Frontier’s Flight Attendants Demand Better Sick Time Policies
Most everything Frontier Airlines does is low-cost, and its flight attendants say they’re tired of it. They’ve now started a petition demanding a better sick time policy at the cleverly named website getsickgetsacked.com. We aren’t sure what it means if someone Gets Ick, nor do we understand what it means if someone Gets Acked, but maybe we’re just a little slow.
Part of the petition claims that Frontier made negative changes to the policy during the pandemic that made a “stringent policy more severe.” Complaints say that employees testing positive for COVID-19 are only given ten days before being docked sick time, and that the airline has stopped notifying flight crews if they have been exposed to a co-worker or passenger who tested positive. This is the second time Frontier’s flight attendants have tried to force changes to the sick leave policy, but its complaints in 2015 seem to have mostly fallen on deaf ears.
The Association of Flight Attendants – Frontier’s FA union – has involved itself in the battle only as far as to retweet pro-labor messages in support of the petition, but in their defense there’s a lot on Twitter that can be very distracting.
Virgin Atlantic Eyes Return to London/Gatwick
Virgin Atlantic is not currently operating at London/Gatwick, continuing the suspension it imposed on itself at the airport since the onset of the pandemic. The carrier does, however, intend to return to the airport at some point, likely as soon as it can figure out a reasonably economical way to get its staff from Heathrow across town.
The airline is watching carefully as the UK government reviews its own suspension of “use it or lose it” rules with regards to airport slots. Virgin Atlantic currently has 2% of the available slots at the airport for the summer and it intends to keep the full allotment.
Virgin’s strategy at the airport will be complicated by the arrival of BA’s new LCC – BA EuroFlyer – which will launch in March. BA EuroFlyer is the airline that walks like BA, quacks like BA, and talks like BA, but swears it’s another airline. Maybe Virgin Atlantic can compete by creating VS EuroFlyer from the ashes of Flybe, an airline it invested in just in time to watch it fail at on the onset of the pandemic.
Lynx is Canada’s Newest Airline
Lynx Air announced itself as Canada’s newest ULCC. Its intended mission is to make Canadian air travel accessible to all with low fares, a fleet of brand-new Boeing 737 aircraft, great customer service, and unlimited maple syrup showers inflight.
The new airline’s CEO Merren McArthur’s history includes being the CEO of ULCC Tigerair Australia, Virgin Australia Regional Airlines, and Virgin Australia cargo. So, if you’re scoring at home, that’s one brand that went out of business and two others that went into voluntary administration.
Lynx has firm orders for 46 B737 aircraft, the first of which will arrive early next year. It’s working on creating an economical on-board trough to keep Tim Hortons coffee flowing throughout the flight to complement to maple syrup.
The airline will offer fully a la carte pricing and has been studying Spirit for months to see how it can emulate the Fee King. Lynx hasn’t yet announced destinations or schedules but is expected to operate to several Canadian destinations, some you’ve heard of and some you haven’t, at times that are convenient for almost no one.
- Air France is looking to sell part of its stake in Air Mauritius.
- Air Senegal is leasing five new A330-200 aircraft.
- Canarian Airways has a new name and a new lease on life as the carrier resumed operations earlier this month. That’s Canarian, not defunct airline Canadian.
- Copa will increase its frequency from Panama City to Montevideo (MVD) to 18x-weekly flights beginning in December.
- easyJet Switzerland added its first A320 neo.
- Elite Airways is doing what all elite carriers do — beginning freighter operations.
- French Bee will be buzzing between Los Angeles and Paris/Orly 4x-weekly beginning April 2022, and then 6x-weekly beginning in July.
- JetBlue will not operate between Boston and London/Stansted in the near future as preliminary schedule allocations show JetBlue isn’t scheduling that for next summer.
- Jetlines announced its newest launch plan is to begin operating as a virtual carrier in March. This seemingly will allow passengers to take a flight via the multiplayer option in Microsoft Flight Simulator while still paying regular fare in actual cash for the opportunity.
- Jin Air won an appeal in a Korean court to overturn a $5.1 million fine it owed the government.
- Kenya Airways is hopeful the Kenyan government will absorb the $250 million in debt the carrier racked up during the pandemic.
- Qatar and JetBlue now offer reciprocal mileage earning for loyalty program members of each airline.
- Rex will begin flights between Sydney and Brisbane on December 20.
- Swoop managed to swoop down and grab a new B737-800 aircraft — it’s tenth. The carrier also announced a bunch of new destinations to which it will fly by swooping down and grabbing passengers from Edmonton.
- Tigerair Taiwan expects to roar back with a resumption of service on December 25.
- United will resume flying to Singapore on January 5. The carrier will operate 4x-weekly flights from its hub in San Francisco.
Which is faster, hot or cold?
Hot, because you can catch a cold.