American and JetBlue Add Cities, Frequencies
Despite a push from the DOJ to quash the Northeast Alliance between American and JetBlue, the two carriers continue to push ahead and deploy the proverbial middle finger, unveiling six new routes and additional frequencies in 21 markets on Thursday.
The six new routes include one from New York, with daily seasonal service from LaGuardia to Portland, ME beginning July 9 on JetBlue. Starting this June. AA will add five destinations from Boston on E175 aircraft:
- Halifax, NS (YHZ): weekly
- Louisville (SDF): up to daily
- Memphis (MEM): up to daily
- Pensacola (PNS): weekly
- Traverse City, MI (TVC): weekly
JetBlue is also putting three previously announced routes on sale – New York/JFK to Vancouver (seasonal daily flights beginning June 9), Boston to Vancouver, and Boston to Asheville (both are seasonal, daily service beginning June 16). Twenty one cities will see increased frequencies from BOS, LGA, and JFK on both airlines.
Most importantly, American is finally moving out of the old LaGuardia Central Terminal Building entirely and into the new concourse. That means the airline’s first Admirals Club ever opened in 1939 will close its doors for good. There was a celebration among all the rats living there who now no longer need to share the space with grumpy business travelers.
Air France-KLM Continues Boeing’s No Good Very Bad Week
Air France-KLM placed an order with Airbus for 100 A320neo family aircraft and added purchase rights for another 60, continuing a bad week for Boeing. This order covers the needs for current 737 operators KLM and its LCC subsidiary Transavia Netherlands. The news comes less than 24 hours after Qantas chose Airbus for a massive order to update its entire narrowbody fleet.
The first deliveries for KLM from this order are expected in the second half of 2023. The carrier will operate medium-haul routes from its Amsterdam hub with the new planes while waiting to announce the cabin configuration at a later date. Presumably this goes like most Air France/KLM affairs with the Dutch having a good idea of the plan, but the French not caring and thinking they should do something else that’s not very smart.
The carrier says the A320neo will provide a 10% savings on unit costs, 15% savings on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, a 50% reduction in noise footprint, and a 33% increase in on-board storage room for KLM delft houses.
Air France-KLM also signed an LOI with Airbus for the purchase of four A350 freighter aircraft for Air France and the option to purchase four more due to the French requirement that Air France operate every Airbus airplane ever made. AF will be one of the world’s first operators of the cargo-only version of the A350 when it takes delivery of the planes.
PLAY Chooses U.S. Gateways
PLAY, the new transatlantic LCC carrier based in Iceland, WOWed many by announcing its first two destinations in the United States will be Baltimore and Boston.
Service to Baltimore will begin on April 20 and Boston will commence on May 11. PLAY will operate an A321neo on both routes in an all-economy layout. The flight to Baltimore is 2,762 miles and blocked at 6:45 westbound and 6:00 back to KEF. Boston is shorter at 2,413 miles and is blocked at 6:05 going out and 5:30 coming back.
WOW PLAY currently counts 22 destinations in Europe that if flies to from Reykjavik plus the two it’s now adding in the United States. The carrier hasn’t announced when it will unveil more U.S. destinations, but reports are that it is hoping to do so before it has to file for bankruptcy and fold.
- Air Caraibes Atlantique and FrenchBee each took delivery of a new A350-1000.
- Air New Zealand took delivery of a brand new ATR72-600 aircraft. Initial plans to fly from the European factory nonstop were foiled about 200 miles into the journey when they realized how much fuel the aircraft actually holds.
- British Airways and Qatar announced an extension to their Joint Business Partnership, along with the announcement that the pair will operate up to six daily flights between Doha and London this winter.
- Corsair is adding wet-leased B737 capacity.
- Delta expects to report an approximately $200 million adjusted pre-tax profit for Q4.
- Emirates took delivery of MSN 272 today, its 123rd A380. The plane is the 251st and final A380 to be delivered.
- Icelandair will begin 4x-weekly service to Raleigh/Durham on May 12.
- Korean signed on with Pratt & Whitney to manage the carrier’s PW1100G-JM engines for the A320neo family with full disassembly, assembly and test capability.
- Qantas‘ flagship flight — QF 1 — from Sydney to London/Heathrow will once again stopover in Singapore beginning March 27.
- Qatar has restored inflight service levels to pre-pandemic levels.
- Rom Cargo Airlines had its AOC suspended by the Romanian Civil Aviation Authority. Here’s hoping it uses the free time it has now to think up a new name.
- Ryanair is opening a new aircraft maintenance facility in Seville.
- Ukrainian National Airlines placed an order for five An-158s.
- Vietnam Airlines reached an agreement with Air Lease Corporation to restructure the lease agreements on 18 of its aircraft.
- Virgin Australia operated a flight between Sydney and Fiji today — its first international flight in 20 months.
I went to McDonalds today and ordered two large fries.
They gave me like 100 tiny ones instead.