London is Calling: United Grows London Service
United Airlines announced five additional frequencies to London today, pushing the carrier to 22 daily flights to the city, 15 of which actually appeal to customers as seven of the daily flights operate from its hub in Newark.
As of March 26, United is adding:
- Daily service from Boston
- Two more daily flights from Newark, up from 5x-daily to 7x-daily
- A second daily flight from Denver
- A third daily flight from San Francisco
United’s lone daily flight to Boston will compete with the Delta/Virgin Atlantic JV and the American/BA JV plus new entrant on the route – JetBlue. The carrier expects it do well amongst northeastern-based travelers by marketing the route as London to “Not Newark.” Just kidding, there’s no way United expects this to do well.
Of the 22 daily flights operating next summer, 12 of them will operate on United’s premium-heavy B767-300 aircraft which feature 46 Polaris seats, 22 Premium Plus seats, 43 Economy Plus seats and 56 plain ole’ economy seats in the back.
Allegiant and Spirit Release Third Quarter Earnings
Allegiant turned in a strong third quarter performance, showing a profit of $39.3 million on $459 million of revenue. The $459 million in gross revenue is a 5.3% improvement from Q3 2019, and profit just missed the 2019 figure, dropping 10% from the $43.6 million Allegiant earned two years ago.
This was Allegiant’s second consecutive profitable quarter, fueled by a 32% increase in third-party revenue as Allegiant transitions more into a travel company that just happens to fly airplanes. The carrier ended the quarter with $1.1 billion in cash and cash equivalents, and is hoping to add to that total as its placed 4 seats on the 50 yard line on StubHub for each remaining Las Vegas Raiders game at Allegiant Stadium this season.
Spirit also announced its earnings for the quarter, but the report was redacted unless readers were willing to pony up $21 for the unredacted version. Spirit managed to eek out a $15 million profit during Q3, more impressive when considering the carrier only operated its flight schedule some of the time.
Total operating revenue was $922.6 million, a 7% drop from Q3 2019. Spirit’s completion factor was 93.5%, which sounds great when compared to Southwest and American, but not so great when compared to Delta’s 99.7%. Spirit ended the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash and cash equivalents, most of which it keeps on-hand to fund the DOJ’s lawsuit to stop the Northeast Alliance.
American Flight Diverted After Passenger Attacks Flight Attendant
American Airlines flight 976 from New York/JFK to Orange County diverted to Denver last night when a passenger attacked a flight attendant halfway through the flight.
One passenger on the flight told the Associated Press the conflict was due to the assailant’s refusal to wear a mask, but AA said that the incident was possibly not related to mask wearing. Reports today indicate the assault was completely unprovoked and that the passenger simply marched to the back of the airplane and punched the flight attendant.
The male passenger was met by law enforcement and was taken into custody upon arrival in Denver. AA plans to pursue the case and would “not be satisfied until (the assailant) has been prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” The carrier has also banned the attacker from ever flying on the airline again, which is noble of AA, but depending on perspective could be a benefit of the attacker, and not a consequence.
- Aer Lingus announced its Summer 2022 schedule which will include 71 routes to 62 destinations, with 17 transatlantic routes.
- Air Malta has proven that’ll sign a codeshare with literally anyone as it signed up with
AlitaliaITA. - Air New Zealand still plans to launch service between Auckland and New York.
- AirAsia India is moving closer to obtaining rights to fly international service from the Indian government.
- Alaska will begin daily, nonstop service from Seattle to Cleveland on June 16. It’ll also add a second daily flight to Columbus next summer.
- Fly2Sky will Take2Sky with two new A321-200 aircraft.
- LATAM‘s request to extend its period to file a reorganization plan was approved by its bankruptcy court.
- Qantas is adding plant-based meals to its inflight menu for people who want to see airline food reach a new low.
- Yeti Airlines was granted international charter rights in Nepal after the carrier offered members of the Nepalese government very expensive water bottles.
I was fired this week from my job at the keyboard factory. They told me I wasn’t putting in enough shifts.