline Potpourri

  • Air Canada has added the option to pay for in-flight wifi using Aeroplan points. Now that this is possible, officials from Delta are considering the same thing, at a starting price of 1000 Skymiles per minute.
  • China Airlines has taken delivery of its first Boeing 777 Freighter.
  • Emirates will resume daily service to Istanbul on December 21.
  • Flybondi has resumed domestic operations in Argentina after suspending all flights in March. The airline is operating to 12 cities and has moved its base across town to Buenos Aires/Ezeiza (EZE) from Buenos Aires/El Palomar (EPA).
  • GlobalX is launching its first tour operator, CubaX, to fly daily charter service between Miami and Havana in 2021.
  • Qatar has resumed flying to London/Gatwick, operating to the airport 3x-weekly on its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

I’ve looked into it myself and brought it to a repair shop, and we cannot figure out why my calculator just stopped working. It just doesn’t add up.