Alaska Debuts as the Netflix of the Skies
Alaska Airlines unveiled its new subscription service – called Flight Pass – which allows for up to 24 annual round trips to destinations within California, plus Reno, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
The prices start at $49 per month – that gets you six flights for the year, booked a minimum of 14 days prior to departure – all the way to $749 per month. The $749/month option gets you two flights per month, booked as little as two hours prior to departure, and the airline will name a moose in the Alaskan bush after you.
Pass holders are still responsible for government fees on each redemption – usually about $14.60 – and what it’s calling a “nominal fare,” which usually will be $0.01. But Alaska is carving out an exemption that some of the most popular flights will require a higher fare, but what the higher fare is, it’s not saying.
Travelers flying on Flight Pass will earn full Mileage Plan benefits when traveling and elite status will be honored. Main cabin seats can be selected at no additional fee, and changes are free – guaranteeing that mileage runners up and down California are currently plotting how to game the system to their advantage and somehow end up as oneworld Emerald after signing up for Flight Pass.
Avelo Expands South
Avelo Airlines announced four new cities in the southeast that it will serve from its East Coast base in New Haven, CT (HVN).
Service will begin to Myrtle Beach and Charleston (SC) on May 5, and to Nashville and Savannah on May 6. The four cities will give Avelo 10 destinations from New Haven, joining the six cities it currently serves – all located in Florida. Myrtle Beach service will operate six days a week with the other three destinations seeing flights 4x-weekly.
Avelo is the lone carrier at HVN, but will compete to MYR with Spirit, to BNA with Southwest, and Avelo on the CHS route, with those three flying from nearby Hartford – about 55 miles north of New Haven. There are also countless flights out of nearby New York airports for those who love a good challenge.
Mango’s Tale of Woe Suffers Blow as it Hits Another Low
Mango, the shuttered South African LCC that time forgot, took a hit when South Africa’s national taxi association’s bid to purchase the beleaguered carrier was denied.
The airline has been in bankruptcy since July of 2021 and dormant since November of last year after parent company SAA elected to pull the plug. The taxi association – SANTACO – presumably based at the North Pole — has wanted to own its own LCC for at least a decade. It unsuccessfully launched an airline in 2011 and was involved in at least two other startups since.
Its dream of bringing bumpy, overpriced, and unreliable transportation from the ground to the air won’t come true anytime soon though. The remaining 105 employees of the airline – mostly office staff keeping paperwork current for when if it returns to the skies – will go back to waiting for its financial savior to be identified.
- American will add three new E175s to its fleet by the end of this year to be operated by Envoy.
- Air India‘s new ownership group Tata Sons will make the airline financially fit, the most technologically advanced airline in the world, and it’ll do this with a modern fleet. The revelation was announced in a book of fairy tales published by new ownership group Tata Sons.
- Austrian will add four new A320neos to its fleet by next spring.
- Avelo appointed former Wall St analyst Hunter Keay as its new CFO.
- Etihad painted the final touches on a letter of intent to purchase seven A350F freighters.
- Iberia will launch service to Dallas/Fort Worth and resume serving both San Francisco and Washington/Dulles on June 1.
- ITA, despite the fact it will be reverting back to Alitalia’s name and brand on at least some of the fleet, is still painting airplanes with its new ITA livery because that just makes sense.
- Jet Airways secured a $6.6 million loan to fund its resumption of service.
- Lynx Air completed the first of three pending sale and leasebacks on its fleet of B737 MAX 8 aircraft.
- United will resume service between San Francisco and Melbourne on May 10 with 3x-weekly service.
- Western Global Airlines purchased two B777 freighters.
My cousin is an archaeologist.
His life is in ruins.