The Winds of Autumn Lead to AAnother Meltdown
American Airlines suffered the industry’s most recent meltdown, grabbing the baton from SkyWest — which had run a lap after Southwest — as the airline canceled more than 2,000 flights over the weekend. If trends from 2021 continue, this should mean it’s Spirit turn next, likely due for an implosion in about two weeks.
American’s operational struggles peaked on Sunday when the carrier cancelled over 1,000 flights – more than one-third of its schedule for the day. Lucky for them, most passengers understood completely and weren’t remotely upset about their travel being disrupted. The carrier canceled about 300 flights on Monday as it finally looks to have things back to normal by Tuesday.
AA COO David Seymour said the issues began late last week when heavy winds in Dallas reduced DFW’s operation from the normal five runways to just two. The slowdown at AA’s biggest hub caused cascading issues across the system – a system which is perilously fragile on good days right now – and in destruction mode on bad days. Planes and crews were in the wrong place and the airline does not have enough backups to get things back on track.
The DOJ refused comment on AA’s operational meltdown except to say that the government does not control the weather, and especially not the wind. Except when it really wants to. And this isn’t one of those times, it promises.
JetBlue Grows at LaGuardia
Much like the rats that patrol much of the airport’s underbelly, JetBlue Airways’s presence at New York’s LaGuardia airport is growing. Effective yesterday, JetBlue’s operation at LGA expanded to Terminal B while still maintaining a presence at the Marine Air Terminal (Terminal A).
The carrier will operate all flights to and from Boston at the Marine Air Terminal, wisely keeping those passengers separated from the general population, while JetBlue’s other 23 daily departures will operate from Terminal B. The carrier expects to eventually move its entire operation to Terminal B, but some staff have grown very close with the rodents living in the Marine Air Terminal and they weren’t ready to say goodbye quite yet.
JetBlue began new nonstop service from LGA to three destinations yesterday – Jacksonville, Sarasota, and Savannah. It will continue to add three more next year – New Orleans, Nashville, and Portland, Maine. When those three enter service, it’ll give JetBlue 16 nonstop destinations from LGA – more than double what it operated prior to the Northeast Alliance with American.
Volaris Spreading Its Wings In Mexico City
Mexican LCC Volaris announced it would be the first airline to move some flights from Mexico City International Airport (MEX) to the city’s newest airport – Felipe Ángeles International Airport (NLU) on March 21. When the airport – located on Saint Lucía Air Force Base — opens to the public on March 21, Volaris will operate daily flights to both Tijuana and Cancun, complementing its service to both of those cities from MEX.
The new airport is located 28 miles north of downtown Mexico City and will eventually have strong ground and public transportation to make it a viable alternative, or so they say. A rail link to Mexico City’s subway service is expected to be completed at the airport by 2023, just in-time to catch the AA flight which will be scheduled for July but surely delayed for several months.
Shortly after Volaris made its announcement, LCC rival VivaAerobus announced it would operate from the new airport as well but did not commit to destination cities. Aeromexico has not announced its plans as it waits to see what Delta tells it to do.
The city says several airlines have shown interest in operating out of the new airport, with the lone exception being Air Canada. The normally stoic and polite Canadians let the city know that it had no interest in using the new airport, that it prefers the taxiway delays and general congestion MEX has to offer.
- Air Astana will begin twice weekly service between its Almaty hub and Colombo, Sri Lanka (CMB) on December 3.
- Air Congo now hopes to debut later this year with as many as 10 aircraft in its fleet.
- Belavia is storing its E195-E2 fleet in Kazakhstan. It’s seeing much lower demand since people stopped flying the carrier due to fears of being kidnapped by the Belarusian government while on holiday.
- British Airways came to an agreement with UK Export Finance for a 5-year Export Development Guarantee committed Credit Facility (UKEF Facility) of £1.0 billion. Hopefully some readers know what this actually means.
- Czech resumed its twice weekly service to Copenhagen yesterday.
- Fly Lili received its AOC from the Romanian government.
- Gulf Air is beginning charter services for the first time.
- Hawaiian will no longer offer travel within the Hawaiian Islands on traditional (meaning: not controlled by Hawaiian) distribution channels and will charge a fee for travel agents who use traditional distribution channels for international and U.S. mainland flights. The changes will be effective April 1.
- IndiGo will go ahead and launch six domestic flights from Indore (IDR).
- Jazeera Airways showed a $40 million profit in Q3 following a cool 361% increase in customers in Q3 compared to Q2.
- Qantas will return the A380 on service between Sydney and Los Angeles on March 27.
- Ryanair will begin twice weekly service from Manchester to Cork on December 15.
- SmartLynx wisely added two more A321Fs to its cargo fleet.
- TUS Airways, which apparently exists, plans to add its first A330 early next year.
- Virgin Atlantic reopened its Melbourne lounge this morning at 7 a.m. following a refresh of the lounge and the menu — a good idea considering some of the food left in the fridge from March 2020 was starting to smell.
- World2Fly added its first A330.
- Wizz Air is holding five recruitment events for new flight attendant hires this November and December. Applicants should be interested in travel, especially to secondary European cities, and enjoy being yelled at in tight, cramped spaces.
I’m terrified of bows and arrows.
Just the thought of them makes me quiver.