January 21, 2021

Oops, our bad: In Monday’s Cranky Daily we underreported United’s Q4 loss by an order of several magnitudes. Unfortunately for United, it’s loss was $1.9 billion – not $1.9 million, which we reported.

Southwest Reveals Routes & Schedules for Two New Destinations

Southwest Airlines announced last month it would add two cities in California to its route map – Santa Barbara (SBA) and Fresno (FAT) – and today released the schedules and routes for the pair.

Santa Barbara will begin service first, starting on April 12. From SBA, Southwest will fly nonstop to three cities, each a major hub for the airline – even if it refuses to call them hubs. Denver and Oakland will each see once-daily service from SBA while Las Vegas hits the jackpot, receiving three daily flights.

Southwest’s Fresno flights will begin two weeks later on April 25. From Fresno, WN will fly to two cities – Denver and Las Vegas. Similar to SBA, it’ll be once-daily to Denver and three to Vegas. Those Oakland locals will just have to drive if they want to visit Fresno.

These new cities and routes come as Southwest has expanded its footprint in California during the pandemic. The airline is now offering flights to 13 cities in the state, after adding Palm Springs (PSP) last month in addition to dramatically increasing its presence at Long Beach (LGB) after JetBlue dramatically abandoned pulled out to shift its focus in the region to LAX.


Hawai’i and Hawaiian Looking to Make it Easier to Visit the State

State of Hawai’i Lieutenant Governor Josh Green is hopeful travelers to the state who have completed a COVID-19 vaccine program will be permitted to opt out of the state’s arrival requirements of a negative PCR test within 72 hours of travel or mandatory quarantine.

Green presented his plan to the governor, intending to put the policy in place as early as this spring. The state is currently waiting on a CDC study to confirm that those who have been vaccinated are no longer a risk to transmit the virus via person-to-person contact.

For those who haven’t been vaccinated, however, Hawaiian Airlines is expanding its Pre-Clear Program, which allows passengers from Hawaiian’s gateways on the mainland to clear their mandatory COVID screening before departure, reducing the amount of time between wheels down and the first ocean-view mai tai once they land in paradise. The program launched last week in San Francisco and will begin next week at four airports: Boston, Long Beach, New York/JFK, and Phoenix. Hawaiian plans to introduce the Pre-Clear Program to its remaining mainland destinations next month.


Norwegian Receives Government Support in Restructuring Process

Norwegian Air announced today that the Norwegian government has pledged its support for the airline amid the restructuring of its route network and operations. Norwegian announced earlier this month its plan to end its long-haul flying and focus on short-haul routes within Europe and its domestic network in Norway. Now it might have enough money to actually see if that plan might work.

The airline entered into examinership in Ireland late last year as well as financial reconstruction in Norway. The Norwegian government rejected the initial overture from the airline but is pleased with the plan presented last week. Along with the elimination of its long-haul network, Norwegian plans to cut its debt, reduce its fleet of aircraft down to 50 while gradually increasing to 70 aircraft by 2022, and force all passengers to eat pickled herring.

The government will assist the airline in finding investors and leading it through the financial reconstruction. Norway will ensure that domestic jobs with the airline will remain secure while the airline undergoes these dramatic changes.


Qatar and Iberia Cuddle Up

Qatar Airways is continuing to build on its worldwide network of partners, signing an expanded codeshare agreement with fellow Oneworld carrier Iberia, an airline it partially owns via its investment in IAG.

Many in the industry do not believe it to be a coincidence that the announcement came one day after yesterday’s Cranky Daily mentioned that Iberia’s team of executives have access to the delicious Spanish candy Conguitos.

With the new agreement, Qatar passengers can take advantage of travel to 40 destination in Iberia’s network on the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America. Iberia passengers will now have access to 36 routes on Qatar’s network including seven new destinations in Angola, Australia, Mozambique, and South Africa – four countries that have likely never been on a list together before.


Emirates Reverses Course, Resumes Flying to Australia

After suspending service to Australia until April just last week, Emirates Airline reversed its decision and is now planning to return early next week.

Emirates will resume flying to Sydney on January 25, followed by Melbourne on January 26 and Brisbane on January 28. The airline made the decision to pull back on its Australian flights when the country announced a double whammy of restrictions for international carriers – a cut in half off the cap of international visitors Australia would admit into the country per week along with harsher quarantine requirements for all visitors, including airline crew. The new regulation also requires international airline crew to perform a joint rendition of Waltzing Matilda upon entry into the country.

Emirates will stick with its original plan to only offer seats in its first class cabin for sale on its Australian flights – meaning only eight seats will be for sale per flight at about $6,000 each. It does plan to add business class seats as an option, and then eventually economy. In the meantime it will ferry first class passengers, and more importantly, cargo from Dubai to the three Australian cities.


Airline Potpourri

  • Air Serbia will launch twice-weekly service to Geneva, beginning March 1.
  • American disclosed on Tuesday that it will receive $3.09 billion from the federal government as a part of its PSP loan.
  • Flyarystan will launch five new destinations from Kazakhstan this March when its fleet of A320s grows to eight.
  • KLM expects to cut another 1,000 jobs from its workforce in the near-future, bringing it total number of job losses since the onset of the pandemic to 6,000.
  • Lufthansa will operate the longest passenger flight in the 68-year history of the airline on February 1. LH2574 will fly 92 passengers on an Airbus 350-900 nonstop from Hamburg to RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN) in the Falkland Islands. The one-way journey will clock in at about 15 hours of flight time to cover just over 8500 miles.
  • Lufthansa Cargo received approval to overhaul its main logistics center in Frankfurt. The work is expected to be completed by 2028. Hopefully you don’t need your package before then.
  • Okay Airlines did just fine in its negotiations with Aergo Capital, the new lessor on a Boeing 737-800 the Chinese airline operates.
  • Qantas is considering launching nonstop flights to India once travel begins to recover towards pre-pandemic levels or in the year 2100, whichever comes first.
  • Singapore began program on Tuesday, where passengers can book their pre-departure PCR test through the airline and receive their results in one online portal. The program has begun in three cities: Singapore, Jakarta, and Medan, Indonesia (KNO). The airline plans to expand to more cities in the coming weeks.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

Here’s something. If you buy a bigger bed, you have more bed room, but less bedroom.