JetBlue Reportedly Secures Heathrow Slots
After a lengthy battle to win slots at London’s most sought after address (after Buckingham Palace), JetBlue Airways has reportedly secured 270 slots to operate at London/Heathrow beginning August 2. The slots are not necessarily permanent, but at this point JetBlue will happily take what it can get. 180 slots have been allocated for service to JFK with the remaining 90 for Boston. JetBlue will operate out of T2 at Heathrow, known to most as The Queen’s Terminal.
JetBlue was going to make The Crown available on all planes that fly into Heathrow, but shelving that plan and allowing corgis to fly free got the Queen to pressure Heathrow into ponying up the slots. Now, travelers will be forced to listen to the Queen’s most recent Royal Christmas Message on a loop during descent.
The airline is maintaining the 270 slots it also has to fly into Gatwick, as it’s always smart to have a safety school airport as a backup plan. It has chosen to relinquish its Stansted slots, operating to just two airports in the city to begin with; the idea being that taxi times are long enough at Heathrow that you’ll feel like you’ve visited every London area airport.
Southwest Orders 100 Additional 737 MAX 7 Aircraft
Southwest Airlines announced the firm order of 100 new Boeing 737 MAX 7 aircraft plus 155 options for both MAX 7 and MAX 8 aircraft today. With the announcement, Southwest will accelerate the retirement of its current Boeing 737-700 fleet in order to eventually replace it with the new incoming planes. With this order, Southwest now has a total of 349 firm MAX orders and 270 MAX options for the next decade.
It was widely believed that Southwest was considering the 150-seat Boeing 737 MAX 7 and Airbus A220-300 as replacements for its 400+ strong 737-700 fleet. These two became finalists when Lockheed refused to restart production of the Lockheed Electra so Southwest could finally bring its original start-up plan to fruition.
Though the specific purchase price is uknown, it’s safe to assume that first Boeing’s CEO got down on his knees and kissed Southwest CEO Gary Kelly’s boots. Then he promised the company would never do anything to hurt the airline again. Finally, he asked Gary just how much he wanted Boeing to pay him to take the airplanes.
American Sales Are Soaring
American Airlines disclosed in a filing to the SEC (this one, not this one), that its online sales volume has recovered to a point where it is approaching 2019 levels.
AA is seeing the strongest revenue push since prior to the pandemic while filling nearly 80% of its domestic capacity last week. Bookings on aa.com are up between 150% and 400% compared to the same time in 2019.
In its filing with the SEC, American said that it expects the strength in bookings to continue through the first quarter (which ends on Wednesday) and through the summer. With the expected increase in booking, AA plans to have its entire fleet flying by May with no more planes grounded – even the uncomfortable ones that nobody likes.
With sales growing, the airline is rolling back some traveler-friendly policies from the early days of the pandemic. Beginning this Thursday, April 1, basic economy purchases will again become non-changeable and non-refundable. The policy applies only to domestic basic economy itineraries and those departing from North and South America.
Korean and Asiana Merger Delayed Until 2024
Korean Air’s purchase of and merger with rival Asiana Airlines has been delayed by Korean until 2024. When the merger occurs, Korean will become the world’s 7th largest airline and second largest on the Korean peninsula behind North Korea’s Air Koryo. According to the North Korean government, Air Koryo flies to 480 destinations with its glorious fleet of 3,000 brand-new, state-of-the-art Ilyushin Il-62M aircraft.
Korean invested $1.3 billion into Asiana last year to acquire a 63.7 percent stake of the airline. It hoped to use that as leverage to complete the merger by 2022. But Korean is struggling to obtain approval from the eight different antitrust authorities that are serviced by both airlines. So far only Turkey has given approval while the airline waits to hear from Korea, the United States, China, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Thailand.
Korean must receive approval from at least four of the countries – excluding Korea – for the merger to take place otherwise it would be banned from operating in the countries that do not approve of the deal. While the United States has an Open Skies treaty with Korea, several of the other countries awaiting approval do not.
Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport estimates 32 routes that Korean Air obtains from Asiana through the merger will lead to a combined market share of more than 50 percent.
Thailand Approves Quarantine Waiver for Tourists
The Thai government plans to approve a waiver for vaccinated tourists to visit the country quarantine-free while also announcing an order of five million more doses of vaccine from AstraZeneca for its own citizens and residents.
Like many tourism-focused countries, Thailand’s economy took a major hit last year with tourism and travel reduced to almost zero. The country was getting so annoyed that it was just going to swing open its doors for everyone just for kicks, but it decided that participating in a pilot program for vaccine passports was probably a smarter plan. Thailand now has over 73 million doses of vaccine as it races to vaccinate its population as soon as possible. The country currently has a goal of having half its citizens vaccinated by the end of 2021.
Phuket will be the first to reopen, once the island has inoculated at least 70% of its residents – which it expects to achieve later this summer. For the next month, the hotel quarantine will be halved down to just seven days for vaccinated visitors to Phuket, Pattaya, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai, Phang Nga, and Krabi. The government is hopeful that the quarantine waiver will be completely waved in all four tourist destinations by the fourth quarter this year.
Airline Potpourri
- Alitalia has had €24.7 of aid from the Italian government approved by the European Commission.
- ASL Airlines operated its first flight over the weekend from East Midlands (EMA) to Belfast (BFS). The airline is the first to receive permission to operate by the UK since Brexit.
- Canadian North has hired ACC Aviation to help it sell two de Havilland Dash 8-100 aircraft.
- CMA CGM Air Cargo has launched two new cargo routes from its Liege (LGG) base, neither of which is to Camarillo (CMA) or Camiguin (CGM). Beginning yesterday, March 28, the airline began A330-200F service to both Atlanta and New York/JFK.
- Emirates will operate a special flight on April 10 – EK2021, a flight to nowhere that departs from Dubai and returns to Dubai 2.5 hours later that will be exclusively for crew and passengers who are fully vaccinated from COVID.
- GoAir plans to initiate a $345 million IPO in the coming weeks.
- Malawi Airlines has suspended flight operations through March 31.
- Qatar announced a summer schedule that will include 1,200 weekly flights to an expanded route map that includes more than 140 destinations.
- SAS is completing a sale and leaseback of four aircraft with CDB Aviation.
- Smartwings signed a loan agreement for €76 million as part of the loan program offered by the Czech government.
- SWISS is planning to announce further job cuts.
- Titan Airways is preparing to operate an A321-200 on behalf of the British government.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
No more Suez Canal Jokes. That ship has sailed.