Delta Spends $1.2 Billion to Shore Up Stake in Three Airlines
Delta Air Lines, the airline that prides itself on acting as a sugar daddy for carriers around the world, announced it would drop a cool $1.2 billion to maintain a stake in three of the airlines in its harem.
As Aeromexico, LATAM, and Virgin Atlantic emerge from their respective bankruptcies, Delta will re-invest in all three to keep its partial ownership alive for the restructured carriers. Delta’s share of Virgin Atlantic will remain at 49%, while its portion of Aeromexico will equal a 20% equity stake, and LATAM will be at just 10%.
A bankruptcy judge sent Aeromexico’s restructuring plan, including Delta’s 20% stake, to a vote from its creditors last week. The confirmation hearing is set for early next year. LATAM submitted its bankruptcy plan late last month and is awaiting a timeline for confirmation from the bankruptcy court. Virgin Atlantic is just happy Delta kept its investment and didn’t get it confused again with Virgin Australia.
These investments will not affect Delta’s ownership stakes in Air France/KLM, China Eastern, Korean, that oil refinery, and anything else is accidentally bought during a drunken buying spree shortly after that drunken Woodford Reserve tour back in 2019.
Virgin Australia, United Latest Airlines to Go Steady
What’s old is new again, as United and Virgin Australia will renew a codeshare partnership early next year. The tie up between the two will include benefits for loyalty program members and codeshares. United and Virgin Australia once partnered together beginning in 2000 when the then-named Virgin Blue partnered with UA following the collapse of Ansett Australia.
United currently offers two daily flights to Sydney, one from San Francisco and one from Los Angeles, while it also plans to operate between its Houston/IAH hub and Melbourne later in 2022. Virgin Australia doesn’t currently fly to the United States, but it will offer United fliers connections across Australia, while VA customers will receive one-stop access to hundreds of great U.S. destinations plus Newark.
Elite members in both programs will be able to earn and burn miles on the other carrier, and they’ll receive the following reciprocal benefits as part of the new partnership:
- Priority check-in
- Priority boarding
- Priority baggage delivery and additional baggage check allowance
- Priority security clearance
- Lounge access
This will mark Virgin Australia’s first codeshare agreement under Bain Capital and it comes just over a year since Delta suspended its JV with the carrier and on the same day it reaffirmed its commitment to three airlines not named Virgin Australia.
Hawaiian Releases Revised 2022 Outlook
Hawaiian Airlines filed its most recent 8-K report to the SEC today as it gives an investor update into expectations for 2022. The carrier’s crystal ball shows small growth and delivery delays for two aircraft from Boeing.
The carrier, which recently signed a long-term contract with Amadeus to handle its reservations, departure control, data intelligence, payment process, on-board lei distribution, and POG juice reserves, expects capacity to be between flat and up 4% in 2022 compared to 2019.
Hawaiian was expecting two B787 Dreamliners to be delivered by the end of next year but is now working with Boeing on a revised delivery schedule. When Hawaiian CEO Peter Ingram called AA’s incoming CEO Robert Isom to see if they had any extra Boeing widebodies that Hawaiian could borrow for next year, Isom reportedly hung up on Ingram and blocked all 808 area code numbers from his phone.
- British Airways is beginning 5x-weekly service from Heathrow to Portland. on June 3. It will also resume 4x-weekly flights to Pittsburgh on the same day.
- Citrus Air, a Russian startup that intends to count Mango and Peach amongst its rivals, plans to start with bases in Kazan (KZN) and Omsk (OMS).
- Cobra Jet secured its AOC from the Egyptian government. Now it needs airplanes so it can implement its plan to strike first and strike hard. No mercy.
- Finnair might be debuting a new premium economy and business class cabin. Also it might not.
- Flying Green, a theoretical airline in France now plans to launch in Q2…of 2023.
- Frontier signed an agreement with FLYHT to equip its A320 and A321 delivers with the company’s Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIRS) for flights over water.
- Jazeera Airways took delivery of its ninth A320neo over the weekend.
- La Compagnie will codeshare with Afrijet on flights to Libreville, Gabon (LBV).
- Qantas reopened its Singapore and London/Heathrow lounges.
- Ryanair will operate twice weekly service this spring from Birmingham to Knock (NOC).
- T’Way Air outlined its plans to operate t’wo-class A330s.
- Ultra Air added the first plane to its fleet, an A320.
- United and Alaska have cash to burn, demonstrated by their investment in ZeroAvia which claims to be moving closer to commercialization of its hydrogen-electric technology.
- Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are being banned from flying to Nigeria after the UK government placed Nigeria on its red list.
- World2Fly received tentative approval2Fly between the United States and EU.
How far can a dog run into the woods?
Halfway. After that, the dog is running out of the woods.