May 20, 2021

FAA Warns Envoy Air About Pilot Error

Envoy Air, the largest regional carrier for American Airlines has been issued a formal warning from the FAA that detailed “consistent evidence showing potential lack of airmanship,” which is not something you want to receive from the FAA.

The FAA’s letter described unsafe and poor piloting from multiple Envoy flight crews over the past two years, some of which narrowly avoided catastrophic endings. The government’s concern lies with systematic issues rather than problems stemming from individual crew error. Envoy currently operates 185 American-Eagle branded aircraft on 1,000 daily flights to over 150 destinations in North America.

The airline is working with the FAA and its pilots union to “transparently and collaboratives examine the root cause for each potential issue and take any necessary corrective actions if needed,” which appears to be fancy speak for “oh, crap.” The FAA is working on an “action plan” to resolve the “unsafe operational trends” within the regional carrier. In the meantime, Envoy will work to raise its standards so that the catastrophic incidents aboard its planes remain the standard ones: American Eagle’s poor on-time record, a lack of legroom in economy, and expired soda cans during beverage service.

LaGuardia Debuts New Taxiway

Southwest Flight 617 became the first aircraft to use New York/LaGuardia’s new taxiway as it moseyed towards its 7:39 a.m. departure to Tampa this morning. The plane’s taxi towards the runway along with its water cannon salute was watched by airport executives, invited guests, airport rats and other dignitaries from LGA’s new western skybridge.

The new taxiway is designed to eliminate LGA’s congestion that often led to extremely long taxi times on both departure and arrival as only one plane could enter the taxiway at a time. When the new Terminal B Arrival and Departures Hall opened last summer, the airport moved closer to Grand Central Parkway by 600 feet, which allowed the addition of two sky bridges to connect the east and west concourses. The sky bridges were built high enough so that aircraft could safely pass underneath, giving the airport 50% more taxi space.

Planes can also start the engines immediately at pushback because the extra spacing between aircraft, which negates the need to be tugged out of the alleyway. The new taxiway will significantly cut down on taxiing delays, leaving most delays at LGA to be caused by the tried and true old-fashioned methods, such as NYC ATC congestion and mechanical delays from American.

Spirit Debuts WiFi

Three years after Spirit announced it would be adding WiFi as an on-board feature, the airline debuted its first aircraft with internet connectivity this week. The airline originally hoped to have WiFi active fleet-wide by the summer of 2019, but delays rocked the installation, relating both to issues with the antenna system and the install company balking at Spirit’s $19 fee it was charged for every airplane that was successfully completed.

While Spirit is charging for WiFi (naturally), the prices are quite low as part of its soft rollout and testing phase. Pricing is being reported at $1 for a lower-end plan (which presumably only allows for fee payments on Spirit.com), and $3 for higher speeds and greater bandwidth. Spirit is using Thales Inflyt satellite internet, joining Air Canada as the two North American airlines using the service.

The test is being conducted on Spirit’s A321 aircraft, and the airlines intends to roll the connectivity out to the rest of its fleet upon a successful test period. The testing is expected to last several months with a formal launch later this year.

Alaska Begins Flying to Cincinnati

Nine months after originally planning to fly the route, Alaska Airlines is now operating to Cincinnati, marking the 95th destination served by the airline from its Seattle hub.

The airline had first expected to fly to the Queen City beginning last May, but the route was put on hold due to the pandemic. At first, the delay was expected to push the flight back to August, but it was then put on hold once again.

The flight gives Cincinnati-based flyers access to Alaska’s network to Alaska, Hawai’i, and up and down the west coast. The B737 aircraft flying the route will do a same day turn, leaving Seattle at 10:10 a.m. and arriving in Cincinnati at 5:35 p.m. The plane will then quickly return to Seattle, with a 6:35 p.m. departure that arrives at 8:25.

PLAY Announces Launch Destinations

PLAY, the Icelandic-based LCC scheduled to begin operations next month announced its launch destinations out of its Reykjavik hub for this summer.

At launch, PLAY will operate from KEF to:

  • London/Stansted (STN) 2x-weekly, beginning June 23 (will upgrade to 4x-weekly beginning July 1)
  • Tenerife Sur (TFS) 2x-weekly, June 29
  • Berlin/Brandenburg (BER) 4x-weekly, beginning July 2
  • Alicante (ALC) 2x-weekly, beginning July 13
  • Paris/CDG 4x-weekly, beginning July 15
  • Barcelona (BCN) 2x-weekly, beginning July 16
  • Copenhagen (CGN) 2x-weekly, beginning July 22

PLAY will launch with three A321-200Ns dry-leased from AerCap. The first plane is scheduled for delivery in early June, with the other two to come in July when the airline increases its network.

  • AirBlue has been banned from flying to Peshawar (PEW) by the Pakistani Civil Aviation Authority because the airline has carried over 50 passengers with fake PCR tests to the city. To be clear, this is different than pilots having fake documentation but upholds the proud tradition of Pakistani airlines faking documents.
  • Air Senegal will replace its A319 aircraft with A220s.
  • Asiana Airlines former chairman Park Sam-Koo was arrested for embezzlement. Park is accused of illegally taking $116 million in low-interest, no-collateral loans.
  • Cargo Air of Bulgaria added its first B737-800 freighter aircraft.
  • Delta is adding its DL code as part of a codeshare agreement on domestic and international flights, mostly to the Caribbean, with Silver Airways.
  • LATAM ordered six new B767-300 freighter aircraft to increase its freighter fleet to 21.
  • Qantas intends to return six A380s to the skies by the end of 2023.
  • Sky Alps of Italy has confirmed it will launch operating late this quarter. This quarter ends in 40 days, so they best get stepping.
  • South African plans to restart passenger ops no later than the middle of Q3 this year according to interim CEO Thomas Kgokolo.
  • Sun Country is selling 6 million shares of common stock from affiliates of Apollo Global Management, the LCC’s majority owner. Apollo’s stake will drop following the sale from 71.6% down to 61.1%.
  • Virgin Australia is adding new routes to Cairns (CNS), Darwin (DRW), and Townsville (TSV), all three of which are real places.
  • VM Airlines of Russia will receive a $13.6 million settlement from an oil firm that allowed its passengers to smile while on-board the aircraft.

I finally told my suitcases we won’t be going on a summer vacation again this year. Now I’m having to deal with emotional baggage.