United Goes Boom
United Airlines announced its order of at least 15 supersonic jets from Boom Technology, making the bold assumption the planes will actually be manufactured and will meet FAA specifications and certification requirements. We all know what happens when you assume, but United is taking the plunge anyway.
The deal makes United the first U.S. carrier to have an agreement with the manufacturer, although JAL does own options for potential deliveries in the unlikely event that an airplane is actually delivered.
United’s timeline is to have the planes in passenger service by the end of the decade, with 2029 as the target – meaning these planes will come online just as the airline is completing its rollout of Polaris business class and Polaris lounges across its network. The planes will seat 65-88 passengers — if they can find that many people to pay a significant price premium over business class — and operate exclusively on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
The aircraft are expected to make the journey from New York to London in under four hours, and San Francisco to Tokyo in six. The flight time to Tokyo is complicated by the current iteration of the plane needing to make a stop in Anchorage for fuel. United was seen as the logical launch partner for the supersonic jets as passengers want to spend as little time as possible on its aircraft after experiencing UA’s onboard “hospitality,” making a three and a half hour flight to London very appealing.
Oneworld Plans Alliance-Wide Upgrade Program
Oneworld airline frequent fliers can expect to be able to upgrade on flights of any of the alliance’s 14 member airlines using points from any oneworld loyalty program by the end of this calendar year.
A similar program already exists for Star Alliance fliers but requires the upgrading customer to have purchased a full-fare economy ticket to upgrade. Oneworld has not yet said what fare types will be required to upgrade using another airline’s points, but it is expected to choose something that is complicated and makes little sense to phone agents, gate agents, and customers.
The third global alliance, Skyteam, has no plan in place for such a program and no plans to do so. Air France-KLM brought the idea up to joint-venture partner Delta but was quickly laughed out of the room – not only will Delta never institute any sort of customer-friendly Skymiles policy, but it won’t ever even consider one.
The number of miles needed to upgrade will depend on what the traveler’s “home” program is, as each carrier will set its own price to upgrade on other oneworld airlines. American, Qantas, and Cathay Pacific are close to making a decision on their upgrade costs, while IAG airlines British Airways and Iberia are still working on how they can fold significant cash surcharges into the points upgrades, making them practically worthless.
Maui to End Post-Arrival Virus Testing
Travelers arriving on Maui will no longer be required to take a COVID test upon arrival to the island, Maui County Mayor Mike Victorino announced.
The island has been testing passengers on arrival since May 4 and seems happy with the results showing only five positive cases all month – a rate of 0.054%. That is significantly lower than the predicted positivity rate of 1%. Travelers might disagree that these results are encouraging, because it means they were subject to lengthy, confusing lines and unnecessary testing that only delayed their arrival in paradise.
The testing program will officially end tomorrow, but the Maui government does reserve the right to bring it back if positive cases spike on the island or if it finds another large pot of money just needing to be burned. Since the beginning of the program, nearly 93,000 travelers received the post-arrival testing, with about 3,800 able to opt out with proof of full vaccination.
Alaska’s Growing Paines
Alaska Airlines plans to operate as many as 13 daily departures at Seattle/Paine Field (PAE) this fall, ramping up to its full schedule of 18 daily nonstops from the airport next spring… or sooner.
The airport, located just north of Seattle in Everett, should be popular for local traffic residing north of Seattle, but initial service has struggled. The biggest problem has been related to people trying to board Boeing widebodies at the airport — where the company manufactures large aircraft — and then balking when being pointed to a 76-seat jet instead.
Alaska is currently operating just five daily flights from the airport, but that will jump to 11 daily flights to seven destinations on September 8. Those are: Boise, Las Vegas, Orange County, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, and Spokane. A winter seasonal flight to Palm Springs will return on October 7 with new Tucson service beginning November 19.
South African has Agreement to Potentially Relaunch Operations
The government of South Africa reached an agreement in principle with a mystery equity partner to infuse cash into South African Airways, putting the airline on-track towards operating for the first time since September. We have been unable to confirm whether this mystery partner is really ITA looking to have SAA buy Alitalia to skirt EU rules.
In addition to the funds from the mystery partner, the South Afircan government would spend $1 billion to clean up the airline’s outstanding debt. The airline would then be relanched as a smaller, more nimble operation (how many times has a bankrupt airline said that?), with the ability to grow as needed. The government is not willing to commit as to whether or not the “new” SAA would purchase its aircraft outright or lease them, as it likely prefers to see if there are any good deals on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace before going through the traditional airplane acquisition methods.
The airline exited bankruptcy protection in April and is hopeful to resume operations in August. Of the $1 billion being given to the airline from the government, one quarter of it will go to refunds that thousands of passengers are waiting on. Just over $200 million will go to former employee settlements, and the lawyers will come out just fine with about $16 million in fees.
- American is extend the block on expiring AAdvantage miles through December 2021. The airline also disclosed in an SEC filing that it generated a positive cash flow in May.
- ASL Airlines France retired its final passenger B737-800 aircraft.
- Belavia is likely to be formally sanctioned by the EU next week.
- Copa announced that, from today, its new Dreams Business Class flat bed product will be available on all flights to Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Montevideo, and Sao Paulo from its Panama hub.
- Emirates announced new 4x-weekly flights between Dubai and Miami that will begin July 22. You just didn’t make the cut, Fort Lauderdale.
- JetBlue received permission from the DOT to move its slots from Guayaquil, Ecuador (GYE) to New York. Eastern had opposed the move, but ultimately lost as the DOT couldn’t figure out which incarnation of Eastern had filed the objection.
- Nepal Airlines is going to be privatized and recapitalized.
- SmartLynx Airlines Malta added an A330 to its fleet, its first widebody.
- Vistara received tentative DOT approval to operate to the United States. Provided there are no further hiccups, the airline could begin service as soon as this September.
My friend asked me to pass her Chapstick. I passed her the glue stick on accident — she hasn’t spoken to me since.