April 9, 2021

It’s Electric: Boeing Announces New Issue with 737 MAX

Boeing recommended to 16 of its airline customers that they ground a subset of their 737 MAX aircraft to address a potential electrical issue. The manufacturer says the airlines need to verify one of the components in the plane’s electrical system is sufficiently grounded, seemingly missing the irony that the electrical system needs to be grounded in order for the plane to fly.

Boeing did not identify which 16 airlines are affected by the announcement, but some airlines have been aggressive today in removing the aircraft from service. Southwest removed 30 of its 58 MAX aircraft from service this morning while American removed 17 and United 16. Alaska is grounding four aircraft and WestJet one. Air Canada said that none of its MAX aircraft are affected by the electrical issue.

It shouldn’t need to be said but you know everyone else will try to make a link, so… this electrical issue is unrelated to the flight control software troubles that led to two crashes and kept the aircraft grounded for two years.


LATAM To Retire A350 Fleet

LATAM Brasil will retire its entire fleet of A350 aircraft – 11 in total – in the next week. The airline wanted to make the retirements effective immediately, but opted to wait until all active flights had landed safely and deplaned their passengers, as otherwise it would have had quite the PR mess on its hands.

LATAM is currently undergoing bankruptcy procedures and needs to cut costs and streamline its fleet. LATAM originally had more than two dozen A350s on order but had planned on offloading four of them on to sugar daddy JV partner Delta. That A350 deal ended last year when Delta agreed to pay $62 million. This feels like an impressive shell game where Delta just keeps choosing poorly. Now, LATAM is walking away from the A350s but it still gets to keep the $62 million.

With the retirement of the A350s, LATAM will be left with an exclusively Boeing fleet of long-haul aircraft. The group is left with 10 B777-300ER, 39 B767s, and 22 B787 Dreamliners. It probably also has a long-forgotten subsidiary somewhere in the Andes that operates B707s.


Flyr Prepares for First Flight

Flyr, the latest startup airline to fall into the abyss that is Norway’s aviation market, announced it will commence oprations on July 1.

When it begins srvice, the airline will srve domestic destinations in Norway primarily plus at least three intrnational destinations – Malaga, Alicante, and Nice. Its first flight will oprate from its Oslo base to Tromsø. The inaugural flight was pushed back from early June to July 1 in ordr to comply with the Norwegian govrnment’s reopening plan.

When it comes to Norwegian airlines and sending them money, there’s a sense of fool me once shame on you, fool me three hundred times, shame on me. Even still, the airline plans for tickets to go on sale in June and expects people to fork over actual cash in exchange for reservations on flights.

The airline will receive its first aircraft – a B737-800 next month. Additional planes are scheduled to be delivred in June to bulk up the fleet before beginning oprations.


Everything’s Bigger in Texas, Including Aeromexico’s Schedule

Aeromexico is beefing its Texas operation up this summer with a Texas-sized increase of service to the state.

Aeromexico will resume flying to both Austin and Dallas/Ft. Worth on July 1, offering daily service to both airports from its Mexico City (MEX) hub. The Austin flight is being added as Delta looks to keep Austin as one of only two remaining focus cities, potentially providing more connecting opportunities for AM passengers.

The resumptions in both cities add more meat to the bone on the airline’s service to the Lone Star SState, which also includes its service to both Houston/Intercontinental and San Antonio. Aeromexico and Delta, its joint venture partner — will operate 47 unique routes between the United States and Mexico this summer. Beginning this April, the two airlines will team up to fly more than 3,600 flights between the two countries.


Wizz Air Exec Steps Down After Opening Mouth on Zoom

Wizz Air’s Head of Flight Operations Darwin Triggs stepped down from his role this week, as announced in a letter sent to airline staff. Triggs was the subject of an investigation after he was recorded telling his staff to draw up a list of layoffs based on pilots who were often sick or “caused grief,” while ensuring to keep cheaper pilots employed.

The Darwinian process might have been best for Wizz’s bottom line, but it didn’t jive with the airline’s HR policies and ended up costing him his job. The airline’s investigation revealed no indication that Triggs had acted unlawfully, but that his actions were “inconsistent with Wizz Air’s culture of open and honest communication and its focus on employee opportunity.” And if you knew that was Wizz’s culture, good on you.

The investigation was launched because of an audio recording that was revealed in the aftermath of a virtual pilots meeting last April. In reality, making Triggs mostly guilty of stupidity to think remarks in the meeting could not, or would not, be recorded.


Airline Potpourri

  • Aircalin is requesting state financial aid from New Caledonia in order for it to continue flying.
  • Air France’s summer schedule includes 80 summer-only seasonal routes including 22 routes new to the airline’s destination map.
  • Air Leap is launching two new Swedish regional brands.
  • Air New Zealand has deferred its planned capital raise to later in 2021. The airline is delaying the campaign to see if a former employee might be interested in leading the fundraising push.
  • Air Transat has had several suitors since its deal with Air Canada fell apart.
  • Bamboo Airlines have been warned by Vietnam’s Civil Aviation Authority to stop overselling tickets. Mileage runners across the world panned the announcement.
  • El Al plans to raise at least $105m in an offering of shares and warrants later this year. In addition to cash, it will also accept payment in the form of crispy potato latkes or noodle kugel.
  • Eurowings will operate its first flights into Russia and Georgia (this one, not this one), this summer. It will serve Ekaterinburg (SVX) and Krasnodar (KRR) in Southern Russia and the Georgian capital Tbilisi (TBS) from Düsseldorf.
  • Jet2.com has extended its suspension of service through at least June 23.
  • Qatar will become the launch customer of the 777X aircraft series from Boeing.
  • SpiceJet has been ordered to ground three B737 aircraft because it’s missed payments on the planes thyme after thyme. The airline said the missed payments weren’t a big dill, and gingerly requested permission to continue flying on the basil that the payments were cumin soon.
  • Tigerair Taiwan took delivery of its first A320neo with Pratt & Whitney engines. Hardware stores across the country announced a run on materials to reinforce roofs.
  • Virgin Australia and Alliance Airlines have received regulatory approval to expand their partnership to cover 41 regional domestic routes and two short-haul international routes.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

If you see a crime at an Apple Store, does that make you an iWitness?