Today’s sponsor, TheAirchive.net, is doing things a bit differently today, taking over Cranky Daily with images and links that are related to each topic. You’ll find those below each of today’s five stories, and look for another four of these scattered throughout the next couple months.
Angry Rich Men Make Demands For a US-UK Travel Corridor
The CEOs of six airlines – American, British Airways, Delta, JetBlue, United, and Virgin Atlantic — came together prior to the G7 meeting in Cornwall, England to demand President Biden and UK PM Boris Johnson open a quarantine-free travel corridor between the countries. Unfortunately, despite their unified exuberance, these six have no authority to demand that the President of the United States and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom do anything.
The CEOs cited all sorts of statistics in their “demand,” such as British businesses losing £23 million every day the travel restrictions remain in force. The airlines also claim they have an unprecedented surplus of booze from the lounges on both side of the pond due to the lack or traffic – and that booze could make it way to the White House and Downing Street if the leaders were to acquiesce.
BA CEO Sean Doyle ripped the British government’s traffic light system saying that “no one pays attention to traffic lights when driving in London; why should we care about them now?” Both AA and UA said they were ready to add capacity on transatlantic routes as soon as the corridor is opened while Delta said was too busy looking at how it could further devalue its transatlantic SkyMiles redemption chart to be bothered to comment.
State of Hawaiʻi Details Reopening Plans
Hawaiʻi Governor David Ige detailed the plans for the removal of COVID-related restrictions on travel to the islands as well as on interisland travel within the state.
All interisland restrictions will end next Tuesday, June 15. This date is set to coincide with when the state reaches the 55% mark of vaccinated adults. This will eliminate the need for a 10-day quarantine, proof of negative test within 72-hours of arrival, or proof of vaccination when traveling between islands.
For travel between the U.S. mainland and Hawaiʻi, restrictions will be removed when the state reaches a 60% vaccination rate. As of today, the rate is at 52%, with the expectation of reaching 55% next week. Then, when the vaccination rate reaches 70% — a number that Ige admits could be lowered if infection rates continue to decline — all restrictions on travel will end from around the world. At that point, the state will allow non-vaccinated travelers to enter the state with no restriction other than a thorough mocking upon arrival for not getting the vaccine. To get compliance above 70%, the prizes have now been extended further. Once the rate hits 75%, everyone gets their very own free grain of sand. After that, the spam raffles will kick in.
For Labor Unions, Startup’s Hiring Program Isn’t a Breeze
Three labor unions — the Association of Flight Attendants – CWA, the Transportation Trades Department, and the Transport Workers Union of America — have requested the DOT review its prior approval for Breeze Airways to operate passenger service. The poorly-timed request coming just one week after Breeze launched operations.
The unions are peeved with what they describe as discriminatory hiring practices for flight attendants with regards to age, race, and other factors. Their complaints are centered on Breeze’s somewhat bizarre plan to hire flight attendants through a work-study program at Utah Valley University. Most work study jobs on a campus involve making copies for the history department or answering phones for the student theatre box office – not working as a flight attendant on a U.S. commercial airline.
The unions point out in their filing that Breeze’s hiring scheme violates the Age Discrimination Act of 1967, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and it puts UVU in violation of federal work study rules. Other than these three potential transgressions, the unions have no other beef with the airline.
Breeze is currently offering very low pay for its flight attendants – a max of $1,600 per month for 20 days worked. FA’s will also receive up to $6,000 in tuition reimbursement if they maintain a 3.0 GPA, which is something – but those funds are taxable so the net ends up being something less. Despite these concerns, it is highly unlikely the unions can force the DOT to revoke the airline’s operating certificate.
Qantas Employees Busted
An Australian federal investigation codenamed Project Brunello has revealed that a “significant” number of staff – as many as 150 – at Qantas, including the airline’s iconic kangaroo (it always looked liked it was up to something) are being linked to an organized crime group using the airline’s planes and ground operations to import narcotics and Vegemite into Australia. Qantas officials had no comment and deferred all questions to law enforcement.
