RDU Power Outage Leads to Cancellations
Raleigh-Durham International Airport suffered a major power outage in Terminal 2 shortly after 4 a.m. Friday morning causing issues for airlines and passengers. The outage had no effect on the airport’s Terminal 1 which is exclusively home to Southwest.
The power outage was caused by water damage to a power distribution center in Terminal 2. Several Southwest staff members were seen leaving the power distribution center around 4:15 a.m. carrying buckets of water while maniacally laughing and carrying flashlights, but the airline said through a spokesman that the actions of its employees were unrelated to the outage.
Much of the power – but not all – came back online around 9 a.m., but airlines were left scrambling to catch up from delays and cancellations earlier in the morning. Lines at TSA checkpoints wrapped twice around the terminal due to each passenger having to be pat down manually. Body scanners, metal detectors and x-ray machines were not functioning for most of the morning, although it’s likely that had nothing to do with the power outage and was just TSA’s plan for Friday morning.
Mango’s Fate to be Decided Monday
Mango Airlines fate is on the line Monday at a meeting of the carrier’s creditors to determine if there is enough working capital to keep the airline solvent. Mango has been in bankruptcy since July while waiting on the $47 million it was promised as a part of parent SAA’s $688 million government bailout.
South African claims there isn’t enough cash to put Mango’s planes back in the air this year, which would benefit SAA as it would then keep the $47 million Mango is waiting on. Mango’s bankruptcy administrator wants the carrier to resume flying in December to keep its route authorities and take advantage of high demand during summer in the southern hemisphere. Both Mango and SAA made written requests for the money to get the airline back in the air, and Mango was expecting to be paid out after Monday’s creditor meeting.
But the SAA board of directors put out a statement on Thursday that resuming operations in December – even with the money – would make matters worse for the airline, not better. SAA said that the carrier needs to find a strategic equity partner if it wants to continue operating for the long-term, otherwise it might just end up at the big mango tree in the sky.
Lufthansa Fully Pays Back Entire Government Bailout
Lufthansa repaid the final installment from the €9 billion it owed the German government following its pandemic-related bailout from last year. The loan was repaid years ahead of schedule by Lufthansa which accelerated its revenue growth to pay the loan back by selling beer and pretzels on most flights that were left over from last year’s Wheneverfest.
The carrier has reported that bookings returned to as high as 80% of where they were pre-pandemic, with a surge since the reopening of the United States for European travelers.
As part of the €9 billion loan package, the German government received a 20% stake in the carrier. Lufthansa was adamant that the loan be paid off as quickly as possible to get the one-fifth stake of its airline back from the government as quickly as possible. Lufthansa was forced to give up 24 slots at both Frankfurt and Munich as part of the loan deal, but it will receive the slots back next year, or possibly even earlier if they’re released early for good behavior.
- British Airways divested itself of one slot pair for summer ’22, offering it to Saudia for its service to Riyadh.
- Cathay Pacific will reopen The Pier on November 15.
- Eastern announced Mark Ebanks as its new Executive VP for Aircraft Management and Leasing. His first day will be spent figuring out which Eastern Airlines he works for.
- ITA completed a sale and leaseback on 16 aircraft, giving the carrier enough cash to now keep the lights on at its headquarters for a couple of months.
- Kuwait Airways is the latest carrier to partner with Lufthansa Technik for maintenance.
- Samoa Airways is $2.3 million short to certify its its first B737-800 in order to get it in the air.
- Scoot will be scooting to London beginning December 16 with 3x-weekly service through March from Bangkok to Gatwick.
- Singapore will have all of its flight operated by vaccinated cabin crew and pilots. It’s subsidiary Scoot is expected to follow by December.
- Turkish reported a $735 million net profit in Q3.
I have the attention of a goldfish.
Seriously, it’s been watching me for hours.