United Follows Delta, Allows Basic Economy Changes Through Year-End
It feels like the good old days once again now that United has followed Delta in altering a policy. The airline quietly has opted to make Basic Economy tickets changeable for the rest of the year.
Like Delta, United will only allow changes to Basic Economy tickets purchased and scheduled for travel during 2021. After that, Basic Economy tickets will revert to being non-changeable, and spikes will be re-installed in the seatbacks of Basic Economy customers.
Delta said it initially made the move to allow Basic Economy changes as an attempt to help shorten phone hold times. United hasn’t had phone hold time issues, so we assume this is a competitive move.
American has not matched, and is unlikely to do so since it has put Basic Economy in very few markets this year. Spirit just laughed at the idea of waiving anything ever, and charged us $7.99 just for asking them such a silly question.
Avianca Goes for Growth in the Americas
Avianca has broken its quiet streak as it gets closer to emerging from bankruptcy protection by announcing 23 new international routes, including several to the US. The new routes are:
- Bogotá – Toronto
- Bucaramanga – Miami
- Cali – Cancun, New York/JFK, Mexico City, Quito, and San José (CR)
- Guatemala City – Washington/Dulles
- Guayaquil – Miami, New York/JFK
- Medellín – Aruba, Guayaquil, Mexico City, Orlando, Quito, and San José (CR)
- Quito – Miami, New York/JFK
- San José (CR) – Los Angeles, Managua, Mexico City, New York
- San Salvador – Orlando
In the press release, Avianca refers to Orlando as “the main tourist destination in the United States” which is both deeply depressing and probably true from the perspective of many in South America.
Avianca has had a tumultuous few years as it went bankrupt after infighting and poor decisions took over the previous management team. During bankruptcy it brought in a new CEO who was recently replaced as well. There’s nothing like stability to guide you through bankruptcy and a pandemic.
Canada and Blade to Require Air Travelers Be Vaccinated
Canadian Transport Minister Omar Alghabra announced that in the near future, all air travelers in Canada will have to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Though the same hasn’t been announced in the US, the first American airline — Blade — has said it will require it as well.
Alghabra said that x+2y=z with ‘x’ being a person, ‘y’ being the vaccine, and ‘z’ being your ability to get on an airplane and go fun places. An exact timeline was not given but Alghabra said it would be by the end of October at the latest. The mandate will also apply to long-haul train travel and cruising.
The US is not currently expected to follow with a similar mandate, but Blade has become the first US-based airline to require vaccinations for passengers from September 7. If you aren’t familiar with Blade, it’s because you’re not rich enough. Blade is best known for flying passengers between Manhattan and New York airports via helicopter, but it also has seaplanes and small jets going to rich people places like the Hamptons and Aspen.
Virgin Atlantic Brings Bad News Along with the Good
Virgin Atlantic announced with much fanfare that it would be entering the Edinburgh market from this December, but what it neglected to mention is that it is leaving the Glasgow market to make that happen.
It was just two days ago that Virgin Atlantic said it would start flying from Edinburgh to Barbados 2x-weekly from December 5. It will also begin Edinburgh to Orlando 2x-weekly next April. Today, it was revealed that the Orlando service will simply move over from Glasgow, where Virgin Atlantic was previously planning to fly 2x-weekly next summer.
The two biggest cities in Scotland, Edinburgh and Glasgow lie only an hour apart by train, so both cities will still be able to take advantage of the service. An Edinburgh resident, when asked, said he was be more likely to fly from Edinburgh because Glasgow is just not fancy enough for him. Meanwhile, a Glaswegian was asked about the move, and he simply shook his first and said something that was likely profane but incomprehensible to the American ear.
Drama Surrounds Oryx Jet and Icelandair
London-based Oryx Jet has demanded that Icelandair pay the airline £5mn for knocking one of its airplanes out of service for two months.
It was a presumably cold day in September 2017 at Iceland’s main Keflavik airport when an Icelandair Group employee damaged an Oryx Jet aircraft during loading of food and beverage. Icelandair says it was responsible, but that the damage was nothing close to approaching the amount demanded by Oryx Jet. Oryx Jet says it was really, really injured badly. The airline says it lost a contract to carry Saudi prize falcons (that is not a joke) and that they had to fly using their own wings instead (that is a joke).
Oryx Jet spokesperson Neymar was asked about the incident when he fell to the ground, saying that an Icelandair employee had pushed him and torn his ACL. Oryx Jet will now demand an additional £5mn from Icelandair for being mean and hurtful.
- Caribbean Airlines had an airplane land in Miami with nearly 15 pounds of cocaine in its belly. The airline pled innocent, saying it was just going to sell the cocaine to pay for landing fees.
- Embraer posted a profit for the first time in three years.
- Hageland Aviation Services, an Alaskan airline that hasn’t flown for a year, is on the block again.
- India has doubled the weekly cap on flights to the UK from 30 to 60 in order to increase supply and bring prices down. Who knew — besides everyone in the world — that there was robust demand between the UK and India.
- Iskwew Air — which means “Woman Air” in Cree, begins scheduled service from Vancouver to Qualicum on Vancouver Island Monday.
- Kenya Airways is getting trendy as it entered into a vague agreement to work with Embraer on an eVTOL air taxi service in the country.
- Mesa Air Group has delayed the launch of service for its European subsidiary into 2022.
- SAS named Louise Bergström as VP of Investor Relations, which has to be a very hard job considering how many times SAS has had to restructure.
- South African may still not be flying again, but it has airplanes. After heavy maintenance work post-storage, it now has two A320s ready to fly.
- Vistara has gone back to the well for another ~$100 million from its parents Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines. This is the fifth capital injection in 16 months… so everything is going great.
- Wizz Air will close its 3 aircraft base in Dortmund along with its 2 aircraft base in Riga in order to put the planes in other markets where they can make more money.
I decided to leave work an hour early today. The flight attendants started freaking out when I grabbed my parachute, though.