April 5, 2021

Delta Operates Some Flights on Easter Without Issue, But…

Delta Air Lines canceled about 100 flights on Sunday due to pilot shortages and then opened middle seats both yesterday and today to accommodate displaced passengers.

The airline was able to accommodate most passengers by hopping them around to other Easter Sunday flights with some being pushed to today. The middle seat unblocking is a temporary measure due to the canceled flights, but it’s one that undoubtedly angered plenty of people forced to sit next to others despite being promised otherwise. Delta will go back to its policy of blocking middle seats through the end of the month when the block finally ends.

Delta’s hub in Atlanta led the way with only 19 cancellations on Sunday, but the entire airport descended into madness. In yet another in a streak of unforced errors, Delta decided to placate delayed passengers with boxes full of peeps. The resulting sugar rush combined with the angry reaction when the Braves were swept by the Phillies left 17 injured.

This was not the first time Delta has been caught flat-footed without enough pilots since the onset of the pandemic. The usually reliable airline saw mass cancellations late last year around both Thanksgiving and Christmas. This Easter’s troubles threaten to turn this into a holiday tradition hated nearly as much as giant bows in car commercials.


UK Eyes May 17 Return for International Travel

The United Kingdom might finally be seeing a light at the end of a long, wet, dark tunnel as Prime Minister Boris Johnson stated Monday he’s hopeful international travel can resume as soon as May 17.

The country plans to open shops, hairdressers, gyms, and pubs next Monday, April 12, another key step in its reopening process. After being in lockdown, there’s very little the British need more than a trip to the hairdresser and gym to fix all that’s happened over the last 14 months.

Once international travel is resumed, quarantine rules will still be in place – how stringent they are will depend on from which country the traveler is entering the UK. The UK will use a clever color-coded system to spell out the restrictions with those nations that end up on the green list – that’s the good one – not being required to quarantine, however they will be required to visit both the hairdresser and the gym.


Southwest Told Airbus “Thanks, But No Thanks”

Southwest Airlines announced an order last week for at least 100 new 737 MAX 7 aircraft from Boeing with options for dozens more. The order will supply airplanes to Southwest through 2029 and keep it as an all-Boeing airline for the foreseeable future, as we discussed when the news broke.

Now, reports suggest the purchase process was a one-sided competition from the start as the airline did not engage Airbus to submit a bid. It was the A220-300 that Southwest was supposedly batting its eyes toward, but it turns out it was only trying to make Boeing notice the flirting. Southwest did conclude that the A220 could offer better economics in a vacuum, but the economics of maintaining a fleet exclusively of B737s is what ultimately won out. In reality, we understand there was one guy who just really didn’t want to have to make a new safety card.

Additionally, Southwest execs felt pressure after JetBlue outfitted its new A220s with subway tiles as an nod to its NYC roots. Southwest’s team considered several ideas should they move forward with Airbus including a mural of either the never-ending Dallas suburbs or a close-up of a fifth of Wild Turkey, but in the end, sticking with Boeing seemed to be the safer play.


Major Airlines Experience Major Booking Outage

Several airlines experienced a booking outage on their websites today, including Alaska, Delta, and United. The outage began shortly after noon Eastern Time with everything being back up by about 4 p.m. Eastern.

The issue appeared to be caused by an outage on ITA, the back-end system owned by Google that many airlines use to manage flights, inventory, and searches for the hottest internet memes of the day.

Most phone agents at the affected airlines were unable to book travel during the outage as well, leaving many would-be travelers in a lurch. Massive revenue loss was expected as the glitch gave some travelers time for a second thought before booking that trip to see relatives who have now been vaccinated — removing the most convenient excuse to avoid them.

Despite the issues with booking, travelers were not affected with check-in and other web-based services working just fine, ensuring that the reason for delays and cancellations was due to airline-driven mistakes and errors, as usual.


Spirit Seeks More Gates in Atlanta

Spirit Airlines is seeking more gates to operate from in Atlanta as the airline looks to expand in a post-pandemic world. Spirit is currently located at the far end of the D concourse in Atlanta with two “preferential use gates” along with access to common-use gates at the International Concourse E when needed.

The cramped end of the D concourse is causing issues for Spirit as it looks to install more reverse ATMs at its gates where customers can pay their fees in an automated manner, provided they’ve paid the reverse ATM fee. Spirit also charges passengers who choose to sit at the gate waiting out their delayed flights. Without more seats from more gates, more passengers will be able to stand – for free – hurting the airline’s bottom line.

Spirit’s focus on leisure fliers gives it a leg up in recovery post-pandemic as it’s expected that leisure travel will come back far more quickly than business travel. Leisure travelers are also more likely to accept Spirit’s nickel-and-dime fee structure because it’s the only airline willing to fly nonstop between the two random cities that many leisure travelers are looking for.


Airline Potpourri

  • American is adding B787 Dreamliner flights to both Alaska and Hawai’i. From June 3 through August 16, American will put the aircraft on one daily flight to Anchorage from Chicago/O’Hare. The aircraft had already been scheduled from Dallas/Fort Woth. American will also operate the aircraft on one of its two daily flights from Phoenix to both Honolulu and Maui as a welcome gift to Hawaiian Airlines celebrating its new Kahului – Phoenix service.
  • Belavia will take delivery of its first B737 MAX aircraft later this spring.
  • Comair, the South African version, is borrowing $6.8 million from the South African government.
  • flyDubai is returning the 737 MAX to the air on April 8.
  • Gulf Air resumed flying from its Bahrain hub to Singapore on Sunday.
  • Iraqi Airlines plans to add its first A220 to its fleet by the end of this year.
  • JetBlue has announced the first flights on its new A220 aircraft. Beginning April 26, the plane will operate one roundtrip per day on the airline’s Tom Brady Express route between Boston and Tampa.
  • Lufthansa will resume flying from Frankfurt to Tehran on April 16. Cranky Concierge is always standing by for all your flying needs to or from Iran — or literally anywhere else.
  • Nordica, a startup in Estonia had a good news/bad news kind of day. An Estonian circuit court recognized it as the successor to Estonian Air (good news), and that because of that it is responsible for the previous airline’s unpaid wages, illegally obtained state aid, and other debts (bad news). As always, be careful what you wish for.
  • TAROM is beginning a new domestic route between Cluj (CLJ) and Iasi (IAS) on April 8.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

I met a microbiologist today. He was much bigger than I expected.