Spirit Hearts NYC
Spirit is growing its presence in New York, adding three new destinations from LaGuardia while also expanding its footprint at the airport to Terminal A (the Marine Air Terminal). It will go from operating 11 daily flights off one gate in Delta’s Terminal C to now having 12 daily flights off that gate plus two more in Terminal A, providing much less of a squeeze.
The three new cities to which Spirit will fly from LGA are San Juan (Saturday-only beginning April 17), Nashville (daily beginning May 5), and Los Angeles (Saturday-only beginning June 12). Nashville is the only one that would require new slots, but since other airlines aren’t using theirs, Spirit can step in to operate them temporarily. It hopes to find a way to keep flying those after slot rules go back into effect.
With its increased presence at LGA, Spirit needed more space, and it has accomplished that by getting gates 3 and 4 in Terminal A. The eventual goal is to move all operations there, but it wants to test the waters operationally first, so it will only move its 5x-daily flights to Fort Lauderdale for now, while keeping the rest of its flights at Terminal C. Unfortunately for travelers, the airline won’t be sharing this information with the general public, instead charging a $24.99 LGA Terminal Information Fee at booking to know what terminal travelers should go to for their flight.
For those who don’t know where to go, Spirit will temporarily offer a shuttle between Terminal A and Terminal C for the first few weeks of the transition. The shuttle will run every 20 minutes between 4 a.m. and 7 p.m. The cost will be $19 per passenger. Each shuttle passenger may bring a personal item on-board for free, but carry-ons will be $39 and checked luggage $69. A receipt showing you also paid to carry-on your bag onboard the aircraft will not entitle you to a discount because Spirit doesn’t roll that way.
If at First You Don’t Succeed…Frontier Files for IPO
Frontier Airlines filed an S-1 Monday as it prepares for an initial public offering of stock, the second time the airline has tried to take the plunge into public ownership. Frontier tried to go public previously but ultimately pulled back when it couldn’t get the valuation it wanted.
Frontier is currently owned by private equity firm Indigo Partners, whose managing partner is Bill Franke. Coincidentally, Franke is also the chairman of Frontier. Frontier Airlines had a fleet of 104 A320 family aircraft at the end of 2020 with purchase commitments on 156 A320neo through 2028.
The details aren’t not fully known yet, but there is industry speculation that the airline first plans to offer its shares to members of its Discount Den pricing program, SEC rules be damned. After all, the airline has offered members exclusive deals on airfare for years, why not continue the process when it comes to IPO and share offerings in order to stay on brand?
Frontier will trade under the symbol “FRNT” as supposed to “BACK” and is hoping to raise around $100 million from the offering. It expects to use most of the cash to paint animals over its entire fuselage so they’re not just on the tail.
Korean Steps Closer to Purchasing Asiana
Korean Air successfully raised nearly $3 billion last week by issuing new shares of its common stock. The $3 billion in liquidity was necessary for the airline to move forward on closing the purchase of its chief rival Asiana.
The funding round, which took place last week and was announced on Monday, gave current shareholders the exclusive right to buy the new shares of the company. 173.6 million shares were purchased and they will be formally added as a part of the airline’s portfolio on March 24.
With the cash, Korean plans to spend about $1.4 billion to complete the purchase of Asiana. The remaining $1.6 billion will be used to pay down debts between now and the end of the year. The airline managed to have about $1500 left over, just enough for a kick-ass pizza party at corporate headquarters later this year.
Singapore to Trial IATA Travel Pass
Singapore Airlines has decided to give a boost to the IATA Travel Pass, using it in a small test program for passengers traveling from Singapore to London/Heathrow from March 15-28.
The app is currently only available on iOS’s app store, but will eventually be available for Android. In the meantime, all passengers with an Android will be required to purchase an iPhone at SIN duty-free to board.
Passengers choosing to participate in the trial can book their COVID test any one of seven testing locations in Singapore through the IATA app. They will then show their result to the SQ check-in staff via the app after arriving at the airport. During the trial phase, passengers will still need to carry a physical copy of their negative test with them but eventually that won’t be necessary.
Assuming the trial is successful, Singapore plans to integrate the IATA pass into its own app sometime this summer.
Qantas to Shift Tokyo Flying
When Qantas finally resumes international flying later this year, it plans to consolidate its operations in Tokyo at Haneda airport, saying sayonara to operating at Narita.
From October 31, Qantas will operate a daily flight to Sydney, while it will split its seven remaining slots at Haneda between Brisbane and Melbourne. The airline will operate Melbourne-Haneda 4x-weekly, with Brisbane-Haneda operating 3x-weekly. Qantas had originally planned to move its Melbourne flights to Narita in March 2020 before the pandemic scuttled those plans.
Qantas the operating carrier may be leaving Narita, but Qantas the corporation is not. In addition to leaving a family of kangaroos on airport property at NRT, Qantas’s low-cost subsidiary JetStar will continue to fly to Narita once it resumes international flying which is not likely to happen anytime soon.
Airline Potpourri
- Air Astana is resuming flights between Almaty (ALA) and Tbilisi (TBS) with 3x-weekly service beginning next week.
- British Airways is extending elite status for members whose status would expire between July 1 and December 31, 2021.
- Caribbean Airlines is launching new service from Barbados (BGI) to New York/JFK beginning April 1.
- Icelandair has resumed its operations with the 737 MAX.
- Loganair is adding 6x-weekly flights from Teesside (MME) to Bristol (BRS) beginning May 24.
- SpiceJet is on the hook for $43 million in damages to Canadian aircraft manufacturer De Havilland according to the High Court of Justice in England and Wales. SpiceJet is appealing on the grounds that the court made the ruling only halfway listening to arguments while constantly refreshing Twitter feeds for the latest in the Harry/Meghan vs. the Crown situation.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
What’s the difference between a dog and a marine biologist?
One wags a tail and the other tags a whale.