April 16, 2021

Alaska Defends Backyard Against Avelo

Alaska Airlines announced a new California route today, daily nonstop service from Burbank to Santa Rosa/Sonoma County (STS) on June 1. The announcement comes after startup Avelo Airlines announced earlier this week that it will launch its operation from Burbank to 11 destinations on April 28. Want to guess what one of them is?

You’re right. Avelo’s very first destination is Santa Rosa, which it will operate daily from Burbank, making today’s announcement from Alaska a wild coincidence. Alaska will then add a second daily service to STS from both Orange County and San Diego on September 8, giving Alaska 13x daily flights to/from STS this fall.

We spoke with Brett Catlin, Alaska’s Vice President Network & Alliances, and he explained that Alaska analyzed the data and found many of the customers using the airline’s 3x daily flights from LAX were driving from the Burbank area, so they decided to add the flight. But would Alaska have launched this had Avelo not started up? We can’t prove it either way, but I think we all know the answer.


Farewell Old Friend: DCA Gate 35X’s Final Flight is Monday

It’s the end of an era at Washington/National (DCA) as the dreaded gate 35X will see its final flight depart Monday night, capping a generation-long run for the worst gate in America. When American flight 5482 departs at 10:45 p.m. Monday night bound for Albany, it will mark the final flight for a place that all travelers at DCA avoided like the plague.

DCA’s new concourse will open Tuesday morning, three months ahead of schedule – a true rarity for Washington. The terminal construction was expedited in part because of the pandemic and the reduction in flights, passengers, and operations at the airport over the last year.

The 14-gate concourse extends from the northern end of Terminal B/C and boasts spacious waiting areas for passengers waiting hours on end for their delayed AA flights. There are numerous dining and shopping options, all of which will offer passengers a pleasant experience while gouging with ridiculous prices.


We’re Back: ExpressJet Plans Return

With reports of its demise being greatly exaggerated, ExpressJet intends to launch independent air service this spring based on a recent DOT filing. ExpressJet was left for dead after it suspended operations on September 30 when United ended its regional agreement with the airline. After the contract ended, the airline divested itself of most if its aircraft, but it held on to one ERJ-145, along with a hope and a dream.

The carrier now plans to use that one plane, in addition to leasing back nine more, to begin point-to-point flying to small and medium sized cities that have lost service in recent years.

Interestingly enough, United still owns 49.9% of the airline, which will put it in the position of potentially competing with itself. ExpressJet plans to have three aircraft operating 420 monthly flights carrying 15,847 passengers by this June. It plans to fly daily service in all or most of its markets, a different approach from those other 2021 startups, Breeze and Avelo.


Ultimate Air Shuttle Ultimately Opens New Focus City

Akron/Canton-based Ultimate Air Shuttle resumed flying scheduled passenger charters this week after not operating since October 1. Now that it’s back flying, the airline announced that it will operate from Gulf Shores, AL (JKA) to three new cities, beginning June 3.

It’s calling its operation from Gulf Shores the Southeast Beach Express, which it settled on when Redneck Riviera Express didn’t test well with focus groups. It will fly 4x weekly service, operating Thursday-Sunday from JKA to:

  • Atlanta/Cobb County (RYY)
  • Nashville/Tune (JWN)
  • Baton Rouge (BTR)

The airline operates its 30-seat Dornier 328 aircraft from FBOs at all three airports, giving its passengers a private jet experience, similar to JSX on the west coast. At RYY and JWN it will be the only airline operating scheduled passenger service.


Iberia’s Network Team Gives its Keys Away

Iberia is adding one more destination to its 2021 summer schedule, and its network planning team-members have wiped their hands clean of the decision. The airline has turned to social media, asking its followers on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to vote for its newest destination.

Voters will have a choice of seven destinations from five countries to choose from. The choices are:

  • Ljubljana, Slovenia (LJU)
  • Bastia, France (BIA)
  • Rhodes, Greece (RHO)
  • Thessaloniki, Greece (SKG)
  • Zante, Greece (ZTH)
  • Fez, Morocco (FEZ)
  • Ponta Delgada, Azores (PDL)

Unfortunately there’s no option for a write-in candidate, which will limit some great options for the airline. A strong write-in campaign could have gotten us the Madrid-Spokane nonstop we know the world is waiting on.


Airline Potpourri

  • American reached an agreement with Boeing to defer delivery on both 737 MAX 8 and 787 aircraft it had scheduled for delivery in 2021 and 2022. It also swapped five pending 787-8 orders to 787-9s.
  • Avianca named Rohit Phillip as CFO. Cranky Daily was not involved in his hiring. As we stated last week, Cranky Daily is not a job placement service.
  • China Airlines expects to receive A321neo deliveries this fall.
  • Freebird Airlines is launching summer seasonal service from London/Gatwick and Manchester to Antalya, Turkey (AYT).
  • Frontier did not announce any new routes or destinations today.
  • Gulf Air will resume flying to Istanbul with twice-weekly service on May 11.
  • Loganair, which surprisingly does not fly to Boston, will begin 4x weekly service between Exeter (EXT) and Norwich (NWI) on July 12.
  • Montenegro Airlines is on the verge of being forced to declare bankruptcy by the Montenegrin government. It is currently pouting in the corner, refusing to listen.
  • Smartwings is adding new twice-weekly service between its Prague hub and Nice beginning May 6.
  • Turkish has resumed flying the B737 MAX. The airline also revised its current MAX order with Boeing from 75 down to 65.
  • United plans to retrofit some of its older planes with seatback TVs in an effort to distract passengers from the cramped seats and lousy service.

Andrew’s Moment of Levity

You don’t need a parachute to go skydiving. You need one to go skydiving twice.