Alaska Reduces January Schedule by 10%
Alaska Airlines announced Thursday that it will reduce its schedule for the rest of January by about 10% to give it the cushion it needs to better run its operation.
Alaska has been plagued by operational issues since Christmas due to omicron raging through its staff, which was then compounded by a major winter storm through its Seattle home. The carrier dipped below the 65% completion mark during the final week of 2021, and it hasn’t yet fully recovered as it canceled 16% of its schedule yesterday.
The airline, through a spokesperson, resisted a change to its name to Alask Airlines during the reduction in service, saying that the 10% cutback is to flights only and would not have any effect on its name. Passengers impacted by the schedule cuts will have the option of rebooking on another Alaska flight, receiving a refund, or bundling up and get steppin’, because Anchorage is several days away on foot.
Avelo Finds Cash Under its Seats
Avelo asked its cabin staff to check underneath the seat cushions on each of its aircraft in-between flights and the staff managed to find a cool $42 million, increasing the airline’s invested capital base to over $160 million.
The Series B funding comes after the carrier raised $125 million in January of 2020, with this funding round coming in much more costly for investors than two years ago. Morgan Stanley Tactical Value (MSTV) was responsible for $30 of the $42 million in this round, adding on to their investment from 2020, making MSTV the carrier’s largest shareholder by a significant margin.
Most of the investors from this round were shareholders already from the first round in 2020, including Avelo’s CEO and founder Andrew Levy. Levy and other airline board members and members of the senior management team have invested a collective $34.7 million in the airline, once again proving the old adage that the best way to make $1 million dollars in the airline industry is to start with $34.7 million.
Pakistan International Airlines Inches Closer to Rejoining the Aviation World
Pakistan International Airlines has been airlina non grata in the aviation world since its flight 8303 crashed in May of 2020 and the resulting investigation determined the carrier had more than 200 pilots who weren’t actually pilots.
The investigation into the deadly crash that killed 99 of the 101 on-board was attributed to pilot error, which seems wrong since the “pilot” wasn’t really a pilot.
Pakistan’s aviation minister Ghulam Sarwar Kahn said today that the carrier had been recertified by the ICAO after addressing the significant safety concerns outlined in investigations last summer of which the fake pilot issue was just one. Two hundred sixty two pilots were determined to be “dubious,” which is PIA for “fraudulent,” while several other safety-related shortcomings were identified and supposedly fixed.
The carrier still operates limited domestic and regional routes but is hoping to be allowed to return service to Europe and the U.S. within the next couple months.
- Air Canada is suspending service to some sun-splashed destinations through April 30.
- Atlas Air ordered four new B777 freighters.
- Austrian operated its final A319 flight last week and now plans to sell all seven of its A319s to Lufthansa CityLine for $50 each plus an original copy of The Sound of Music.
- Bluebird Nordic is adding B777s to its fleet.
- Jeju Air issued a $25.1 million bond.
- Singapore is selling old business class seats for the bargain price of $4,400, which is roughly what you’d pay to sit on the same seat to fly to Singapore when it was in service. Oh and they only ship to Singapore.
- Southwest‘s struggles continued Thursday as the carrier canceled over 500 flights before noon.
- Ventura AirConnect relaunched intra-state flights from Surat (STV) to four cities.
- Wizz Air‘s slot acquisition at London/Gatwick from Norwegian is now official.
What did the farmer say when the last of his haystacks were stolen?
This was the final straw.