This will be our final Cranky Daily of 2021. We’ll be back on Monday to begin 2022 with all the best in airline news, crankiness, and update on guys named Bjørn starting airlines in Scandinavia. Happy New Year!
JetBlue Reduces Schedule
JetBlue Airways is reducing its schedule through January 13 by about 1,300 flights to navigate staffing difficulties due to the Omicron strain of COVID-19.
Most airlines, JetBlue included, have canceled thousands of flights since Christmas Eve due to inclement weather and Omicron raging through its flight crews. JetBlue’s cuts will equal about 10% of its daily schedule – giving itself an operational cushion until Omicron hopefully dies down.
The carrier was forced to cancel 173 flights on Thursday – about 17% of its schedule — leaving customers stranded across the country. By canceling portions of its schedule now, it gives itself and customers the chance to rebook and reschedule travel without being stuck in airports a long way from home. That’s good since most JetBlue customer service agents will be at home with Omicron anyway.
JetBlue said in a statement that the schedule cuts were its own idea and not American’s and any rumors that AA forced the decision were untrue. It also said the cuts have nothing to do with its pending litigation over the Northeast Alliance with the DOJ, and the fact that the majority of the cuts were from DCA to the home airports of key members of the DOJ’s team on the lawsuit are nothing but coincidence.
Cathay Pacific Forced to Shrink in Hong Kong
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific will make major changes to its schedule from its hub after the island’s government announced airline crews on all non-mainland China flights would no longer have quarantine exemptions offered to them.
The carrier will cancel many of its passenger flights through the first quarter of 2022, while shutting down its entire cargo operation for at least seven days. The airline’s scheduled passenger flights will be consolidated into far fewer frequencies, and affected customers will have the option of receiving full cash refunds if their flight is changed. Other options will include rebooking on a new date or receiving a handwritten note from the Communist Party thanking them for not visiting until the removal of Hong Kong’s political freedoms is complete.
Other changes include requiring that flights to mainland China are operated by “closed-loop” crews which will be required to quarantine every time they arrive in Hong Kong for anything longer than a short layover. The Hong Kong government will also shut down any route for at least two weeks if multiple positive cases are found on any one route or if passengers on the same flight are spotted putting their feet up on the bulkhead without socks at any point during flight.
SriLankan Airlines to be Privatized
State owned SriLankan Airlines is likely to be privatized after the Sri Lankan government’s Enterprise Restructuring Board advised the government to end the state’s financing of the carrier.
The ruling from the board was not exclusively aimed at the flag carrier as the government was also nudged to privatize other large financial losers such as the Electric Board, Petroleum Corporation, Transport Board, National Water Supply, and the Colombo Toupée and Wig Emporium. A free-market advocacy group said that 55 state owned enterprises in Sri Lanka – led by SriLankan Airlines — have lost $6 billion since 2006 with the five biggest money losers costing Sri Lankan taxpayers $2 million a day in 2019.
The carrier has been responsible for 44% of the losses of the state-owned enterprises, or, as the UAE calls it, a drop in the bucket. The carrier generates $141 million in revenue during Q2 2021, improving on the $196 million in revenue it made for the entire fiscal year ending in March 2021. Despite the improvement, the airline lost $122.5 million in Q2, compared to a $286 million in the previous fiscal year.
- AirAsia India finally paid off all its debts to the Airports Authority of India. This became possible when the government permitted it to pay with AirAsia X airplanes that nobody wants.
- American will upgrade to daily service between Miami and Anguilla (AXA) on April 2.
- Avion Express had its restructuring plan approved by Lithuania’s bankruptcy court.
- Camair-Co is laying off 130 staff members as it goes through restructuring.
- HK Express will begin once-weekly service to Singapore on February 1.
- Qatar is requiring flight attendants to remain in their hotel rooms during layovers to lessen their chance to contract COVID-19. Hotel staff will be advised to put tape on the outside of the door across the crack so that they can totally tell if somebody sneaks out to see the boys at the camp across the lake.
- Norse Atlantic, the Norwegian startup founded by three guys named Bjørn, received its AOC from the Norwegian government.
- SKS Airways plans to debut in Malaysia early next year.
- Spice XPress, the cargo division of SpiceJet is exploring the acquisition of electric freighters. It expects to thyme their delivery to arrive by 2024.
Make sure you use the restroom tomorrow before midnight because no one wants to bring their shit into next year.