Sun Country Adds 11 Flights to Seven Cities
Sun Country is growing at its Minneapolis/St. Paul hub as the carrier adds nonstop service to seven new airports. All seven new cities will see twice weekly service on Sun Country beginning either next April or next June. New destinations for the carrier include:
- Buffalo (beginning June 9)
- Burlington, VT (beginning June 16)
- Charleston, SC (beginning April 7)
- Jacksonville (beginning April 8)
- Pittsburgh (beginning June 2)
- Spokane (beginning June 9)
- Vancouver (beginning June 15)
In addition to the seven new cities, Sun Country will also continue nonstop service to four destinations that had previously been seasonal. New Orleans is back with 4x-weekly service beginning April 7, Asheville, NC will now operate year-round with twice weekly flights, Savannah will resume April 7 with twice weekly service, and Milwaukee will operate twice weekly beginning June 2.
With this expansion, Sun Country will operate more than 100 routes to 80 airports. Some of the airports are places people want to go, others are places that the carrier’s senior leadership accidentally selected when a darts game taking place near a map of North America got a little wild, and the rest are places that no one wants to go but they were willing to pay Sun Country heavy subsidies to sporadically offer flights from other mid-sized airports. And absolutely none of the routes are to other Delta hubs.
Alaska Announces an Environmental Thingy
Alaska Airlines announced the formation of Alaska Star Ventures, a new LLC that it claims will “advance emerging technology to accelerate the airline’s progress towards net zero carbon emissions.”
Alaska’s pilots and flight attendants both misread the initial release, thinking that the carrier was introducing not a new LLC, but a new LCC, which caused both groups to immediately come out against the project. After being corrected, they still oppose the project because – despite reading the release several times – can’t figure out exactly what it is Alaska is doing.
“We’re proud of our ambitious targets and our legacy of being pioneers,” said Diana Birkett Rakow, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of public affairs and sustainability, a line that could be generically applied to basically anything. The new LLC is partnering with UP.Partners, an early-stage investor in sustainable, multi-dimensional mobility technologies which probably has something to do with Alaska’s announcement, although it remains unclear at this point.
Alaska’s goal is to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2040 and plans to do whatever it takes to get there even if means canceling all flights while continuing to schedule them as if nothing is wrong – or as some call it “pulling a Southwest.”
El Al Considers Buyout of Rival Carrier Arkia
El Al Israel Airlines, the nation’s flag carrier has begun negotiations with Arkia Israel Airlines about purchasing the smaller rival. El Al revealed the news in a required disclosure to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Monday night. The negotiations are in the preliminary phase and are expected to proceed slowly with both sides taking a passive aggressive approach to the discussions as learned from their Jewish mothers.
Israeli antitrust officials blocked a potential merger between El Al and Israir three years ago over anti-competition concerns and the idea that the new, combined carrier might name itself El Is Al, which is clearly a mouthful to pronounce.
Since the onset of the pandemic, most in the country agree that the Israeli market is not big enough for three competing carriers and allowing El Al to merge with either Arkia or Israir could be best for consumers. If the purchase were to go though, El Al would be able to focus on long-haul service to North America while Arkia would focus on short and medium-haul Europe and Asia. Israir would then be left to join the pair at industry dinners as a scorned and awkward third wheel.
All three Israeli carriers appealed to the government for financial support last month – their second plea in as many months – but have not yet received any cash, much to the smug satisfaction of Ryanair officials.
- Air Austral has reached an agreement with Air France/KLM to perform component support (a fancy term for maintenance) on its fleet of three A220 aircraft.
- Air France/KLM is threatening to sue Amsterdam Schiphol after the airport announced its intention to hike landing fees charged to carriers as much as 40% over the next three years.
- Aurigny Air is having its $86.3 million worth of debts written off by the parliament of Guernsey. It was actually a tie until the third parliament member, a dairy cow named Sara, mooed her approval.
- Connect Airlines took delivery of its first Q400 aircraft yesterday, moving the carrier one step closer to becoming an actual airline.
- Flair Airlines added some flair to its U.S. route map adding three new destinations: Denver, Nashville, and San Francisco.
- LATAM requested a postponement of the presentation of its bankruptcy restructuring plan to the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to November 26.
- Ryanair is launching two new routes — Edinburgh to Marrakech twice-weekly beginning December 18, and Manchester to Lviv (LWO), also twice weekly, beginning November 5.
- Sun Country‘s main shareholder, private equity firm Apollo Global Management, sold 8.5 million shares of the airline for $266 million. The purchasers can pick up the shares at MSP’s Humphrey Terminal 2.
- Thai hopes to resume service between Melbourne and Bangkok by April 2022.
- United extended the schedule for its service between Newark and Maui to operate 5x-weekly between May 7 and September 4.
You really should try archery while blindfolded. You don’t know what you’re missing.