Delta Rewards Iceland for Vaccine Tourism Rules
With Iceland becoming the first European nation to welcome Americans who have been fully-vaccinated with no restrictions, Delta Air Lines is taking advantage by adding one new route to Iceland and confirming the resumption of two others that have been suspended for months.
On May 20, Delta will launch new daily service from its Boston hub to Reykjavik’s Keflavik International Airport. In addition to the new service, the airline will bring back two suspended routes – New York/JFK (May 1) and Minneapolis/St. Paul (May 27) to Reykjavik. Both of these routes will also operate daily. Delta will find itself going head-to-head with Icelandair on all three routes.
Delta’s Boston and Minneapolis flights will be operated by higher- density B757-200s with 193 seats including domestic First Class seats that double as Premium Select recliners as the airplane’s premium option. JFK will be operated by 757-200s that feature Delta One flat bed seating. This, of course, only matters if you are in the front cabin. In the back, it’s all the same.
Qantas Overwhelms Market to New Zealand
With Australians desperate to travel and a travel bubble to New Zealand opening up in the coming weeks, Qantas is overloading the market with cheap award seats to give Australians the opportunity to spread their wings over the next several months.
The airline announced that for the first three days of the bubble, it will make every seat on every flight to New Zealand available for the cost of its cheapest award – the Classic Flight Reward. For just 18,000 points, Australians can jet to New Zealand for their first international holiday — excluding Western Australia, even though that can feel pretty foreign — in over a year.
Qantas usually makes just a handful of seats available at this price per flight, with most awards to NZ offered at the Any Seat Award price of 55,000 points which can get as high as 110,000. Somewhere deep inside an Atlanta office park, a Delta employee sneers at the price, knowing that his airline would make 110k the discounted price for an award of the same length.
When the sale concludes, the airline still intends to offer 50% off award seats for the future as Australians expel their pent up energy from being stuck at home for over a year.
Spirit Customer Goes to Great Lengths to Avoid Fees
Spirit Flight 185 from Cleveland to Los Angeles was diverted to Denver on Wednesday when a passenger attempted to open the emergency exit door during flight. Other passengers onboard the aircraft said when the passenger saw what Spirit was charging for soft drinks, he decided to ditch the flight to get a Coke on the ground for far cheaper than what the airline was charging.
The unruly passenger was held down by his fellow passengers for the duration of the flight before the plane could divert and land in Denver. Law enforcement officials took the passenger into custody upon arrival in Denver, and the flight continued on to Los Angeles without further incident.
When the aircraft arrived at LAX, passengers were not permitted to deplane until each paid Spirit a $9.99 diversion fee to cover the costs for the unexpected stop en route.
Irish Courts Clear Norwegian Restructuring
Ireland’s High Court cleared the way for Norwegian to raise capital and emerge from bankruptcy protection in Ireland and Norway by May – leaving it with just four more countries in which to sort out its bankruptcy mess.
In its restructuring plan, the airline plans to end long-haul flying for good and focus on domestic operations within Norway and a limited, short-haul European network.
In its ruling, the Irish court is requiring that Norwegian raise at least $524 million from the issue of new shares and hybrid capital. The court was convinced by its own appointed representative to oversee the reorganization that the airline would have no issues securing the funding. In showing that it has no problem throwing good money after bad, the Norwegian government committed to providing at least one-third of the cash upfront for the airline.
The next step for Norwegian will be to secure approval on its bankruptcy plan from the Norwegian court system, then seek permission from the federal government to proceed with issuing its new shares. It’s still expected to file for bankruptcy one or two more times during the process just for old times’ sake.
United Prepares to Bring 767-400 Back Into Service
United Airlines is bringing a portion of its 767-400ER fleet back into service as demand continues to recover from the pandemic. The entire fleet has been in storage in the New Mexico desert since the pandemic began.
The 767-400 aircraft were some of the first to be suspended by United as they have the old business class product and primarily operate long haul international routes – making them almost unusable during the height of the pandemic. With the 767-400 in storage, United has relied heavily on its 787 Dreamliner fleet to operate its barebones international operation through most of the pandemic.
United is being forced to bring its 767-400s back into action with the grounding of most of its B777 fleet due to the trouble with its Pratt & Whitney engines. These B767s are the only twin-aisle jets in United’s fleet that do not have Polaris Business Class or plans for a Polaris retrofit.
Airline Potpourri
- Austrian will launch new service from Vienna to Cancun. The service will begin on October 24 and will operate twice weekly until it’s canceled for lack of demand or the end of winter, whichever comes first.
- Convisa, the 5-star airline as determined by the Venezuelan government, is beginning twice-weekly service from Caracas to Moscow. News of the route was broken, as most aviation news is, by the Russian embassy in Caracas.
- Ethiopian, EgyptAir, and Kenya Airways have signed up to be strategic partners with the African Union Trusted Travel program.
- GullivAir, the Bulgarian long-haul startup that is sure to succeed, has been granted permission to operate to both the United States and Canada.
- Kenya Airways announced a loss of $330 million for 2020.
- LOT and Turkish have both resumed operating the 737 MAX for the first time in two years.
- Norwegian appointing Adrian Dunne as Executive Vice President for Operations.
- RwandAir has become the first African airline to vaccinate its entire staff.
- Volotea will launch new service on July 2 between Bilbao (BIO) and Gibraltar (GIB). The flight will operate twice-weekly and will be the first air route connecting Gibraltar with Spain.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
What did the Photon say when asked if she needed to check a bag?
No thanks, I’m traveling light!