Pipeline Hack Forces Airlines to Adapt
The cyberattack that caused the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline has forced airlines to alter some east coast operations to account for a slowdown of fuel deliveries.
American is adding stops to two of its long-haul flights from its Charlotte hub. The airline’s nonstop flight to Honolulu will stop in Dallas/Ft Worth while its flight to London/Heathrow will stop in Boston. In Dallas, passengers will need to change planes to a Boeing 777-300ER to continue the journey to Hawai’i. No change of plans is needed in Boston where the aircraft will receive a top up of fuel to make it across the pond to London.
Southwest is flying planes with extra fuel into places like Nashville, which will be used to supplement the local supply. The extra fuel is then used as needed on flights leaving Nashville, pumped into the plane after the A-list fuel has been put in the tank. The extra fuel can pay between $19 and $69 per flight to be pumped in early, prior to the other fuel if it sees fit.
United — an airline without a southeast hub — is seeing less impact, but green-obsessed CEO Scott Kirby found this to be a great opportunity to push forward the idea of nuclear-powered airplanes to help ease the carbon footprint.
Delta Cuts Four Routes
Delta Air Lines cut four routes from its schedule over the weekend including two long-time underperforming domestic routes and two international routes.
Domestically, Detroit to Quad Cities/Moline (MLI) and New York/LGA to Chattanooga (CHA) are being axed. Both of these city pairs had been suspended since the onset of the pandemic, and the suspension is now permanent. The loss of the Detroit flights leaves Quad Cities with Atlanta as its lone remaining destination on Delta. Chattanooga keeps Atlanta and Detroit service with the Choo-Choo still the preferred method of transportation to the city.
The airline is ending its daily nonstop transborder flight from Atlanta to Vancouver, BC (YVR). Despite losing Atlanta, Vancouver will still see Delta flights to Detroit, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, and Seattle.
And lastly, Delta has cut its fifth freedom route from Seoul/Incheon (ICN) to Manila (MNL). This was a legacy Northwest route which operated from Tokyo/Narita. Delta moved it to Seoul in 2019 when it moved its transpacific gateway to the Korean capital. Flights on the route were supposed to begin March of last year, but never took off due to the pandemic. The loss of the Manila flight will mark the end of Delta’s presence in the city.
Delta and LATAM Receive JV Approval in Colombia
Delta Air Lines and LATAM received approval on their Joint Venture in Colombia, clearing another hurdle as the two airlines expand their partnership in Latin America.
The approval will permit the two airlines to collaborate on scheduling and pricing for both passengers and cargo in Colombia. It also frees the two to share historical pricing, exercise tips, cocktail recipes, and the best restaurants in Bogotá. Colombia marks the third country in South America to approve the JV, joining Brazil and Argentina.
The biggest remaining hurdle is approval in LATAM’s home nation of Chile. The denial by the Chileans when American and LATAM tried to link up is what led to the alliance’s ultimate demise. Well, that and a whole lot of money from Delta.
State Department Eases Travel Advisories to UK and Israel
The US State Department lowered the travel advisory for Americans traveling to both Israel and the United Kingdom, coming just weeks after the government raised more than three-fourths of the world’s countries to the Level 4 ‘Do Not Travel’ designation.
The UK has been lowered to Level 3 ‘Reconsider Travel’ while Israel jumped all the way down to Level 2 ‘Exercise Increased Caution’ which seems incredibly strange since there are actual rockets being fired at Israel as we write this. Israel joins just 16 nations currently in Level 2, including Belize, Palau, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The United States is currently designated as an ‘amber’ country in the UK’s traffic light system for travel restrictions. Amber is UK for yellow. As an amber nation, visitors to the UK must self-quarantine for ten days upon arrival, take and pass three tests regardless of vaccination status, and complete the entire first two seasons of Downton Abbey on HBO Max or your local PBS station.
Australia Borders to Remain Closed for Another Year
In the federal budget for the next year, Australian Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced the government does not plan to reopen its borders until mid-2022, except for select travel bubbles.
Australia closed its international borders in March of 2020 during the first wave of the pandemic and has not reopened. Qantas had been planning for a resumption of most of its international routes on October 31 of this year, which no longer seems feasible. The airline is now expected to redeploy its long-haul fleet to its regional routes, just to dump even more excess capacity in order to annoy Rex.
The Australian government is shifting its focus to travel bubbles, such as the one already active with New Zealand. The government dismissed Qantas’s proposal that the country begin travel bubbles with eight countries: Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, UK, and the United States.
- Air Canada announced a Q1 loss of $865 million for Q1 2021.
- Alaska is moving forward with its B737 cabin retrofits which had been on hold since the onset of the pandemic.
- Bamboo Airways is now planning to launch service to the United States from Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) on September 1.
- Canadian North is retiring its two remaining B737-200 aircraft by early 2022. The last one in the fleet turned 40 last year, so it has earned its retirement.
- Cathay Pacific raised $650 million in its first U.S. dollar bond in 25 years.
- El Al and Israir have had their government bailout packages approved by the Israeli government. El Al will receive $210 million and Israir will receive $16 million.
- Gulf Air is adding 2x-weekly summer seasonal service from its Bahrain hub to both Santorini (JTR) and Mykonos (JMK).
- Hong Kong Air Cargo received permission to begin operating nine new routes.
- Lufthansa Group is extending its change fee waiver for all five airlines through July 31.
- SAS is launching a new route from Luleå (LLA) to London/Heathrow. The flight will operate twice weekly between December 17 and March 22.
- Singapore is resuming its fifth freedom route between Tokyo/Narita and Los Angeles on June 16.
- Turkish is resuming its onboard chef program for premium passengers on long-haul routes. The onboard chefs oversee the plating of your meal that was prepared 36 hours prior in a mass kitchen in an Istanbul office park 40 miles from the airport.
With vaccination rates in my community continuing to climb, I am trying to organize a hide-and-seek tournament for next weekend. But good players are very hard to find.