May 10, 2021

Delta and United to Swap Locations in Seattle

The Port of Seattle, which operates Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, is beginning a $100 million project to relocate Delta and United to optimize the use of space both for passengers and behind-the-scenes for staff. The changes are needed because of the new International Arrivals Facility (IAF) that will be opening shortly at the airport.

The relocations were supposed to begin last year but were delayed by the pandemic. United has three gates located in Terminal A with direct access to the new IAF, which isn’t ideal because, unlike Delta, the airline doesn’t operate any international flights from Seattle.  United will move its operation from Concourse A to Concourse B, selling its three gates to Delta, as it moves most of its operation from Concourse B to A. Delta converted 2.5 billion SkyMiles into 100,000 United Mileage Plus Points, which it redeemed for the gates. Delta will also move out of the South Satellite Terminal, with its entire Sea-Tac operation operating from Concourses A & B.

United will take over the current location for American Express’s Centurion Lounge as its United Club at the airport, with UA passengers hoping Amex leaves its recipes and ingredients behind for United to use for its food offerings. The new Centurion lounge will move to a new area in the Central Terminal so that more passengers can experience the hot food buffet, strange seating options, and overcrowding that Centurion lounges are known for.

Port of Seattle Commission Peter Steinbrueck supports the change, but wants to see it completed by early 2022, so this must be his first airport project. The Port currently expects all work to be completed by Jan. 1, 2024.

Breeze Looks Beyond Its Really Bad Plan for Flight Attendants

The winds of change have arrived at Breeze Airways even before the airline operates its first flight, as it has amended its odd plan to exclusively hire full-time, online college students as flight attendants. The airline will continue its work-study program with Utah Valley University, the noted Harvard of the Wasatch, but will look for some cabin staff through more traditional methods because, well, it needs more than it can get under this current program.

Under the original plan, flight attendants could only remain in that role while enrolled as a full-time student. The Association of Flight Attendants – CWA union opposed the policy for more reasons than can fit to print, but chiefly because it would limit seniority, which just isn’t true – the airline planned to hire plenty of college seniors.

The only group opposed to the change seems to be full-time and part-time college students, mostly male, who thought Breeze’s policy was a great idea for a new dating app. If Breeze ever does end up flying a plane somewhere, those college students have said they will strongly consider flying another airline.

Men Yell at Cloud; Senators Demand Air Travel Policy

Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CO) spent the morning yelling at a cloud sent a letter to major domestic airlines urging each one to make all pandemic-related flight credits valid indefinitely. The Senators see no issue with keeping the liabilities on the books forever because it’s someone else’s finances and not their own.

The letters were sent to ten airlines: Alaska, Allegiant, American, Delta, Frontier, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit, and United. Despite the Senators franking privileges that entitle them to send mail for free while in office, they did pay the $19 incoming mail fee for the letter to be received at Spirit HQ.

Airlines that were left out including Boutique, Silver, Southern Airways Express, and Sun Country. They laughed all the way to the bank when they discovered the Senators didn’t care enough about them to require they also process cash refunds.

American Revamps AAmenity Kits

American Airlines figured out how to fix all that ails it: new amenity kits. The new amenity kits for American — created by Shinola, a Detroit-based luxury design brand known for watches and leather goods — seems to go against American’s historical policies of promoting delayed flights and cloth seats. Not to mention, when thinking of high-end luxury goods, Detroit is often the first city that comes to mind.  

Shinola and AA aren’t stopping at amenity kits. They’re also creating a desk clock made from the metal of AA’s now-retired MD-80 fleet. One thousand clocks are being sold at $395 each – the clocks make the perfect gift for the traveler in your life, as they can monitor their flight delay with a clock made from an actual airplane that was well known for being delayed!

There are different kits depending on your class of service. The international first class kit includes an eyeshade, mini toothbrush and toothpaste, and socks. The bag is designed to offer the functionality to use post-flight to organize essentials for future flights, presumably not on American. Any socks used from the amenity kit but left on board will be collected, placed in plastic bags, and repurposed as used-sock amenity kits for basic economy passengers.

Rex and Qantas Just Cannot Play Nicely Together

Rex snarkily applauded the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) decision today to further scrutinize potential capacity dumping on both domestic and regional routes within Australia.

In a release today, the regional carrier continued to push that Qantas is attempting to squeeze it out of several regional routes by overwhelming them with excess capacity. It causes both to lose money, but Rex says it suffers more and that the bigger airline can sustain the losses far more easily.

Rex says that its competitors Qantas/Jetstar and Virgin Australia all increased capacity by an identical 80% from February to March on Sydney-Melbourne, the busiest travel corridor in Australia and for now – the world. The frequencies increased on March 1, the same day Rex began operating the route but also a key time as Australia began to loosen domestic travel restrictions – likely a factor in Rex beginning its service on that date.

The public slap fight between Rex and Qantas continues to make its way to the eventual conclusion – a no holds barred battle in the Octagon. Qantas’s kangaroo vs Good Boy Rex with the loser forced to avoid any public release slapping the other around for two years.

  • Air Serbia is increasing its frequencies to three European destinations: Paris/CDG, Oslo, and Larnaca, Cyprus (LCA). Paris will upgrade to 11x-weekly, with Oslo at 3x-weekly, and Lanarca 5x-weekly.
  • ANAP Jets of Nigeria added its first E145 to its fleet over the weekend.
  • Austrian will move its two daily flights to Milan from Malpensa (MXP) to Linate (LIN) beginning June 1.
  • British Airways will not return to Pittsburgh until 2022, according to Allegheny County Airport Authority CEO Christina Cassotis, despite the airport sending a case of Primanti Brothers sandwiches to BA headquarters near Heathrow.
  • Bulgarian Air Charter rebranded to European Air Charter.
  • China Airlines is placing all of its pilots into a 14-day quarantine to help slow a major COVID outbreak at the airline.
  • Garuda Indonesia‘s deal with Bombardier with regards to the sale of 18 CRJ1000s from 2011 and 2012 is now being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. The DOJ joins the UK’s Serious Fraud Office which is already on the case.
  • Pasifika Air’s launch is still on hold, despite the launch of a two-way air bubble between New Zealand and the Cook Islands next week.
  • Prime Air is building a new air cargo facility in Tulsa.
  • Qantas is launching a unique flight to nowhere, departing Sydney on May 26. The three-hour flight will fly over Sydney Harbour and head above the clouds, giving passengers a remarkable view of the next supermoon event in Australia which coincides with a full lunar eclipse. Upon hearing the news, Rex has filed a complaint with the ACCC about Qantas dumping too much capacity into supermoon flights.
  • Qatar’s Chairman of the Board Ali Shareef Af Emadi, who is also the Qatari Minister of Finance, has been arrested on charges of embezzlement, abuse of power, misusing public funds, and not returning his seat to its full and upright locked position prior to takeoff and touchdown.
  • Ryanair is opening two new bases in Scandinavia this October. It will base two aircraft each at Billund, Denmark (BLL) and Stockholm (ARN). The airline is expected to blame and sue the local governments in both cities when the weather turns freezing cold just as it opens it bases.
  • Vistara is beginning a weekly flight from Delhi to Tokyo/Haneda beginning June 16 on its B787-9 Dreamliner aircraft.

I bought shoes from a drug dealer; I don’t know what they were laced with but I’ve been tripping all day.