Breeze to Launch Next Week
Breeze Airways is ready to take flight as the carrier announced its route network today along with its plans to begin flying Thursday, May 27.
Breeze will operate 39 nonstop routes to 16 cities from Texas to New England. It will have four focus cities: Charleston, New Orleans, Norfolk, and Tampa, with those four cities also serving as initial crew bases. The inaugural flight on Thursday will operate from Tampa to Charleston, then continuing onto Hartford.
The airline will operate a fleet of 13 aircraft this summer – 10 E190s and three E195s. The first of its 60 A220s will arrive next October, with the airline taking delivery of one aircraft every month for five years.
Now for the stuff that matters: There won’t be Wifi when flights begin next week, but Breeze expects to introduce it on its A220 aircraft when they come into service next year. On-board snack options will include Utz Potato Chips and KIND bars. TSA Precheck will be available for Breeze passengers at launch, ensuring the only time you have to take your shoes off is in-flight to annoy your seat neighbor.
For more on the launch of Breeze, visit today’s post at Crankyflier.com.
United To Lead Opening of Newark’s New Terminal
Newark Airport’s brand-new 33-gate Terminal A isn’t scheduled to open for almost a year, but United Airlines will be the terminal’s lead tenant when it opens in April of 2022.
United was seen as the favorite for the majority of gates due to its large east coast hub at the airport, but JetBlue had recently made a late charge as player for the prime real estate. Prime real estate in Newark – now we’ve seen it all.
United will open the terminal with 10 gates in April of next year, operating with narrowbody aircraft. The airline will expand to 20 gates in April of 2023, leaving 13 gates yet to be assigned. Those 13 will be split between Air Canada, American, Delta, and JetBlue. The Port Authority had previously signaled intent to assign those based on a Festivus-style Feats of Strength competition, assigning a gate to an airline every time a representative pinned someone from another carrier.
American Plans to Restart New Zealand Flights This Year
American Airlines is expected to resume flying to New Zealand in December of this year, and to have three routes to the country operating by the middle of January.
AA plans to operate B787 Dreamliner service to both Auckland and Christchurch from three U.S. gateways. Los Angeles to Auckland is expected to resume December 16 and operate daily. It’ll be followed by Dallas/Fort Worth to Auckland – also a daily service, resuming January 4. Lastly, Los Angeles to Christchurch is expected to operate with 3x-weekly service beginning January 5.
American’s flight to Christchurch will be the only nonstop flight from the United States to New Zealand’s South Island. American is hoping that the time difference between New Zealand and the United States, which allows flights headed east to arrive before they departed will distract passengers from the inevitable operational delays their flight will endure.
United Express Resumes Two Routes
United Express will resume two routes in early June that have been paused since the onset of the pandemic last spring. The airline will once again fly from its Washington/Dulles hub to both Ithaca, NY (ITH) and Manchester, NH (MHT).
The Ithaca flight will resume on June 3 with twice daily service Monday-Friday and a single flight on both Saturday and Sunday. The resumption of IAD flights in Ithaca makes it three destinations available at the airport, joining American Eagle to Charlotte and Delta Connection to Detroit.
Manchester’s flight to Dulles will also resume June 3. It’ll receive two daily flights, increasing to three flights a day in July. United’s last flight to Manchester operated in May of 2020.
NBA League Pass to Stream In-Flight, But You Likely Cannot Watch
Viasat and the NBA are teaming up to provide streaming access to NBA League Pass in the air as part of a multi-year deal between the two. NBA games will be available live and on-demand for passengers to stream on their personal devices at no cost on Viasat-equipped aircraft.
The catch is that the service will not be available on domestic flights in the United States, Canada, or China. The NBA’s current TV deals in those three countries preclude League Pass from being offered to passengers. Of all daily departures that feature Viasat as the WiFi partner, as few as 20% will be able to offer up NBA content.
American and JetBlue will be among the first airlines to participate, with League Pass available for streaming on international flights to destinations other than Canada and China. Flights which are eligible for the streaming service will feature a pre-flight announcement informing passengers and reminding them to direct complaints about rigged games and poor officiating to the league office and not to your flight attendants.
- Aegean Air received approval for a €60 million capital raise.
- Air Astana, a Kazakh airline, is set to re-register all its Aruba-registered aircraft in Ireland. That doesn’t sound shady at all.
- Air Europa’s $580 million in loans from the Spanish government was legal, according to the General Court of the European Union. In its ruling, the court told Ryanair to “suck it.”
- ANA is set to issue 10 billion yen worth of bonds. It’s not as much as it sounds like – 10 billion yen comes out to about $90 million.
- Austrian is adding summer seasonal service to tourist-heavy destinations include: Cagliari, Catania, Funchal Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Kalamata, Mykonos, Naples, Olbia, and Tenerife.
- Condor has a new majority owner as English private equity fund Attestor Capital LLP acquired a 51% stake in the airline.
- Delta hired Dan Janki, formally of GE as its new EVP and CFO, adding another twist to the age-old question: “How many Delta employees does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”
- Etihad and Saudia have expanded their codeshare and reciprocal loyalty agreement.
- GlobalX signed a LOI to lease five more A321-200 freighter aircraft.
- Lufthansa is launching seven new long-haul destinations to be operated by Eurowings Discover next summer. Munich will see service to: Cancún, Las Vegas, and Punta Cana. Frankfurt will be connected with: Fort Myers, Panama City (PTY), Salt Lake City, and Kilimanjaro (JRO).
- Smartwings is resuming service between its Prague hub and Tel Aviv on May 26.
- World2Fly is taking over slots at Madrid (MAD) that were abandoned by Iberia.
The easiest time to add insult to injury is when you’re signing someone’s cast.