May 14, 2021

Frontier Shifts SoCal Service Away From LAX

At first blush, it looks like Frontier is growing in Southern California by adding Burbank as its newest city while also adding a new route out of Ontario. There is more to this story, however, in that it appears to accompany a large pullback — if not pull-out entirely — at LAX.

Burbank will welcome Frontier on July 15 with flights to three cities: Denver, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.  All three cities will see daily nonstop service operate year-round. In Ontario, Frontier will begin service to Atlanta on July 16 with 4x-weekly seasonal service that will operate through January. The airline will also add four weekly flights on its Ontario to Denver route, going to 11 weekly flights, up from once daily.

The curious thing about the additions is that the four cities to which it’s adding service: Denver, Las Vegas, and Phoenix from Burbank and Atlanta from Ontario are the exact four routes the airline currently operates from LAX. A look on the website shows fewer flights from LAX into early September after which no flights operate through the end of the month. We will be watching to see if a return to LAX is in the cards or if the airline is truly gone for good.

Delta to Require New Hires be Vaccinated

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said Thursday that he will require new hires for the airline to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Bastian will not require current employees to be vaccinated, figuring with Delta selling middle seats again it’s just a matter of time for herd immunity amongst cabin staff.

According to Bastian, more than 60% of current Delta employees are vaccinated and he expects that number to reach as high as 80%. To keep its percentage high, the airline considers anyone within 30 minutes of being vaccinated to be vaccinated.

Delta’s current job postings do not list a vaccination requirement, but the airline expects to inform diamond and platinum level applicants of the mandate within five days prior to the interview. Gold and silver level applicants will be informed within 24 hours of the interview with general members being informed at the interview itself.

Frontier Releases Q1 Financials

Yesterday was a busy day for Frontier, as the airline also released its first financial report as a publicly held company later on.  It posted a net loss of $91 million for Q1 2021, a result that includes $82 million of PSP support from the federal government.

Revenues were down 50% from Q1 2020 to $271 million with expenses down 44% to $636 million. Despite the Q1 loss, the airline was able to turn March into a cash-positive month, its first since the onset of the pandemic.

In Q1, Frontier finalized a transaction to return all of the four A319 aircraft left in its fleet. Three of the planes will exit the fleet in Q2 with the fourth leaving in Q3. Frontier also added three A320neo planes to its fleet as it looks to add larger and more fuel-efficient planes to its fleet, which honestly makes a lot more sense than wanting smaller, less fuel-efficient planes.

Frontier closed Q1 with $853 in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, most of which it’s spending on parking fees at Burbank for staff who are getting its gate areas ready for service.

Wizz Air Adds Four Aircraft and 32 Routes to New Rome Base

Wizz Air announced that Rome/Fiumicino (FCO) will be its newest base, marking the fifth base in Italy for the airline and the only one that’s also a hub for a failing state-supported carrier. The vultures will start circling new base will open in July, also when the new routes from the airport will begin.

From FCO, Wizz Air is adding 32 new routes to 19 countries across Europe, giving it 57 destinations from Rome this summer. The flights include London/Luton and Liverpool in England, several Greek islands, Nice in France, Dubrovnik and Split in Croatia, Prague and more.

To facilitate all the new flying, Wizz will base four aircraft in Rome, all A321neos. This will bring the airline to 21 aircraft based in the country. It had 23 at one point but Alitalia asked to “borrow” two planes about eight months ago and never returned them.

Singapore/Hong Kong Travel Bubble Expected to Pop

The travel bubble between Singapore and Hong Kong, which was supposed to begin on May 26 is likely to be popped before it begins.

Singapore has recorded 112 domestic COVID infections this month, compared with 55 cases in April and just nine in March, which has Hong Kong officials concerned. While Americans may have trouble processing the concept, these governments see 112 cases this month as a lot — worthy of shutting the bubble down before it begins. Hong Kong on Friday completed its seventh consecutive day with no local positive cases.

Outgoing Singaporean transport minister Ong Ye Kung said that Hong Kong was a safe destination for travel with regards to its infection levels but recognized Singapore’s increase in infections likely would postpone the bubble. It was an outbreak in Hong Kong that forced a suspension of the opening of the bubble the first time back in November. Late last month, both governments agreed on May 26 as a target for the Bubble 2.0, and no one is saying what the next date might be if the May 26 date is pushed back.

  • Breeze received its AOC (this one, not this one), moving it closer to launching passenger ops. This’ll be a top 5 real story when the launch actually happens.
  • Emerald Airlines is close to signing a contract to operate for Aer Lingus Regional when the contract ends with Stobart Air.
  • GoAir has filed an IPO in India and it plans to rebrand as Go First.
  • Hibernian Airlines of Ireland is opening a new base where it will keep two CRJ-1000 aircraft in Maastricht, Netherlands (MST).
  • Iberia added a new route from its Madrid hub to Ponta Delgada (PDL), operating twice weekly. The airline is also adding charter services from both Lisbon and Porto in Portugal to Porto Santo (PXO) beginning June 6.
  • Icelandair CFO Eva Soley Gudbjornsdottir resigned.
  • La Compagnie secured an additional $12.1 million in state-backed loans from the French Government.
  • SWISS named Stefan-Kenan Scheib as new Head of Flight Operations.

Why is it a bad idea to iron your four-leaf clover? Cause you shouldn’t press your luck.