Project Brunello found in its investigation that trusted staff members at the airline have been illegally running the narcotics ring for several years. The scheme was led by a Comanchero motorcycle gang affiliate who held a managerial position for Qantas at its Sydney hub, and he then hired fellow gang members to run the operation on the ground during the baggage operation.
Qantas is the only commercial airline that holds a Trusted Trader accreditation with the Australian Border Force, which is basically TSA Precheck for below-the-wing employees in Australia. The airline says it’s not been informed of any employees failing the test for the elevated access. When asked to comment, a Rex spokesperson simply couldn’t stop laughing but added nothing further.
Air Canada Senior Execs Return Pandemic Bonuses
Air Canada’s senior executives are returning $2 million worth of bonuses that were paid out after a public backlash due to the number of frontline staff the airline was forced to lay off.
A total of C$10 million in bonuses were paid out, and everyone at the Executive Vice-President level and above are returning their bonus while former CEO Calin Rovinescu who recently retired is donating his bonus to the Air Canada Foundation. Middle managers below the EVP level are not being asked to return their bonus payments.
Air Canada said in a statement that the bonuses were paid because the executives had agreed to C$11.5 million in pay cuts at the beginning of the pandemic. But the bonuses were announced after thousands of employees had been laid off and the airline took a C$8 billion rescue package from the government. The senior execs who paid their bonuses back won’t be totally out of luck – the airline is expected to offer them two tickets to the NHL game of their choice next year and a BOGO coupon for a medium coffee at any Tim Horton’s airport location in Canada.
- Air Do and Solaseed Air of Japan said “I do” to a merger that is expected to be completed by the second-half of 2022. In the meantime, the two airlines will study the do’s and don’ts of airline mergers.
- Air Serbia is beginning twice-weekly flights from its Belgrade hub to Rostov-on-Don, Russia (RVI).
- American’s partnership with Cadillac for tarmac transfers for its most elite customers has ended. The airline is now partnering with Avis, meaning Concierge Key members can expect an intermediate or midsize vehicle that comes with a half-empty gas tank and smells like it’s recently been smoked in.
- Aruba Airlines took delivery of its first A321 aircraft. The plane previously flew for Turkish, and Aruba officials were disappointed there wasn’t any leftover baklava onboard.
- Braatheens Regional Airlines is giving strong support to its Stockholm/Bromma (BMA) hub by linking it to Aarhus, Denmark (AAR) with new 6x-weekly flights beginning in September. The flight will be propped up by a stopover in Gothenburg (GOT).
- Delta is increasing its service to France as the country opens to vaccinated travelers. It will add 3x-weekly service from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Paris beginning July 7. Boston will operate to CDG daily beginning August 5, and New York/JFK will see 3x-weekly flights to Nice (NCE) beginning July 8. These flights are in addition to 2x-daily Paris service from Atlanta, 1x-daily from JFK, and 3x-weekly from Detroit.
- Flyr took delivry of its first B737.
- Frontier was mistaken about the location of the new terminal at Washington/National Friday night when its flight 538 mistook a pile of mud at the end of the runway for ar parking spot. Ok, not really. The A320 with 151 passengers and six crew skidded off the runway upon landing. No injuries were reported and most passengers said the bus that brought them to the terminal was nicer and had better pitch than the plane that flew them in from Denver.
- Hong Kong Airlines is reducing its fleet to just eight aircraft and plans to dramatically shift to a majority-freight operation.
- Jet Airways will not retain the slots its previous incarnation possessed when it ended operating in 2019.
- Lanmei Airlines of Cambodia received approval to operate fifth freedom routes in China.
- Qatar is resuming daily service to Sharjah, UAE (SHJ) beginning July 1.
- SKY Express is launching new service from its Athens hub to Paris/CDG today. The airline will also add new routes to London/Heathrow, Dortmund (DTM), and Hamburg this month.
- United has eliminated its pandemic-era program of allowing passengers free changes on “fuller flights.”
Did you know the boomerang is Australia’s largest export? It’s also its largest import.
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