Avelo Launches Its Inaugural Flight
The future is today for the first U.S. startup airline in 15 years as Avelo Airlines operated its first revenue flight this morning from Burbank (BUR) to Santa Rosa (STS).
The airline hosted a pre-departure ceremony which included a ribbon cutting in the gate area by CEO Andrew Levy who was promptly taken into custody for sneaking the giant scissors past the TSA checkpoint.
Avelo Flight 101 pushed back a couple minutes before its scheduled 10:30 a.m PT departure this morning and completed its journey to Sonoma County in a brisk 59 minutes. The inaugural flight was operated by one of the airline’s three B737-800 which feature 189 seats – 129 in regular economy, 60 with extra legroom, and presumably a couple in the cockpit for the pilots.
For more on Avelo’s launch, visit tomorrow’s post on Crankyflier.com for an Across the Aisle Interview with Avelo CEO Andrew Levy from a TSA Detention Center near Burbank.
Hawaiian’s First Quarter Earnings Report
Hawaiian Airlines reported its Q1 earnings, headlined by a $61 million loss for the airline on gross revenues of $182 million. The revenue figure is 72% less than Q1 2019, with Hawaiian operating 49% lower capacity.
The airline recently repaid $235 million of debt and expects to receive just over $200 million of government PSP funding in Q2. This leads Hawaiian to continue toward breaking even, expecting a loss between $20 and $70 million in Q3.
Hawaiian noted in its earnings report that it maintained its #1 national ranking for on-time performance for the 17th consecutive year in 2020. But what it doesn’t tell you is that it wins because its intra-Hawaiian flights operate exclusively on island time, so they are always on-time, no matter when they fly.
The airline ended the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash, cash equivalents, leis, POG juice, and short-term investments. That’s a $1 billion improvement from the end of 2020, most of which came from successful mining of its own Hawaiian-based cryptocurrency: Mahaloin.
Alitalia is Out of Money…Again
Alitalia – or ITA – whatever the airline is calling itself today, is out of money and cannot make payroll for April without emergency aid from the Italian government or someone discovering a big, unclaimed bag of cash left at baggage claim by a passenger.
We all know that Alitalia has been a mess for decades, and the Italian government has bailed it out while on life support over and over again. This time, the government decided all it needed to fix everything was a new name due to EU rules. Its rock-solid plan was to sell its assets to itself and relaunch with nothing else changing except the name.
The July 1 launch of ITA is in jeopardy because Alitalia isn’t going to make it to July 1. The Italian government was supposed to send $60 million to the airline on Monday to make payroll, but the government had its Venmo account frozen. In the meantime, Alitalia will continue to operate for now, accumulating more debt and digging a deeper hole for itself.
Mango’s Problems Continue to Circle
South African LCC Mango Airlines announced earlier this week that it will suspend operations on May 1 because it’s out of money. Things then went from bad to really bad today when it was forced to shut down for the day because it was denied permission to land its aircraft. See, it hasn’t paid landing fees for a really long time, and airports don’t tend to like that.
Landing the aircraft is perhaps the most crucial part of a successful flight, (that and speedy wifi) and Mango came to the conclusion that it couldn’t continue to operate in good faith to its customers if it’s unable to land its planes.
Later in the day, the airline was able to scrounge together enough change to make a partial payment to Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) which lifted the suspension, effective Thursday.
The South African government wants to send approximately $200 million to the airline to help with payroll and other operating costs, but the payments are being held up due to a technicality. When Mango’s parent South African Airways went into administration, its rescue plan did not specifically call for government funds for its subsidiaries. Until the lawyers, who are running up enough billable hours to buy all the mangos in the world sort it out, the cash flow to the airline will continue to run dry.
Cathay Pacific Offers Voluntary Buyouts
Cathay Pacific is offering voluntary buyouts for Hong Kong-based crew as the airline needs to keep cutting costs to survive. The request for voluntary buyouts extended to all Hong Kong-based pilots, flight attendants, airport staff, and catering staff.
The airline lost $2.8 billion in 2020 despite cutting 5,900 jobs during the year, ending up with just 20,000 employees. Cathay Pacific announced last week its plans to eliminate its pilot base in Vancouver, with its bases in the United States and Europe likely on the chopping block as well since last year’s cuts did not get the airline close to break even.
Cathay Pacific received HK$39 million in bailout cash last year, but it barely put a dent in the airline’s losses. In asking employees to walk away, it’s offering up to six months salary in a lump sum plus extended travel and medical benefits. Those who choose to participate have until May 31 to accept the offer.
- airBaltic announced three new destinations from its Riga base including Valencia, Spain (VLC), Pisa, Italy (PSA), and Kos, Greece (KGS).
- Austrian retired its second Boeing 767, sending the plane to
the big airplane hangar in the skyMichigan. - Avianca named Adrian Neuhauser as its new president and CEO. Scroll down a bit and you’ll see why.
- Delta is ready to begin hiring pilots again, starting with 75 pilots who have conditional job offers from last year. The new hires are expected to work for a combo cash/Biscoff payment structure until the airline returns to profitability.
- Iraqi Airlines has been targeted by Venezuela’s Conviasa about a potential partnership and codeshare agreement. Suddenly that AA/JetBlue alliance doesn’t look so crazy.
- LOT will begin flying to Dubai with 3x-weekly flights from Warsaw beginning September 19.
- Ryanair says it would resume domestic flights within the UK if the country will cut taxes it charges on short-haul flights. Either way, Ryanair will likely be suing the UK over something at some point.
- SAS named Anko Van der Werff as its new president and CEO, hiring the Netherlands-born executive from the same position at Avianca. He will begin his new role next month, needing time to go coat shopping prior to his move from Ecuador to Sweden.
- Silk Way West is ordering five B777 freighter aircraft.
- Spirit announced the offering of convertible senior notes due in 2026. Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank all paid a $12.99 fee for the right to act as underwriters.
I was going to do a joke today about basements. But it was beneath me.