Newark Cancels Hundreds of Flights Due to Ida
Newark airport has reduced its operation after the airport was flooded Wednesday night as the remnants of Hurricane Ida roared through the New York area. Newark’s largest carrier, United, temporarily suspended operations on Thursday morning at the airport while it evaluated whether this was a problem or actually just a welcome, long-overdue cleaning.
The airport canceled 102 flights on Wednesday night as the storm moved through, representing about 20% of what was scheduled to fly for the day. Today is looking worse as the region wakens to flood waters, with 370 flights canceled so far. New York JFK and LaGuardia also saw significant impacts.
The cancellations come on the doorstep of Labor Day Weekend, traditionally one of the last chances for residents to flee New Jersey for a weekend before the reality of summer being over sets in.
ATC was forced to abandon the control tower Wednesday night due to a tornado warning in the vicinity of the airport. The controllers were given the all-clear to return around 10 p.m., but at that point flights to all three main NYC airports had been diverted elsewhere.
Winds of Change Bring Service Reductions to Breeze
Breeze Airways completed one major initiation to join the worldwide airline club as the carrier made its first permanent route cut, while reducing several other frequencies.
Other airlines reminisced about their first permanent cut when they heard the news, with Delta remembering that Monroe to Shreveport route it cut in 1933, Hawaiian sharing memories of a flight from Honolulu to an island that doesn’t even exist anymore, and Spirit drifting back to that magical time of… last month when it canceled everything.
The change for Breeze will come Sunday when the airline axes its route between New Orleans and Huntsville. Frequency reductions from New Orleans include Oklahoma City, NW Arkansas, and Tulsa dropping from four weekly flights to two.
Apparently the state of Oklahoma has done something to anger Breeze, because in addition to the cuts to New Orleans, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa to Tampa will be reduced from three weekly flights to two. Boomer Sooner it is not.
JetBlue Extends Reduced London Schedule
JetBlue Airways will continue to fly to London through October with reduced frequencies to stem potential losses as travel between the US and UK continues to lag.
The airline will operate to London/Heathrow 4x-weekly (Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), and to London/Gatwick 4x-weekly (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday). Heathrow service has already been flying, but Gatwick won’t launch until later this month on the 29th.
JetBlue only has access to slots at Heathrow through October 30, as the airline was able to grab unused slots for the balance of the summer slot season. Exemptions for the winter season have not been allocated at this point, leaving JetBlue standing at the M4 off-ramp with a sign, begging for any slots that any airline would be willing to spare.
Aer Lingus UK Receives US Authorization
Aer Lingus new flights between Manchester and the United States moved closer to taking to the skies as the DOT approved the carrier’s application, saying, “yeah, sure, why not? I mean, if we approved Norwegian a few years back, we’ll approve anyone.”
The government is now asking for any final objections to the new service (speak now or forever hold your peace, Ryanair), and the order should take effect before the end of September provided there are no objections.
The airline now hopes to launch US routes from Manchester – New York/JFK on December 1 and Orlando on December 11. Once tickets go on sale, the flights will be available under British Airways and Aer Lingus flight numbers in addition to Aer Lingus UK.
Australia Extends Border Closure Through December
Australia will keep its borders closed through at least December 17, one day before Qantas plans to resume international flying on December 18.
Australia’s flag carrier is scheduled to fly to Singapore, London/Heathrow, Los Angeles, and Vancouver on the 18th, with Tokyo/Narita and Honolulu resuming the next week. The service hinges on the Australian government reopening its borders as planned when this border closure extension expires, and, believe it or not, that might actually happen.
The country has had closed borders since March 18, but is approaching an 80% nationwide vaccination rate, which is the benchmark the federal government placed to reopen borders.
- AlbaStar plans to end its B737 operation by the end of the year.
- Air Antilles resumed regularly-scheduled commercial ops.
- American added three seasonal routes from Austin to Fort Myers, Denver, and Aspen. All three will operate during the holiday period only, from December 16 to January 3.
- Atlas Air will open a maintenance base at Seoul/Incheon in 2025.
- Cathay Pacific is moving towards firing pilots and flight attendants who have not been vaccinated. The carrier has about 99% of its pilots and 93% of its flight attendants vaccinated, leaving between 60 and 80 staff potentially on the chopping block.
- Fiji Airways expects to begin flying to Australia again on December 1.
- FlyLeOne, Italy’s newest airline, (not ITA, this is an actual new airline) received its AOC.
- Frontier added flights to Antigua last month but forgot to let the government know. It’s since removed the island on its list of destinations until it receives permission.
- Hawaii Island Air, Trans States Airlines, Island Airlines, Compass Airlines, and Peninsula Aviation Services have all had their authority to operate in the United States revoked by the DOT. If any of these carriers still existed, they might be upset at the news.
- Hevilift Australia opened a new base in Perth.
- Lalona Air, a German startup, is planning to launch in January from its hub in Dusseldorf.
- PLAY isn’t playing around with its fleet as it looks to add an A320neo early next year.
- Qantas added streaming movies and tv shows to all its QantasLink jets. Rex has complained the airline did so to distract its customers from its anti-competitive practices in the marketplace.
- Virgin Atlantic is debuting “The Booth” on its leisure A350 fleet for passengers who miss the feeling of being squeezed into a tight seating area with strangers in the regular cabin and would prefer to do so in a booth. The carrier says its a unique social space designed to facilitate conversations between travelers which seems like a horrible idea.
- Volaris is raising $74.5 via a bond issue to revamp its fleet.
I moved into my new igloo last week and my friends threw me a housewarming party. Now I’m homeless.