United to Require All Employees to be Vaccinated
United Airlines is the first, but likely not the last, U.S. airline to require its U.S.-based employees be vaccinated or risk termination. The airline is requiring its staff to be fully vaccinated five weeks after the FDA fully approves a COVID-19 vaccine, or five weeks after September 20 – whichever comes first.
United CEO Scott Kirby has been vocal about wanting UA’s employees to be vaccinated, discussing the possibility of mandating the jab as far back as January. United has a strong track record of vaccinations for its employees to protect them from the many unknown smells and orgnaisms that live at its hub in Newark.
Airlines have been using the positive reinforcement route to encourage vaccination amongst employees, offering extra paid vacation days, cash bonuses and “get out of basic economy free” cards. But the rates have not progressed as far as some have hoped, leading United to be the first to now go the opposite route and potentially fire staff who refuse the vaccine.
Employees will be required to upload proof of vaccination, and the airline will offer rare exceptions in extreme cases for health or religious concerns. The mandate applies only to United employees, not staff of its regional carriers or other third-party vendors.
Spirit’s Hell Week Rolls On
Spirit’s operational meltdown will not end anytime soon as the airline canceled about half its flights today and expects to continue canceling flights into the middle of next week.
Spirit CEO Ted Christie told ABC News this morning that weather issues from late last week combined with staffing shortages led to the breakdown in service, as the airline had crews and aircraft in the wrong places all over the country. When crew tried to call in to get guidance on where to go next, the airline’s systems were overloaded because it only staffs one person a time in crew scheduling and that person can only be reached by calling collect – the airline does not pay for outbound phone service for its crew scheduler.
Spirit’s cancellations for this week have exceeded 1,700 and are expected to surge past 2,000 today or tomorrow. The airline hopes to return to normal by the middle of next week with all of its flights not being canceled but just delayed for hours for vague reasoning while angry people get restless in gate areas across the country.
The airline sent $50 vouchers to all customers from the last week – whether their flight was impacted or not. The good news is that the voucher is enough to cover the base fare for several flights on the airline. The bad news is it comes with a $59 fee to redeem via Spirit.com or over the phone with an agent.
Alitalia Selling Tickets for Flights It Won’t Fly
Alitalia is supposedly flying off into the sunset on October 14, and will no longer exist after that day, as its successor airline ITA begins flying the next day on the 15th. Despite this, the airline is selling tickets for beyond the 14th of October and most amazingly – people are buying them.
The new airline (which we all know is really the same airline) has said it will recognize the tickets sold beyond October 14 even though technically it will not be responsible for them. The Italian government says it will guarantee the value of all tickets on Alitalia beyond its expiration date which is all well and good, but that liability could be lessened if it just stopped selling them.
It’s expected that AZ will have about 255,000 outstanding tickets and vouchers on its books when it closes up shop at a cash value of about $40 million. The government will back up to $118 million worth of outstanding tickets but will only cough up the cash if there are no alternatives on other carriers, although someone – Alitalia, ITA, or the Italian government would have to buy the new tickets.
In addition to outstanding tickets, it’s unclear what will happen to miles that people have been dumb enough to horde in AZ’s MilleMiglia program. As part of its agreement with the EU, ITA cannot buy the loyalty program including its members and their account balances. One rumor is that Spirit is considering buying the program and managing it with its own, that way members can be affiliated with both Alitalia and Spirit – both airlines that don’t operate flights anymore.
Austrian Airlines Cuts More Jobs
Lufthansa Group member Austrian Airlines is cutting another 500 jobs – approximately 20% of its current workforce – after the airline posted a $112 million loss in its mid-year financial report.
CEO Alexis von Hoenbroech said the company would be cutting a total of 1,350 jobs, 850 of which are open jobs that will not be filled, plus the 500 it will cut in the coming weeks. The job cuts will effect all aspects of the airline’s operation including flight crew, below-the-wing employees, and administrative staff.
While the airline’s $150 million revenue figure from Q2 represented a 260% jump from a year ago, it also marked an 80% decline from 2019. The airline flew 1.1 million passengers in the year’s first six month, a drop from the 2 million it flew last year and the 6.7 million from 2019. Austrian has reduced its fleet from 85 planes to 73. If it finds it needs more, it’s likely Lufthansa has a subsidiary or two it killed off in the last few years but forgot about that likely has planes Austrian can borrow.
Are You Ready For Some Football? United Adds Pigskin Flights
United Airlines announced an addition of 74 flights, including 52 new routes to shuttle fans to and from prominent football games (and one involving the New Orleans Saints) this fall. Of the additions, 58 flights are between college towns including 44 unique point-to-point flights.
Added flights will be a benefit to fans headed to both major college and NFL games this fall, with unique city pairs such as State College, PA (SCE) to Cedar Rapids, IA (CID) and Lincoln, NE (LNK) to Lansing, MI (LAN). United is also offering unique flights to games that are not expected to be remotely watchable, such as Greenville/Spartanburg, SC (GSP) to Syracuse for Clemson and Syracuse.
The airline is adding 16 new flights for four NFL games this fall. It will fly from Green Bay (GRB) to New Orleans on opening weekend for the matchup between the Packers and Saints, plus between Tampa and Boston when Tom Brady returns to New England on October 3.
- Air Atlanta Europe added its first B747-400.
- Air New Zealand is extending its gold status match qualification period through the end of 2021 for elite members from both Qantas and Virgin Australia. Rex is expected to sue NZ to have its elite members included in the status match and for adding too much elite member capacity in Oceania.
- easyJet is undergoing a capital restructuring review amid speculation that it will be taking on new ownership.
- Nok Air’s proposed fiscal rehabilitation plan was approved by 76.7% of its creditors. The plan will now be presented to Thailand’s Central Bankruptcy Court.
- OWG took delivery of its first B737-800.
- Volotea is wet leasing a B737 for the summer. It’s like summer camp, except for an airplane.
- Wingo received its foreign air carrier permit from the DOT.
What do you call security guards working in Samsung shops?
Guardians of the Galaxy.