Justice Department to Tell AA, JetBlue to Pump the BrAAkes
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to halt the Northeast Alliance between American and JetBlue on antitrust grounds after government lawyers found the big bag of money Spirit left for them buried underground at what is left of Gate 35X at Washington/National Airport.
The two carriers announced their relationship last summer, and started officially dating earlier this year, with the two coordinating on schedules and introducing earn and burn reciprocity in their loyalty programs. The pair had to divest themselves of limited slots at slot-controlled northeast airports and are not supposed to discuss pricing strategies, but they are allowed to pass unmonitored notes between each other during class so anything’s on the table, really.
American is using JetBlue’s strong northeast presence to build its international operation out of New York and Boston while JetBlue uses AA to show its customers what it’ll do to them if they misbehave on-board.
The alliance has faced criticism from the start from other airlines, specifically Spirit. But like the little boy who cried wolf, Spirit’s complaints had fallen on deaf ears – until now. Spirit’s contention that the two rushed their agreement through the previous administration now might bear fruit as the Biden administration’s DOJ takes aim at the alliance.
The British Airways New LCC Plan Loses Union Support
The British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) pulled out of negotiations with British Airways over the establishment of a new LCC from BA to be based out of London/Gatwick. The union walked away when BA refused to contractually commit to providing the same benefits to pilots of the LCC as it does pilots for BA… which would defeat the whole point of what BA wants to do anyway.
The union canceled the vote amongst its members, creating a major issue for the carrier which was supposed to launch in time for next summer. BA told the Daily Mail that it remained “committed to dialogue with all interested parties,” which makes sense because it’s prohibited from operating a subsidiary without signoff from its pilots union.
Instead of the same benefits mainline BA pilots receive, the carrier offered pilots of the new carrier a 50% off Netflix subscription plus £10 Harrod’s cash, but the union refused to budge.
Vueling Grows at Paris/Orly
IAG’s Spanish LCC Vueling will be growing its presence at Paris/Orly airport as the carrier is the beneficiary of 18 slots at the airport divested by Air France.
As a condition of the €4 billion in aid it received from the pandemic, Air France agreed to give up 18 coveted slots at the congested airport, and the European Commission approved the awarding of the slots to Vueling. The decision was a compromise between Air France, the European Commission, and Ryanair, the latter of which has given itself final authority on all European state aid packages.
The 18 slots will transfer to Vueling this November, and the subsidiary of Iberia will begin operating the additional flights right away. Vueling currently operates to 15 destinations in five countries from Paris/Orly. For the new slots, it is planning on asking Air France where it doesn’t want Vueling to fly, and Vueling will then put its airplanes there.
- AirAsia and Airbus agreed to reschedule deliveries and restructure pending orders after Airbus realized otherwise it had no chance in hell at getting paid.
- Atlas Air and DHL Express have extended their agreement on Trans-Pacific cargo ops.
- Austrian will operate 16 weekly flights from Vienna to the United States once fully vaccinated EU travelers can visit the United States beginning in November.
- British Airways is keeping its lounge in Singapore closed for the indefinite future, but premium passengers on the carrier can now access the
Chili’s to GoMarhaba Lounge in SIN’s Terminal 1. - EGO Airlines is very proud to announce it plans to restart flying later this year and plans to do it better than anyone has ever done it before.
- Gol signed a commitment for up to 250 VA-X4 aircraft. It also purchased several unicorns to deliver luggage to customers, bypassing the traditional system of doing so via carousels.
- Icelandair COO Jens Thordanson resigned his position. He now plans to move somewhere warm and more southern, such as Denmark.
- Mesa announced Torque Zubeck as its new CFO. He’s getting acclimated in the new role trying to figure out how he works for an airline that does its flying for other airlines.
- PLAY won the right to purchase four A320neos for its fleet.
- Qantas will operate a one-time repatriation flight on October 5 from Buenos Aires to Darwin that will take 18 hours to cover the 9,124 miles.
- Southwest is opening a $135 million maintenance facility in Baltimore after it decided it was worth the $125 in savings to drive to Baltimore from DC.
- Spring Airlines is opening a new base in Dalian (DLC) this fall.
- SWISS is seeing an increase in demand for travel to the United States since the government of the United States announced it would again allow people to travel to the United States.
I tried to come up with a carpentry pun that woodwork. I think I nailed it.