Spirit Struggles More than it Usually Does
Spirit Airlines is having a bad operational day – even for Spirit – as the airline canceled over a third of its flights today after canceling more than 165 on Sunday. The airline said the cancellations were due to poor weather and operational challenges – but did not specifically identify the operational challenges. It did say it’s working to get its operation back on track and made proactive cancellations to relieve stress on the network.
Lines in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and San Juan were stretched for hours with hundreds of passengers spending the night on the floor of the airport while figuring out a way to get home. Passengers in Orlando said they were in line for more than 12 hours, which is a lot, but not as bad when you remember the normal wait time to see a Spirit agent at the airport is between five and six hours.
Passengers reported a rumor that Spirit pilots had gone on strike, but both the airline and Air Line Pilots Association quashed that rumor, saying there was no strike. Rumors say the pilots did briefly consider a labor action before seeing the $14 fee Spirit would charge them for any disruptive move.
Spirit expects things to improve this week and for most stranded passengers to end where they want to be once they pay Spirit’s $29 irregular ops recovery fee and the $9 automatic rebooking fee to be placed on a new flight.
NYC Airport Prices Come Under Fire
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey ordered concessionaire OTG to conduct an audit on its food and drink prices at all three major New York City airports. Apparently the Port Authority just now discovered that $27.85 for a Sam Adams Summer Ale and a $10.90 for an order of fries are a little high – even for New York.
A spokesman for OTG said that the prices at LaGuardia were incorrectly posted – the beer was supposed to be $18.15, and the fries were supposed to be $8.45. The real story here is that OTG (a) claims it was a mistake – ok, sure, and (b) thinks $18 and $8 are reasonable prices for a beer and side of fries.
Airport retailers are not permitted to charge more than 10% above “street price” according to the Port Authority, but it doesn’t specify the street to which it’s referring. Perhaps OTG is running a beer and fry stand in someone’s backyard where they charge $26 for a Sam Adams, keeping the $28 price within 10% of the “street price.”
Norse Atlantic Acquires More Planes, Hopes to Eventually Fly Them Somewhere
Norse Atlantic, the LCC transatlantic startup founded by three guys all named Bjørn, acquired six more B787 Dreamliners from BOC Aviation to bring its fleet size to 15.
The airline has plans to launch in December with low-cost Transatlantic flights from Norway to the United States, which, as we all know, is the absolute best worst time to launch. Initial routes are expected to connect Los Angeles, Miami, and New York with Oslo, London, and Paris — the latter two we confirmed are not in Norway.
The airline is adamant to point out that it is not Norwegian, an airline which previously tried this concept and is now exclusively operating short-haul domestic ops within Europe. This is not the same airline despite most of it planes being Norwegian hand-me-downs, being based at the same airport, flying the same routes with the same price structure, and having an executive team that came from the other airline. That’s all a coincidence, this is not Norwegian in any way, shape, or form.
BA Upgrades Frequencies to United States
British Airways is increasing its frequencies to five American destinations with the loosening of entry requirements in the United Kingdom.
Its flagship flight from London/Heathrow to New York/JFK will increase from 17x-weekly flights to 3x-daily on August 16. Also on August 16, BA will increase to 10x-weekly (up from once-daily) both Los Angeles and Chicago/O’Hare. The airline also reopened its Flagship US Lounge at JFK’s T7 on Sunday after being closed for 16 months.
Los Angeles will remain at 10x-weekly for just that one week, as it will then expand to twice daily beginning Monday, August 23. BA’s flight from LHR to Seattle will increase on August 23rd from 4x-weekly to once-daily.
In addition to these increased flights in the United States, BA will add frequencies to Berlin, Geneva, and Hamburg.
India’s Ryanair Knockoff Moves Closer to Launch
Former IndiGo Airlines president Aditya Ghosh has joined up with Indian ULCC startup Akasa Air which fancies itself an Indian version of Ryanair. Ghosh spent ten years at IndiGo and will bring his ten successful years of LCC success to the new venture.
Akasa is using Ryanair’s no-frills, low-cost model as inspiration and is being funded by Indian investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala with the expectation he will make most of his money back by innovating new and unique fees to charge customers when the airline begins service. Ghosh will team up with CEO Vinay Dube to run the airline who has a 15% stake in the airline.
Boston-based PAR Capital Management, which also has a stake in Sun Country, will be one of the airline’s investors along with AirBnB which agreed to invest provided the airline would pay its $29 cleaning and upkeep fee.
- Aer Lingus was ordered to pay nearly $10,000 in compensation to a young boy who was denied boarding on a trip to Orlando because the airline would not approve his oxygen machine to fly in business class. This was despite the machine having never flown with its bare feet exposed, nor has it ever brought a screaming baby into a premium cabin.
- American will offer 30 free minutes of TikTok without requiring a purchase of a WiFi package. If you have to ask what TikTok is, this isn’t the promotion for you.
- ANA gave Vietnam Airlines’s staff the right to buy 70 million shares of the airline in what sounds like an airline mad lib.
- Azul expects to begin its electric vertical take-off and landing network in Brazil in partnership with Lilium by 2025. The world waits with baited breath.
- Croatia Airlines is wet-leasing an A319-100 aircraft to SundAir in Germany.
- Nordica will operate its first regularly scheduled flights under its own name today.
- Qanot Sharq received its AOC from the Uzbekistan government and is moving closer to launching scheduled passenger ops.
- Qatar and RwandAir have agreed to a new strategic partnership that will offer an interline option for travelers on both airlines. The interline agreement comes shortly after the two airlines agreed to earning and burning reciprocity on their respective loyalty programs.
- Rex hired a litigation firm to continue its crusade against what it considers anticompetitive actions from Qantas. Rex will not stop until it has all approval over Qantas’s network planning decisions.
- Royal Jordanian received $35 million in federal funding from the Jordanian government.
- SA Express received a stay of execution through January 11 as unions in South Africa were able to postpone the liquidation of the airline for a sixth time.
- Virgin Atlantic has assigned its A350-1000 aircraft to operate daily between London and Hong Kong.
If the forecast calls for 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and tomorrow is supposed to be twice as cold, what will the temperature be tomorrow?