February 8, 2021

American Adds Tel Aviv, More from Miami

American Airlines announced today two new routes from its Miami hub, introducing service to Paramaribo, Suriname (PBM) and making Miami its third city to serve Tel Aviv.  In addition to the two international routes, American is also adding new summer service to two domestic destinations from Miami: Little Rock (LIT) and Portland, ME (PWM).

The Tel Aviv route completes the lox and latkes triangle for American, with service from Tel Aviv to both New York and South Florida, giving Jewish mothers more fuel for badgering their kids about why they haven’t taken a birthright trip to Israel.

AA will operate Miami to Tel Aviv 3x-weekly on a Boeing 777-200 equipped with three classes of service: Orthodox Business, Conservative Premium Economy & Reform Main Cabin. Kosher meals will be available in all classes of service via pre-ordering on AA.com. The airline will also offer Kosher wine, knowing if it runs out, cabin crew will dump several packets of salt into the regular wine and passengers will be none the wiser.

American’s new service to Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, will make it the first U.S. carrier to serve PBM. Flights from Miami will operate 5x-weekly on an A319 with a schedule timed for connections in Miami in both directions. Suriname becomes American’s ninth country served in South America, but the first who’s national animal is the lesser kiskadee.


Delta Extends Middle Seat Blocking Through April

Delta Air Lines announced it will extend its blocking of middle seats through April 30. Most U.S. airlines blocked middle seats to encourage social distancing on-board its aircraft last summer as a means to encourage travelers to return to the skies. Everyone has ended blocking middles with the exception of Delta which is using the practice to stand out from its competitors.

The airline extended middle seat blocking through March 30 at the end of 2020, after the practice had been scheduled to expire at the end of last year. This extension is just one-month, whereas the previous extensions have been three months or more, perhaps signaling (a) that we are nearing a return to Delta booking all seats on its aircraft, or (b) Delta sees demand so low that it figure it’ll just keep rolling it month by month until people fly again.

Families or groups traveling together that prefer to book middle seats can still do so. Middle seats can be reserved at booking or by the gate agent prior to departure. Delta reminds families that while middle seats are available, families with middle seats between them often are the happiest families.


EU and Air France Battle Over Slots at Orly

Air France-KLM is in a battle with the EU over slots at Paris/Orly (ORY) as the European Commission is threatening to withhold state aid from the airline unless it agrees to divest itself of slots at Paris’s second-busiest airport.

The airline has received €10.4 billion in state aid since the onset of the pandemic but is looking for more. For this next round of aid, the European Commission is going to require a divesture of slots like what it required of Lufthansa at German airports when it received aid from the German government. The French and Dutch governments combine to own 28% of the airline and are offering more aid because the airline says it needs new equity capital – financial speak for “we’re almost broke.”

The airline is resistant to giving up the slots at Orly because it just doesn’t like being told what to do, and also because the slots are crucial for its development of its low-cost subsidiary Transavia. Air France representatives are pleading with the EU in their usual, pleasant, French demeanor, so far to no avail. Its counterparts at KLM suggested everyone meet up in Amsterdam to chill, relax, and get this settled.


Venezuelan Airline Laser-Focused on U.S. Routes

Venezuelan carrier Laser Airlines applied for permission to operate flights to the U.S. from three of its Venezuelan gateways. The airline applied for authority to fly from Caracas (CCS), Valencia (VLN), and Maracaibo (MAR) to Miami.

This is not Laser’s first attempt to fly to the United States. The airline applied to the DOT to operate from Caracas and two other cities to Fort Lauderdale in October 2011. The DOT never responded to that request, because either it didn’t have all the required information, or because it thought it would be fun to mess with Hugo Chavez, we aren’t sure which.

Venezuela is currently rated by the FAA as a Category 2 country. Like boarding zones on most airlines, Category 2 sounds like it’d be a good thing. It is not.

Category 2 status from the FAA means carriers from that nation cannot initiate new service and are restricted to current levels of any existing service to the United States. Any airlines wanting to operate to the U.S., such as Laser, much request specific permission to do so. It also means that the airline, if granted permission, must use U.S.-registered aircraft for the flights.


Virus Unable to Penetrate Customers While Sleeping on Cathay Flights

Cathay Pacific declared in an internal memo today, that passengers in premium cabins on-board its flights are exempt from wearing masks provided their seats are in their lie-flat mode for the purposes of sleep.

If passengers are in lie-flat mode in order to just relax and read a book or listen to music, then your mask must stay on. But the moment a premium class passengers feels themselves drifting off to dreamland, it’s mask-off, baby!

Cathay claims its reasoning is that the airline desperately wants more long-haul, premium class passengers the high enclosures surrounding its business class seats and first class suites, along with the greater degree of personal space and distance between travelers, helps combat the airborne spread of coronavirus between passengers. It also helps combat the airborne spread of poor manners and entitled attitudes.

Premium class fliers on Cathay Pacific are pleased with the decision, but do not believe the airline has gone far enough. Next, they want to be exempted from seat belts and having to be seated during taxi, takeoff, and landing. The airline said it will take the requests under advisement and issue a decision in the coming weeks.


Airline Potpourri

  • Avianca had a $370 million loan from the Colombia government terminated by a Colombian court. It’s Venmo is @Avianca-Airline.
  • Emirates will resume flying to and from Nigeria today as its suspension by the Nigerian government ended.
  • El Al discovered a stowaway on a B737 that had been stored in Tel Aviv. A cat was discovered looking out the windows of the cockpit of the aircraft as it was being worked on. The cat was removed from the plane safely and was recently named the airline’s Executive VP of Cockpit Operations.
  • Eurowings and its flight attendant union have come to an agreement to allow it to hire currently furloughed attendants from its parent company, Lufthansa.
  • KrasAvia started operating its first two ATR 72-500s, the first ATR aircraft ever registered in Russia
  • S7 Airlines is taking delivery of two Boeing 737-800BCF aircraft. The planes were previously flown by Ryanair before being converted to a cargo configuration for S7.
  • SWISS served notice to its pilots that it plans to terminate its CBA and begin new negotiations. The current CBA will remain in effect until March 2022.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

My friend was also very claustrophobic, but it was cured once he became an astronaut.

It turns out he just needed some space.