March 11, 2021

American’s Presence in Austin Grows to Texas-Sized

Everything is bigger in Texas and American Airlines is growing in Texas’s capital city as it adds ten new routes out of Austin. The new routes will begin in time for summer and include seven year-round routes, three seasonal routes, and four new codeshare options with new BFF Alaska Airlines.

The seven cities receiving new year-round service from Austin are:

  • Nashville (daily service begins May 6, twice-daily service begins July 2)
  • Las Vegas (daily service begins May 6, twice-daily service begins June 3)
  • Orlando (daily service begins May 6)
  • New Orleans (daily service begins May 6)
  • Raleigh-Durham (daily service begins July 2, twice-daily service begins August 17)
  • Tampa (daily service begins June 3)
  • Washington/Dulles (twice-daily service begins August 17)

American is adding seasonal, Saturday-only service to two popular leisure destinations… plus Destin. It will fly from Austin to:

  • Aspen (ASE) – June 5 through September 4
  • Los Cabos (SJD) – June 5 through August 14
  • Destin, FL (VPS) – June 5 through August 14

Additionally, American will put its AA code on four destinations on Alaska in and out of Austin. American customers will be able to fly travel to Portland, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle on Alaska via its codeshare agreement with American.


Southwest Prepared to Order a Lot of Planes

Southwest Airlines and Boeing are reportedly close to announcing a multibillion-dollar purchase agreement on dozens of Boeing 737 MAX Aircraft. The sale would be the largest for Boeing since the ban on the MAX was lifted in most jurisdictions in the last few months.

Reports say that Southwest’s order includes dozens of firm orders and a significant number of future options. That sounds just like the last pre-pandemic meeting of the Cranky Flier team. We went into a BBQ joint and placed several firm orders for sandwiches and sides with a very significant amount of options for future sandwiches as well.

Each MAX aircraft carries a list price of $100 million, but that’s somewhat like the sticker price on a car on the used car lot – anyone who pays sticker price is a sucker. Southwest will pay a significantly reduced price considering a) its purchasing so many aircraft and b) The MAX for Boeing is like lawsuits for Ryanair – there’s lot of them and no one is really sure what to do about them.


New York State Removes Domestic Quarantine Requirement

Effective April 1, domestic travelers to New York State will no longer be required to quarantine upon arrival. International travelers will still need to quarantine, as will visitors from New Jersey, not because of the virus but simply because they’re from New Jersey.

The state still suggests that visitors quarantine upon arrival from a domestic destination and require it if the traveler has any symptoms of the virus. Travelers must still fill out the state’s traveler form when arriving in the state and adhere to virus guidelines including wearing masks in public spaces.

The state expanded vaccine eligibility to all residents 60 and older, and it expects to grow its pool of eligible residents in the coming weeks. The ability to vaccinate more and more New Yorkers was the leading factor in the state’s decision to end the quarantine requirement. The state asks that visitors to New York who develop symptoms of the virus go to New Jersey and infect their residents instead contract local health authorities in case contact tracing is needed.


Delta Returns Pilots to Active Status

Delta Air Lines is returning all 1,713 pilots who were on leave back to active status in anticipation of a return of a surge in travel demand late this year and into 2022. The airline expects to return to 2019 levels as soon as 2023.

Delta kept all its pilots that were on leave on the payroll with minimum pay to maintain their seniority and prevent furloughs in a deal with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA).

The airline is returning the pilots to active duty to be ready when demand returns to pre-pandemic levels and is willing to be overstaffed in the near-term to be prepared for the long-term. Delta will use the long ramp-up to the return of travel demand to re-train pilots who have been shelved for the last year. Pilots will need to receive substantial time in the limited number of simulators Delta has, with the airline and the ALPA expecting everyone to be fully reintegrated by October.


Aussie Subsidy to Provide Half-Price Flights to Locals

Tickets to more than a dozen domestic holiday destinations will be offered to Australians at half-price, mostly on Qantas and Virgin Australia. The federal government is subsidizing the discount in an attempt to jump-start Australia’s struggling tourism industry.

The government is willing to cover half the cost on up to 800,000 tickets to destinations that are leisure and tourism-focused to help funnel cash into the tourism sector while at the same time encouraging Australians to “holiday at home” and discourage travel beyond Australia’s border.

The destinations covered by the heavy discount include: Merimbula, regional Victoria; the Gold Coast, Cairns, the Mackay region, the Whitsundays and the Sunshine Coast; Kangaroo Island; Alice Springs and Uluru: Broome; and Launceston, Devonport and Burnie. A check of Google Maps shows that most of these are actual places where Australians have been known to vacation.

In order to be eligible for the rebate program, airlines can only offer the half-priced ticket (and receive the rebate) on routes to the designated cities that the airline has operated for at least two years. That two-year requirement was put in place after Spirit applied for a domestic Australian operating certificate to take advantage of the rebate offer. It planned to fly all over Australia at half price while charging the government a $19.99 fee in addition to the rebate check.


Airline Potpourri

  • AirAsia will resume all 40 of its domestic routes in Thailand this April.
  • Air Seychelles will resume flights to Mumbai after a one-year suspension. Service will restart on April 7 with twice-weekly flights.
  • Azul’s plan to allow current shareholders to repurchase up to two million new shares of the airline was approved by a Brazilian court on Wednesday.
  • EasyJet is adding service to Toulon Hyères Airport (TLN), serving it from both London/Gatwick beginning June 23 and Paris/CDG beginning June 28.
  • Jet Airways will not be able to access its former slots when the airline ended operations two years ago. Jet is attempting a comeback under new ownership but Indian Aviation Authorities ruled that the slots from the previous Jet will not be returned as they have been distributed to other airlines.
  • Norwegian sent its absolute, definite, no-doubt, we swear this is it, final reconstruction plan to its creditors and shareholders. The plan is waiting to be approved by Irish and Norwegian bankruptcy courts which are hesitant to rule on the plan as they expect the airline to file for bankruptcy in another country any day now.
  • Ryanair is adding 2x-weekly service on three new routes in Greece this summer from London/Stansted (STN), all beginning July 1. The new destinations will be Preveza (PVK), Santorini (JTR), and Zakynthos (ZTH).
  • Southwest is returning the 737 MAX to the skies today, operating on 32 routes to 13 cities. It will expand to as many as 46 routes by the end of March.
  • Ukraine International Airlines plans to resume flying to Tel Aviv with a limited schedule beginning on March 14.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

My friends were debating whether or not they prefer leftover pizza heated up or eating it cold. I had to interrupt and ask, “what’s leftover pizza?”