Southwest Adds Destinations, Brings Back Beverage Service for Mimes
Southwest Airlines announced oodles of new routes and destinations today as it gears up for summer with Myrtle Beach and Austin seeing the biggest focus.
Beginning May 23, Southwest will fly from Myrtle Beach to 10 destinations, with three — Nashville, Baltimore, and Chicago/Midway — beginning first on May 23. Two more destinations, Dallas/Love Field and Pittsburgh, follow on May 29 as Saturday-only service with Atlanta, Columbus, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and St. Louis joining the fold on June 6.
The other big move sees Southwest fanning out from Austin with flights to Sacramento (beginning May 9), Miami, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Orange County, and Salt Lake City (beginning June 6). The new cities will give the airline 37 destinations out of Austin and many of them are places people want to go.
Other additions for Southwest include dally service between:
- Denver and Richmond (begins May 9)
- Las Vegas and Palm Springs (begins May 9)
- Miami and St. Louis (begins May 9)
- Nashville and New York/Islip (begins June 6)
- Chicago/Midway and Portland, ME (begins June 6)
In addition to launching new service, Southwest will bring back beverage service on all flights 250 miles or more. Southwest, however, is encouraging its passengers to order their drink non-verbally to limit interaction with flight attendants. The airline suggests passengers pull up the drink menu on their phone and zoom in to the picture of the drink of their choice – how a Coke will be distinguished from a Diet Coke remains a mystery. Southwest left out several great options for passengers including miming the beverage of their choice, playing a round of charades, or acting out the name of the beverage in a brief, one-person silent play.
United Points to New Point-to-Point Service
United Airlines is ramping up its domestic summer schedule with new routes to outdoor destinations from seven non-hub airports. Most of the new routes will begin May 27 and run through Labor Day weekend.
The list of origins is a who’s who of former airline hubs throughout the Midwest: Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh. Most of these flights will be operated by United’s CRJ-550 aircraft — a 70-seat aircraft with only 50 seats onboard — which ensures profitability including fixed costs would be a pipe dream. But hey, if the costs are fixed, who really cares?
Cleveland and Milwaukee lead the way with five new destinations. Cleveland, a former hub, will see 3x-weekly new service to: Charleston, Hilton Head, Myrtle Beach, Pensacola and Portland, ME. Milwaukee’s five new destinations will look similar – Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Pensacola, Portland, ME, and Savannah – with all five receiving twice-weekly service.
United is also adding three new seasonal flights from domestic hubs: Chicago/O’Hare to Nantucket (ACK), Houston/Bush to Kalispell, MT (FCA), and Washington/Dulles to Bozeman, MT (BZN). When asked to comment on its new routes a United spokesperson pointed out that it managed to roll out dozens of new routes to several destinations while not adding anything to Newark – a boon for its passengers.
JetBlue Debuts Weirdly-Branded Travel Site
JetBlue Airways introduced Paisly, its poorly-spelled new website developed by the airline’s non air-travel subsidiary JetBlue Travel Products. The new site will offer add-ons for JetBlue’s air passengers, beginning with rental cars, hotels, theme park tickets, and Dunkin’ Donuts locations tied to their JetBlue air reservation.
The launch of the new site is another step in what the airline is hoping becomes an evolution into a travel tech company. Paisly will join JetBlue Vacations in offering the extras for air customers, with the distinction that Paisly offers them on an a la carte basis with JetBlue Vacations only offering packages.
JetBlue is hopeful that it can keep passengers on its site for non-air bookings because it is a trusted brand in the industry, especially compared to other online travel agents. So… why did it need to create a separate brand for this? Your guess is as good as ours.
Hawaiian Vaccine Passport Around the Corner
Despite no official word from government officials, Hawai’i Lt. Governor Josh Green believes the state’s vaccine passport program could be in place as soon as May 15.
Green is the state’s COVID liaison and played a key role in developing the program that allowed visitors to place out of the mandatory 10-day quarantine with proof of a negative test. That testing program has restored visitor levels to the state to as many as 15,000 per day, approximately 50% of where it was prior to the pandemic.
A spokesperson for CommonPass, the group working with the state to develop the potential passport also would not comment but did say that it would have news with regards to the passport being announced next week. Those people are such a tease….
State officials believe that a vaccination passport could give another boost to tourism, seeing as many as 75% of pre-pandemic levels of tourists enter the state on a daily basis almost right away. The Lt. Governor also believes it could allow large-scale events such as the Honolulu Marathon and the Ironman Triathlon World Championship take place safely later this year.
Australia Lifts Ban on New Zealand Travel; Melbourne Plans International Reopening
Australia has lifted the ban on travel to its Oceania neighbor New Zealand, creating the first legal, non-essential international travel option for Australians in over a year.
Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt amended Australia’s emergency biosecurity laws, carving out an exception for anyone who has been in Australia for the most recent 14 consecutive days to be able to travel directly to New Zealand. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern could only laugh, saying that the “whole bubble plan” was just a joke to give the Aussies false hope that they’d ever be able to leave their home continent, and New Zealand would never let those freaks in. (She actually said that she will announce a date for the start of the full travel bubble for her side of the Tasman Sea on April 6.)
Other good news in Australia came today as Melbourne International Airport announced it would again live up to the “international” part of its name, beginning on April 8. The airport had been closed off to international flights since mid-February due to a localized virus outbreak. When it reopens to international flights on April 8, MEL will be capped at 800 arriving international passengers for its first week, rising to 1,120 per week beginning April 15.
Airline Potpourri
- Ariana Afghan Airlines is looking to purchase a lone B737-500 that is less than 23 years old.
- Austrian has implemented more measures for its restructuring including parking two more Airbus aircraft for long-term storage.
- Bees Airlines confirms the buzz that it pollens to begin operating later this summer.
- Qatar will resume flying to Mykonos beginning May 14 with 3x-weekly service.
- Ryanair is expanding its presence at its base at Milan/Bergamo (BGY). It plans to add new aircraft in addition to adding two new routes to Banja Luka, Bosnia (BNX) and Belfast City, Northern Ireland (BHD).
- WestJet will restore the remainder of routes in its network that have still been suspended since the onset of the pandemic. Service to Charlottetown (YYG), Fredericton (YFC), Moncton (YQM), Sydney (YQY), and Quebec City (YQB) will resume between June 24 and 30.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
What’s the difference between a hippo and a zippo? One is really heavy and the other is a little lighter!