American Convinces Gol to Go Steady By Buying an Expensive Ring
American Airlines has announced it will invest $200 million to take just over a 5% stake in Brazil-based Gol. The two airlines had already launched a previous partnership, bonding over both being spurned lovers when Delta and LATAM decided to partner with each other, but now American and Gol are ready to take the next step.
The new relationship will see the two airlines become exclusive. American can’t have another codeshare partner in Brazil, and Gol can’t have another in the US. It will also create an “enhanced joint loyalty offering” which basically means that elite benefits will be given across airlines, but there will also be more ways to earn and burn miles eventually. The two airlines will increase their commercial cooperation in other unstated ways as well.
Delta had purchased a 9% stake in Gol a decade ago which it promptly sold off in 2019 once it was able to snag LATAM as a partner. It is unknown whether American will go ahead and write-down its stake in Gol now or wait until it actually turns out to be worthless in the future.
Avelo Adds West Palm Beach, Increases Frequency From New Haven
It appears that Avelo Airlines is seeing success in New Haven before flights even begin. It has now added a fifth Florida destination — West Palm Beach — and frequencies will increase on other routes to ensure old people can all get to Florida before it gets too cold.
West Palm Beach service starts on December 16 and will operate daily through the holidays. From January 5, it will drop to 5x weekly. Fort Myers and Tampa will also rise to daily flights between December 16 through January 4. Initial New Haven service begins in November.
This increase is good news for Avelo, which has not seem the same fortunes at its initial Burbank base. The airline has dropped some destinations, including Monterey and St George before they even started. It has also reduced frequencies in other markets as it looks to fine a path forward. That path should probably be… take the airplanes and move them elsewhere.
SWISS Adds Clearance Rack to Late Flights
SWISS International Air Lines has found a creative way to reduce food waste from its aircraft. The airline has begun offering discounted food through a partnership with the “Too Good to Go” program before it goes bad.
The initial trial began in August and focuses on Geneva departures. All fresh food that goes unsold during the day on earlier flights will be boarded on the final flights of the day and sold at a third of the usual price so that they don’t have to be thrown away.
In order to avoid cannibalizing sales of the exact same fresh food on those flights, SWISS will only sell these as mystery bags where passengers get either 1, 2, or 3 items, but they won’t know what they are in advance of purchase.
SWISS says the initial trials are going well, but we understand that not everything has gone smoothly. The Toblerone bars and Swiss Rolls have been a hit, but those who end up with a bag full of fondue have reportedly been displeased.
- Air India‘s painfully-lengthy privatization is one step closer to happening.
- Austrian will add Montreal back to its route map on October 1.
- Delta is ditching pandemic back-to-front boarding and going back to tastefully color-coded boarding groups.
- Flybondi took delivery of its 4th aircraft, adding even more capacity which will greet Avianca Argentina if it actually comes back.
- Jet Airways says it is still on track to launch in early 2022 with leased narrowbodies. The first route will be between Delhi and Mumbai.
- KLM won’t require vaccines for crews, but it warns them that more and more countries are adding vaccine requirements, so the routes they can fly will continue to shrink unless they get the vaccine.
- LAM‘s purchase of two Embraer 190s came with $800,000 in bribes from Embraer, and now the country’s former transport minister and a middleman will spend 10 years in prison.
- The Netherlands has reversed its decision to require a quarantine for all inbound arrivals from the US a mere two weeks after announcing the rule. The flip flop goes into effect September 22.
- OWG is launching High Love flights from Montreal to Cabo with an open bar and passengers separated into sections for families, couples, and singles. What could go wrong?
- Thai AirAsia is looking to raise $2.5 million through crowdfunding. It is believed the Thai government likes this plan, because it has been trying to build a list of insane people and can now just use the list of investors.
- United has rolled out fresh food from Chicago-based Beatrix Market including a “chia seed pudding” for breakfast. We really hope this local trend doesn’t spread to Vegas-based Allegiant, because the all-you-can-eat seafood buffet would get pretty messy.
- WestJet CFO Harry Taylor will take on the interim President and CEO job until a permanent replacement is found.
What’s the best thing about living in Switzerland?
Well, the flag is a big plus.