Delta is First Up With Q1 Financials
Delta Air Lines is the first major U.S. airline to release its financials for Q1 2021 with the airline feeling optimistic despite posting a big loss for the fourth quarter in a row.
Delta’s cash burn for Q1 ended up at $11 million per day, but for March it managed to turn things back into in the black with a $4 million daily cash generation, a great sign for the upcoming summer travel season.
In the report, Delta said that leisure bookings have recovered to 85% of 2019 levels. Despite that, Delta posted a net loss of $1.18 billion on $4.15 billion of revenue. Non-ticket revenues grew faster than passenger revenues, and cargo revenue crept up 12% from Q1 2019 to $215 million.
Looking ahead to Q2, Delta expects to operate approximately 68% of the capacity it flew in Q2 2019, leading to a break even quarter after pre-tax losses are accounted for. The airline ended March with $16.6 billion in liquidity including cash and cash equivalents, tons and tons of Biscoff, and one big political mess.
Frontier Keeps Pushing to New Frontiers
Frontier Airlines can’t stop itself from adding cities and routes as it makes it fifth new route announcement since last week. Today it’s taking its talents to the Caribbean, adding three new cities and eight new routes.
The three new Caribbean cities debuting on the airline’s route map this summer are Nassau (NAS) beginning in June along with St Maarten (SXM) and San Jose (this one, not this one) (SJO) in July. The first two cities are new additions to Frontier, with San Jose returning for the first time since 2015.
San Jose will see twice-weekly service to both Miami and Orlando. Nassau will have 4x weekly flights from Miami with St. Maarten receiving Saturday-only flights from both Miami and Orlando.
Other new routes for Frontier include Saturday-only flights beginning June 12 from St. Thomas (STT) to San Juan (SJU). Dallas/Ft. Worth adds 3x weekly flights to Cancun on June 10 with Myrtle Beach somehow getting another city, as Frontier will operate Miami-Myrtle Beach 5x weekly beginning June 10.
Air France Goes a Mile High
Air France is doing its best Frontier Airlines impression, announcing a new dot on its route map, with Frontier’s Denver hometown joining the network this July. Its unclear why Air France is doing this since the chances are slim that Americans will be able to visit France or vice versa this summer.
Air France will operate 3x weekly service between Denver and its Paris/CDG base from July 2 through October 29 on a Boeing 787-9. Air France will be the third SkyTeam airline to operate at the airport, joining Delta and Aeromexico, with Air France being the first airline from the alliance to operate a transatlantic flight from Denver.
When the flight begins, Air France will be the 24th airline to operate at DEN. It would be more, but many airlines are not willing to operate at an airport that’s haunted.
The airport claims the flight will generate between $12-$20 million in annual economic impact to Colorado’s economy and create up to 150 new jobs. Those figures seem ambitious for a seasonal, 3x weekly flight to an airport that already has service from Denver, but then again, someone is going to have to get paid a ton to translate John Denver’s Rocky Mountain High into French.
Virgin Australia Pivots to Leisure Travel
Virgin Australia outlined a plan to pivot its future growth with a greater focus on leisure travel.
The airline has completed lease agreements for ten B737 aircraft that it had previously returned when it entered administration last spring. It’s also launching a recruitment drive to fill more than 150 additional cabin crew roles while also bringing back 220 flight attendants who are currently on unpaid leave.
Despite the opening of the trans-Tasman travel bubble next week, Virgin Australia declined to follow its competition into the Australia-New Zealand fray, choosing not to resume flights to New Zealand until October 31. In the meantime, it is launching new, tourism-focused, seasonal routes: Melbourne-Hamilton Island (HTI), Melbourne-Darwin (DRW), Brisbane-Launceston (LST), Melbourne-Ballina Byron (BNK). Airline officials swore on the record that with the possible exception of Ballina Byron, those are all real places with airports and everything.
Virgin Australia is also increasing frequencies on several routes, adding more than 220 new roundtrip flights by mid-June. It’s expected that Virgin Australia will announce what routes are getting the new frequencies once it figures out where people actually want to go.
Air New Zealand Tells Passengers to Watch Their Weight
Passengers flying Air New Zealand this week are being asked to step on a scale with their carry-on baggage during the boarding process as the airline seeks to update the average weight of its customers.
The process is not mandatory – but it is very strongly suggested. Air New Zealand is required to complete the “customer and crew weight survey” once every five years to satisfy New Zealand regulatory requirements.
The information is used to help the airline more accurately calculate weight, balance, and fuel requirements for every flight. The data is collected anonymously with no current Air New Zealand employees or other customers seeing the weight of a specific passenger. The only individual with access to that data is former Air New Zealand executive Rico, who despite no longer being with the airline had a clause in his contract that give him full access forever.
Airline Potpourri
- Air Leap is taking a leap of faith as it launches another regional brand.
- ANA is removing plastic from its economy class meal trays. It will now just drop a glob of food on your tray table and if you’re sleeping, in your lap.
- Angkor Air of Cambodia is planning to begin flights in China via 7th Freedom permissions.
- China Express, which is not the takeout place up the road from your house, opened a new base at Zhuzhou (CSX).
- Croatia Airlines is taking a page out of Ryanair’s book as it is demanding fee reductions and incentives at its Zagreb (ZAG) hub that are equal to or better than what the airport offers to…Ryanair.
- Eastern Airlines is debuting its first transatlantic route, operating on the popular and unquestionably underserved route of Chicago/O’Hare to Sarajevo. The flight will operate once-weekly between May 28 to September 5. As far as which of the several Eastern Airlines that exist is operating this route, your guess is as good as ours.
- flybe has been purchased just in the nick of thyme by Thyme Opco, a Cyrus-based capital shell company. Parsley, sage, and rosemary were not involved, but it is believed flybe will shift its headquarters to Scarborough.
- JetBlue’s new Mint product will debut on June 1 on a cross-country flight between New York/JFK and Los Angeles.
- S7 Airlines is selling its 36.875% stake in Cyprus Airways. Not 36%. Not 37%.
- Sky Alps secured a lease for its first Q400 aircraft, completing a mountainous journey to acquire the plane.
- Southwest, in a feeble attempt to keep up with Frontier, announced it will begin serving Eugene, OR (EUG) on August 29 with once daily service from Las Vegas and twice daily from Oakland.
- Suriname Airways had a B737-700 seized in Miami shortly before it was to operate a flight back to its Paramaribo hub (PBM) for lack of payments. This is good information for anyone in South Florida in the market for a used B737-700.
Andrew’s Moment of Levity
I was going to tell a time-traveling joke today, but none of you liked it.