Flight Attendants Union Wants Rioters Banned from the Skies
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the largest flight attendant union in the country, is pushing for the pro-Trump rioters who stormed into the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to be barred from flying home.
The union is concerned for the safety of its members and other passengers on-board, with Wednesday’s seditious breach of the Capitol having been preceded by multiple incidents on-board planes en route to Washington earlier this week.
U.S. airlines are stepping up their safety and security measures this week, but realistically there’s no way to identify most who were or were not at the Capitol yesterday (except for this guy who wisely wore his work ID as he committed a crime), and there isn’t legal standing to prevent them from boarding an airplane. That being said, we strongly believe that denying boarding to anyone who dresses like this in public is good airline policy — terrorist or not.
In a memo to its staff sent late Wednesday, Delta Air Lines stated that it was working with safety, security, and law enforcement to increase security efforts at the big three Washington airports: DCA, IAD, and BWI. American Airlines announced it would not be offering alcohol on its flights to or from any of those Washington airports, which may seem prudent, but often the booze is the only enjoyable part of an AA flight.
Boeing to Pay $2.5 Billion in MAX Settlement
Boeing and the U.S. Department of Justice agreed today that Boeing will pay a $2.5 billion settlement to resolve the criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States following a DOJ investigation into the two 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people. Pretty sure that’s not the kind of thing Boeing will be putting on its LinkedIn page.
The settlement is part of a deferred prosecution agreement and includes a criminal monetary penalty of $243.6 million, $1.77 billion in compensation to the airlines that operated the MAX, and $500 million to a crash-victims beneficiaries fund.
As part of the deal, the DOJ agrees to defer further prosecution of Boeing and will dismiss the charge in three years, provided the manufacturer abides by the obligations it agreed to with the DOJ over the three-year period.
Man Applauded Sentenced for Defrauding Spirit
Hubbard Bell, a former employee of regional carrier Mesa Airlines was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after his conviction for fraudulently obtaining more than 2,000 free flights for himself and his friends on Spirit. When asked his thoughts on the jail term, Bell said that after spending that much time jammed up in the seats aboard Spirit, he was confident his jail cell would be an upgrade.
An employee burden perk for Mesa employees included free tickets on Spirit, by entering personal information on Spirit’s web portal for Mesa employees. After being fired from Mesa in November 2017 — which is surprising because it seems like this guy would be a model employee — Bell worked with his fellow henchmen to sell stolen and unauthorized information about current Mesa employees to access the web portal for the free flights.
He even manufactured fake Mesa employee ID cards for the fraudulent travelers in order to appear to be the employees they were impersonating.
At sentencing the judge said that he considered all facts of the case and felt a 30-month sentence was plenty, along with restitution of the base value of the stolen tickets. 1,953 flights were found to be flown fraudulently, leading Bell to owe Spirit $12,540 in restitution, after an average of just $6.42 base fare per flight. The judge, who is likely EXP on AA has no idea about all of Spirit’s bases and fees, letting Bell off light.
Ireland to Require Negative PCR Test for Arrivals from Great Britain and South Africa
Beginning January 9, all arrivals into Ireland from either South Africa or the strange foreign nation of Great Britain will be required to provide a negative PCR test upon arrival into the country. If unable, they will be cursed at, given a pint of beer, and sent back whence they came.
Ireland had banned flights from Great Britain for the last several days, but the ban will expire at midnight on January 8, being replaced by the new, stricter testing measures.
Aer Lingus, which had halted all flights between Ireland and the UK plans to resume flights on Saturday. It will enforce the Irish order during the boarding process in the UK gateway. Passengers who cannot produce the test will be denied boarding.
Angry Man Screams at Cloud Ryanair Reduces Traffic Forecast
Ryanair has reduced the total number of passengers it expects to carry in the fiscal year ending March 2021 from 35 million to between 25 and 30 million.
As is it’s wont to do, the airline put our a statement angrily blaming the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom for being responsible for its ills and struggles. Specifically, it takes issues with lockdowns and border closings, preventing the airline from flying its full schedule. While it seems likely that both governments have made a misstep or two, as all governments inevitably might, just once the government needs to put out a release detailing all the things it believes Ryanair has done wrong with its business.
On the bright side, Ryanair believes the thousands of canceled flight won’t lead to further losses on its bottom line because they would have been money-losing flights anyway. So to sum up, Ryanair wants Ireland and the UK to drop lockdowns and border closings so it can transport more passengers on flights that it knows will not make money. Okay.
In a statement released by the airline, Ryanair ranted, “NPHET [Ireland’s Public Health Team], which we believe has mismanaged many aspects of Ireland’s Covid response….” We understand Ryanair also blames the Irish health group for yesterday’s assault on the U.S. Capitol and for Ireland’s poor showing on the world soccer stage.
Airline Potpourri
- Air HongKong is taking delivery of a new A330-343 to use for its partnership with DHL transporting cargo to the island.
- Alaska is adding two new routes to Southern California. Daily nonstop service from LAX to Austin will begin on March 18 and will increase to 3x-daily on May 20. Daily nonstop service from San Diego to New York/JFK will begin April 4.
- Cathay Pacific will resume flying from Hong Kong to London/Heathrow on January 12. Flights back to Hong Kong from London will remain suspended through at least January 25.
- Lufthansa has raised €500 million since July for aircraft financing. Kudos to them.
- Norwegian is returning many of its planes — up to 72 of them — back to Shannon (SNN) to be returned to lessors.
- SkySafari will launch the first-ever East Africa private plane safari to Kenya and Tanzania in May.
- Vistara will operate twice-weekly service between Delhi and Frankfurt beginning February 18.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
My least-favorite color is purple. I dislike it more than red and blue combined.