US Shows No Sign of Opening Borders Soon
The US government is not indicating any willingness to open US borders to visitors from currently-blocked countries anytime soon, blaming the Delta variant and saying that more Americans need to be vaccinated first. Despite that gloomy news, there is some progress in that the US is finally talking about what a reopening might look like whenever it happens.
Speaking to an advisory board, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients says that the US is “exploring considering vaccination requirements for foreign nationals,” something that would be far better than the blanket ban that’s in place for any visitor who has been in Europe, China, Brazil, Iran, India, and South Africa in the last 14 days. There will also be a contact tracing program in place when those borders do open.
Europe has already broadly opened to vaccinated Americans, and despite a European Commission suggestion that countries should go back to requiring quarantines for Americans, very few have followed. The Netherlands was one of the most prominent countries to heed that advice, but it announced yesterday it would back down after only 2 weeks.
When asked why people from Mongolia are allowed into the US — the country with the highest case rate per 1,000 people in the world over the last 14 days — but not Poland which barely had any, Zients said he couldn’t hear the question, waved his hands, released a puff of smoke, and then disappeared.
Southwest Goes Big in Austin as It Extends Its Schedule Past Spring Break
Southwest has extended its schedule from ending just after the winter holidays to now going through April 24, 2022. There are a variety of changes in this schedule, most notably big growth in Austin.
Starting in March, Southwest will add nearly 40 nonstops per day in Austin compared to last March, including daily nonstop flights from Austin to Amarillo, Charleston (SC), Columbus, Midland/Odessa, and Ontario. It will also have weekend service to Destin/Fort Walton Beach, Panama City, and Sarasota. We understand the airline is also taking applications for new service from any other place in Florida that has a strip of land long enough to land a Boeing B737.
In other news, Southwest will add frequencies to HawaiĘ»i next spring, all on existing routes. And in the biggest blockbuster of them all… Southwest will start flying once a day from Albuquerque to Burbank. We know this is the route you’ve been waiting for, and as of January 17, the wait will finally be over.
FAA to Dole Out 16 Slots to Low Cost Operators at Newark
When United and Continental merged, they were forced to divest 18 slot pairs at Newark, and Southwest took them. When Southwest left the airport, the FAA decided to retire 8 slot pairs during the peak afternoon hours so it could reduce congestion. Now, it is changing its mind.
Newark no longer has slots in the traditional sense, but it does require the airport to coordinate with airlines to reduce congestion to a certain number of operations over a given time period. Now, it will allow 8 more departures and 8 more arrivals in the peak afternoon after Spirit sued the FAA to redistribute the rights.
In its analysis, the FAA said this move would increase delays by about 1.2 minutes throughout the day, but it could dramatically reduce fares on routes where United currently has a monopoly. Thanks to President Biden’s executive order making the FAA look for ways to increase competition in congested airports, the FAA now says it’s worth the extra delays to get cheaper tickets.
These will be given to a single low-cost airline, if one can be found that meets the criteria. One of the requirements, “staying power,” forced Frontier to instantly withdraw. A need for airlines to have a “track record” of competing with hub carriers in highly competitive markets kicks out Allegiant, Avelo, and Breeze. Lastly, having “reasonably competitive onboard products and services and the ability to deliver them to customers consistently over time” means Spirit has quite an uphill battle ahead.
- Air Malta will resume flying to London, Madrid, and Moscow next year. This is an important signal that indicates Air Malta is actually still in business.
- Air New Zealand is partnering with Airbus to look into the feasibility of bringing hydrogen-powered aircraft into the fleet by the end of the decade.
- Emirates is back on a torrid growth pace, needing 3,000 flight attendants and 500 airport employees over the next 6 months alone.
- Eurowings — one of the strategically-confused low-cost arms of Lufthansa — is now going to add to its confusion by opening a base in Stockholm with 5 airplanes.
- Flyr says it’s learned lessons from Norwegian’s failings. A new technology platform and simple org structure will make Flyr efficient, and that gives the airline “time” to take care of employees and customrs. So time is what Spirit needs, got it.
- Japan Airlines is trying to limit food waste by letting passengers skip meals in exchange for a better amenity kit. It’s weird, because the better amenity kit includes a full meal inside.
- Ryanair is increasing its passenger growth target from 33% to 50% over the next five years. That would bring the airline up to over 225m passengers a year.
- South African says it needs newer airplanes for long-haul routes to work. It had newer airplanes, but it lost all those during the pandemic.
- Southwest will give an extra 16 hours of pay or 13 trip segments to employees if they show proof of vaccination by mid-November. The airline will also stop offering pay protection for unvaccinated people who get sick from COVID. This is presumably an effort to get people vaccinated before an eventual mandate goes into place.
- United — which is way ahead of Southwest in this area — says 90% of all employees are now fully-vaccinated, 11 days before its mandate goes into effect. In management ranks, that number is 95%. And in Florida, it’s 0%.
- Virgin Australia says all front-line employees must be vaccinated by November 15 while the rest of its staff has to be vaccinated by March 31, 2022.
