JetBlue Shut Out at Heathrow for the Winter – For Now
JetBlue Airways applied for 585 (2 daily roundtrip) slots to operate from London/Heathrow this winter season — which begins at the end of October — and the airline was shut out. JetBlue shouldn’t feel too bad as it was hardly alone – 23,370 new slots were requested by 55 individual airlines and the airport granted a grand total of 324 – or 1.4%.
This leaves JetBlue without access to London’s busiest and most popular airport just a couple months after it begins flying there. In addition to being shut out at LHR, the airline is not on the list for receiving winter slots at London/Stansted either. For the time being, this will limit JetBlue’s presence in London at London/Gatwick (LGW).
JetBlue spokesperson Philip Stewart said that this was “an expected outcome” since it is based on 2019 historic capacity levels. He added that the temporary pandemic-era plan which allows airlines to keep their slots long term without flying them during the pandemic is “under review and we believe both the U.S. and U.K. governments have an obligation to ensure that JetBlue is granted continued access at London’s main airport.”
As we understand it, Plan B is leading JetBlue officials to huddle together to see if they can build a new airport in London exclusively for themselves in a prime, downtown location and have it operational by this winter.
BA Furloughs Thousands
British Airways put thousands of staff on furlough once again, blaming the decision on the slow restart of international travel in the UK. The airline had begun to bring people back on May 17 in anticipation of an easing of travel restrictions, but the number of countries put on the UK’s green list was much smaller than expected.
It’s a risky game BA is playing, putting people on furlough to make a political statement to the government. BA and its parent, IAG, have been outspoken in their frustration with the UK government’s handling of the reopening and this action puts BA’s employees and their families in the middle of the fight.
Those furloughed include management and frontline staff not involved in safety/operations or critical below-the-wing roles. In the meantime for those furloughed, it’s back to tea and crumpets, binging of Downton Abbey, and laser-focus on the latest rift in the Royal Family until more countries are placed on the UK’s green list or until they find a company willing to provide more stability.
Virgin Atlantic Headfakes Towards Zero Emissions
Virgin Atlantic is partnering with Vertical Aerospace to make a lot of noise and write a lot of press releases about perhaps, maybe, possibly, one day operating as a zero-emissions air carrier.
The partnership features an option for VS to purchase up to 150 electric Vertical Take-off and Landing aircraft and the exploration of a UK JV with Vertical Aerospace. The two key words in those sentences being “option,” and “exploration.” This deal doesn’t commit either side to actually do anything, but it sure sounds great.
Vertical Aerospace’s fully electric VA-X4 is a zero emission, nearly silent aircraft with a range of over 100 miles that can carry four passengers in addition to a pilot. With VS’s loads post-pandemic, it might be the perfect plane for the airline, matching its needs perfectly. The small aircraft isn’t yet ready for commercial service, but a prototype is currently in production and a test-flight could be ready by the end of this year. VS envisions using the aircraft to connect the 37 towns with 100,000 or more within 100 miles of Heathrow with the aircraft. Then again it also envisions turning a profit one day, so we’ll see.
American Way Goes Away
The final edition of The American Way is on AA planes right now, with the magazine announcing that its June 2021 issue will be its last.
American Way’s first issue was printed in 1966 and it has been a staple in the seatbacks on AA aircraft for 55 years. Before the onset of onboard wifi and IFE, the publication was one of the only ways to pass the time on the ground during an inevitable AA mechanical delay.
Both Delta and United suspended publication of their in-flight publications during the pandemic. Delta’s Sky remains on hiatus while United’s Hemispheres is back onboard UA aircraft giving passengers an opportunity to read feature stories on new hot neighborhoods in Newark.
London/City’s Ego Grows with Latest Slot Allocations
London/City Airport allocated its available slots for the period of October 2021 through March of 2022, with EGO Airways entering the fray at the airport for the first time.
EGO, the Italian startup that currently has one E190 aircraft with two more on order leased from German Airways, plans to operate to three destinations outside of Italy: Mykonos, Ibiza, and London. One of these is not like the other.
The airline plans to fly from London/City daily to Milan/Linate and 3x weekly to Forli, Parma, Trieste… and Deauville. Again, one of these is not like the other, and we’ll give you a hint. It’s the one in France.
- Air Berlin’s Insolvency administrator is suing Isavia, the national airport operator of Iceland for about $1 million.
- Delta’s Flight 1131 from LAX to JFK on Thursday was forced to divert to Detroit when a passenger created a threat to the aircraft
after finding out how many SkyMiles the airline charged him for his seat on the flight. The passenger was met in Detroit by law enforcement and given a briefing on what a poor value SkyMiles usually are while the flight continued on to New York. - Emirates is restarting service to Malta (MLA) via Larnaca (LCA) with 3x-weekly flights beginning July 14.
- Eurowings is opening a new base in Prague, placing staff and two A320 aircraft beginning October 31.
- Flair Airlines put its first B737 MAX 8 aircraft into operation this week.
- Jet2 has delayed its relaunch of operations to early in Q3 this year, after previously announcing July 1 as a targeted relaunch date.
- LATAM requested an additional $500 million from its DIP loan facility.
- Lufthansa is upgrading the aircraft operating to Palma de Mallorca (PMI) from both Frankfurt and Munich. LH will operate its B747-8 with 364 seats from Frankfurt for four consecutive Saturdays beginning July 17. Munich will see an A350 on the route on July 31.
- Swoop announced its Winter schedule with expanding service to the US, Mexico, and Caribbean. The airline also plans to restart its operating its entire fleet of nine 737-800 aircraft for domestic operations his summer.
What do you get when you cross a snowman and a vampire? Frost bite.